Surviving on Shakespeare in Stratford

Tuesday, November 10th – Saturday, November 14th:

The time we spent in Stratford was truly a dream; I had no idea I would enjoy it so much, but it really made Shakespeare come alive for me. First of all, our accommodations were about as quaint as it gets. Our group was spread out between three B&Bs that felt like we were just staying in someone’s home. I was rooming with Katy this week – in the pinkest bedroom I’ve ever seen, and Hannah and Alea were also in our same house. We were all rather excited when we discovered that our particular B&B (the “Carlton”) was mentioned in the Great Britain Lonely Planet Guide and specifically references the host, Sylvia, who was a charming and helpful host-“mom/grandma” during our stay. I would highly recommend staying there if you ever go to Stratford.

Our days in Stratford were rather packed. On Wednesday, our first full day there, we met at the Shakespeare Information/Education Center in the middle of town where we would be having several group activities while we were there. I hadn’t understood until then that we were really there to be immersed in everything Shakespeare, compliments of programs/opportunities provided by the Shakespeare Education Center. For example, as mentioned by our group’s host, Elizabeth, we were even allowed to use their staff lounge as long as we didn’t mind periodically mixing with those in Elizabethan dress, haha. Anyway, this first morning we had introduction lectures on Shakespeare and Twelfth Night– with a break for tea in the middle. And in the afternoon we were shown a library archive display which is located at the Center and included seeing one of the original Folio’s of Shakespeare (though we learned that the US holds more copies than Stratford does, haha.) After this we visited the Shakespeare’s birthplace which I found really fun and fascinating. Then in the evening we saw a performance of Twelfth Night at the Courtyard Theatre put on by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). Their production was absolutely marvelous, highly entertaining, and moving. I’m convinced all those who study Shakespeare need to see the performance as well as read the text.

On Thursday we had another event at the Education Center called an “RSC Voice Class” where a theatre voice specialist came and did warm-ups and vocal exercises with us using excerpts from Twelfth Night. I think we all had much more fun that we might have thought; it was a great way to loosen up, enjoy ourselves, and better understand the language of Shakespeare in a completely different way. I felt like practicing the lines vocally really opened up my mind to understanding how auditory Shakespeare’s plays are – in other words they were written to be heard, not necessarily always seen. In the afternoon we all went back to the Courtyard Theatre to see an understudy performance of Twelfth Night which was apparently a new idea for the RSC – to publicize a performance of all their understudy roles in order to let them rehearse with a real audience. It was fascinating to see it for the second time with completely different character roles; basically the way the understudy program works is that smaller roles in the play are the understudies for larger roles, and the larger roles of the main cast are the understudies of the smaller roles. At times it was confusing to see the main cast leads play very small parts, but really interesting and entertaining nonetheless. I found it funny that I personally felt the music sung by the Fool take on a whole other meaning in the understudy performance because I could notice a large difference in the tonality of the singing voice.

Friday was another full day that turned out to be one of my favorites of the semester I think (I need to make up a list of my favorite days, I think.) In the morning we had a really fascinating post-performance discussion with Elizabeth (our Education Center host) comparing the two performances of Twelfth Night that we had seen. One of the things we focused on a lot was how the varying ages of the characters between casts changed how their role was interpreted. We also discussed the pros and cons of how the role of Malvolio was played in both performances. After this we had a coffee/tea break in the lounge and then gathered back together to have Q&A session with the RSC actor who played the Fool in the main cast performance. We had a lot of fun asking him all sorts of questions about how he got his role, what went into his interpretation of his character, and I got to ask about his opinion and experience with the music/singing that he does in the plays. He started out by saying, “Well, I’m not a singer…” which I nearly laughed at for no reason really; it was just one of those things that I could tell when I heard the performance, (though it was nice of him to clarify, I guess); regardless, it was interesting to hear him talk about how he worked to fit the music into the scenes and to not make it a performance but rather just an other aspect that flows from his character, which I thought he did very successfully – especially for not being a singer.

Friday afternoon we had a three hour Shakespeare Stage Combat class that was SO much fun! Honestly, I was kind of apprehensive, but it turned out to be 10x more of a blast than I could have imagined. Plus, possibly the best part of the afternoon was the fact that the class was lead/taught by Jean-Marc Perrett, a highly charismatic and attractive guy, who clarified himself to be (yes) the actor who played Prince Caspian in the BBC’s version of Prince Caspian 20 years ago when he was 14. I can’t wait to get home and watch a copy of this! Haha. He and his co-worker introduced us to basic stage-combat fencing moves using stage swords and then we also learned about wrestling too. I really wish we had a video at the point where every single England Term-er was going at one another trying to push and pull the other off balance. Nelly and I pretty much burst into laughter when we realized we weren’t supposed to be resisting each other (which was the natural human instinct especially of two competitive people, haha), but rather since this was “staged” we were supposed to respond accordingly to how our partner pushed us around – basically; it’s hard to explain. My absolute favorite part was when they started to teach us an actual “routine” of wrestling where we had fight moves to act out, that when done with acted intensity really looked like a fight was going on. Nelly and I mastered the beginning sequence that concluded with her hoisting me up on her shoulder and parading around in a circle while I pounded my fists on her back – it was really hilarious; I can’t wait to see Julianne’s pictures of this day! Honestly, how can anyone not like Shakespeare?

Saturday was a much needed day off from our highly-scheduled past few days, which especially turned out to be a really good thing for my roommate Katy because she wasn’t feeling well, nor was Hannah. I got to play mom and go to the grocery store for crackers, Jell-o, and Ribena (my favorite brand of high-antioxidant blackcurrant juice in Britain.) Katy slept nearly all Saturday which was good and I went to do laundry at a nearby launderette with Hannah (once she was feeling better.) Several other England Termers were piled into the place along with the locals so it took us a good portion of the afternoon. When I got back I tried to work on a paper for class while Katy continued to sleep – nothing too special – I even had Subway for dinner simply because of the convenience. Oh well, it works.

The highest drama of the day came when I found out that our flight is getting into MN at 5:25 PM instead of 12:55 PM, which I had originally thought. The change made me panic and get slightly depressed because I realized that the friends who were going to pick me up from the airport couldn’t anymore since they’re in the Bethel Festival of Christmas performance that night. I called my mom to vent my anxiety, which moms are good at handling, and she said she’d work on it. Then about 10 minutes later I get a text from my friend Hannah Lanser from home-home (as in Middleton) that said, “So here’s the deal: Rachael and I are going to pick you up from the airport! Surprise! …you can give your mom a call to hear the details.” I pretty much freaked out and gave my mom a call right away. Morale of the story: two of my closest friends from home are coming to pick me up from the airport and I’m absolutely thrilled!