View of St. Pauls from The Globe - late!

I discovered Hampstead Heath today! It’s a lovely little area, very hilly.

These past two days have included lots of walking and exploration. I’m sitting here right now in my room at the Kings College Hampstead residency reading a book by Thomas S. Turgeon entitled “Improvising Shakespeare: Reading for the Stage”.

I’m hopeful this book will provide applicable research for my critical paper that focuses on the question why teach Shakespeare through performance. Forgive me here at this may be a bit tenuous, but it’s a bit like my walks in London, yes? My London walks create meaning and understanding of the “place” that I’m visiting. Rather than hearing or reading about the narrowed, bricked streets, I’m experiencing them; rather than taking the guidebook’s word that Camden Market is touristy or my fellow classmates’ word that Camden Market is fabulous I take a bus and an underground train to experience Camden Market for myself.

The journey leads me to an understanding that is richer, more nuanced than having either read or heard about it. When I visit Camden Market I can haggle with the woman in the stalls (they’re much better at it than I am!); I can search out the scarves and in the process find fun printed tights. So perhaps I forcing a comparison here a bit, but as Suzanne Langer has written, “Shakespeare is essentially a dramatist, and drama is not, in the strict sense, ‘literature.’” So, if this is the case, if you get a clearer understanding of a geographic place by experiencing it (walking it) because it is a place and not a point on a map than can it be true that for students to understand drama it should not only be read, but experienced as a theatre artist even if that theatre artist is studying in what amounts to a traditional classroom? As Turgeon writes, “In theatre, drama isn’t a genre of anything. Drama stands by itself.’”

Back to Hampstead – great, quiet, residential area to stay – fun shopping and a great “Heath” to explore! Also, very accessible to Central London city – except on weekends when they seem to close many tube lines for maintenance!

Looking for inspiration at The Globe! Staring at "the heavens"

Bravo Globe directors and practitioners and bravo fellow Teaching Shakespeare Through Performance Educators!

Under the guidance of these talented and creative Globe directors and practitioners we developed a full performance of scenes that told the story through movement and dialogue. I’m proud to have been involved with this performance! At an hour when Shakespeare’s Globe is silent and still, we breathed life into this old tale of power and passion, tragedy and ambition ultimately telling the story of these characters, their relationships, through their sometimes chilling and perverse actions and we through it all we became an ensemble of actors! We put techniques and skills of interpretation learned in this course with our own experiences. I’m excited to be able to bring this work back having been part of the work we created! It provides a solid and full range of experiences that I can share and continue to develop! Many thanks to all at The Globe and to The English Speaking Union! Cheers!

My Cast

Last Night was our last night at The Globe! I just turned in my evaluation of the program and am sitting on the upper level looking out on the wooden doors that lead into The Globe theatre. I have three weeks of experiences, learning, relationships and reflections to draw on as I move forward as an artist educator. Teaching Shakespeare Through Performance has provided me with a solid foundation of the depth of understanding and care that has gone into creating Shakespeare’s Globe today. The individuals with the program have shared their work and love of Elizabethan theatre with us and I’m leaving with strategies and techniques applicable to many genre – much of which has been part of my work as a theatre artist educator. NOW, it’s specifically part of my repertoire in working with Elizabethan Theatre. The barriers that sometimes used to get in my way in bringing Shakespeare to life both as an artist and an educator have been turned into the challenges, expectations and creative explorations that I face in telling every story I tell! The background that I’ve experienced in how to tell these tales and how The Globe has been developed to celebrate these tales is inspirational!

July 22, 2010

Tonight we perform on stage following The Globe production. It’s a packed schedule through til tonight’s performance, which is really the culminating event of the course. It is called Teaching Shakespeare Through Performance.

While I don’t want to reflect too much now as I want tonight to be fresh, clear, specific and energized, I can say with all certainty that the way to truly understand Shakespeare is through performance. The practitioners have engaged us with various performance explorations throughout these three weeks that are very similar to theatre games and exercises that I use regularly both with students in class in the rehearsal process.

While there’s certainly a bit more “table work” to understanding Shakespeare the process we’ve engaged with has interspersed doing and experiencing with thinking about and it works. I’ve discovered new things about Macbeth and am enjoying every minute of playing with this guy – this guy who while at first would undo what he has done – lives his life fully, powerfully and ambitiously – with a huge nod to his wife though he continues to cleave on without her!

Jane with the Tower Bridge in the background

Just a quick post to catch up on my explorations today; I’ve absolutely loved walking around London and today was no exception. I had a couple of goals: find a post office, buy tea at the Twinings shop on Fleet St., find a Boots and most of all continue to use walking to fulfill my curiosity and bring deepen my understanding of London. Let me say that these walks and again today was no exception often take me always take me somewhere new and at least a little unexpected – of course this is my first time – but also give me the reassurance of glimpsing something I know – like the glimpse around a corner (and of course up) of St. Paul’s, coming around the bend in a narrow road and there’s Trafalgar’s Square or seeing the sign post for Southwark St. (I can now pronounce this correctly even in my head as I write). So today I found St. James Park, was on the Mall leading to Buckingham Palace and got a sense of the geographical relationship of Westminister and Buckingham Palace – all on a beautiful, sunny London day. And of course I ended in with a brisk stroll along the Thames. Even got a photo with Jack Sparrow – that’s for Gus and Dylan which I try to insert in the blog!