Stratford-upon-Avon and a Brilliant Moment in Theatre

This was a beautiful sunset that reminded me of Nebraska's brilliant ones. Not as good in the picture, but still beautiful.

I'm sorry that my trend of not writing has become a habit. I don't intend to, but life and laziness happens.

A couple of weeks ago I went to Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare's birthplace, and did some research at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and Archive. Stratford is a very small town. There is a lot of tourism, but still has retained that small town feel. I loved being there. It was so great, it felt like being home. Nothing was more than a five minute walk from where ever you are. And there are lots of Tudor homes still standing, a great feat since the Tudor period was from the early 1500 through the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603. Crazy!

While we were there we saw a production of The Tempest. It was from the Baxter Theatre Company in Johannesberg, South Africa. And it was an African version of the Tempest. It was a great production with traditional dancing and music, they used lots of different African languages and pulled from lots of cultures, too. But I think my favorite part was at the end. There is a character named Prospero who has ruled over and island for 15 years and kept Ariel, a spirit, as a sort of slave during that time. Ariel wants nothing more than to be set free, and continually asks throughout the play, believing that every time he completes a task for Prospero that he will be given his freedom. Finally at the end of the play, the very last line to be exact, Prospero sets him free. This takes many different shapes over the years, but what they did in this production is my favorite. As Ariel approaches Prospero, Prosper sprinkles Ariel with water. Then Prospero invites Ariel to step into a wash basin of water, he does so. Then Prospero takes a gourd and washes Ariel with water, and as he does, the make-up on Ariel's body washes away. It made my heart flutter and I almost cried. It was a beautiful image to watch. I know that I bring to it my Christian beliefs, but the washing away of the sins of the past was very present in the theatre at that moment. I even get flutters as I tell others about it. Another reminder why I do theatre and the power it holds if we are willing to use it well.

I haven't been up to much since then. I am working on my paper that uses the research from Stratford. I am going to see Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan in Waiting for Godot on Monday. I am very excited to see them on stage and see Waiting for Godot, too. Other than that my life is ho-hum. God is good and has placed some people on my heart that I have been praying for salvation for them and trying to be a good example for them and answer questions as best I can when they ask about my faith and what I believe. God is faithful.

Update

This is Katie and I at Trafalgar Square in front of one of the lions.

This is the tiring house, or the backstage area, at the Globe, looking out onto the stage. There is a huge feeling of power when you walk out onto the stage for the first time. I hope I get to feel that again.

My favorite view in all of London, at Trafalgar Square looking toward Parliament and Big Ben.

Wow, the month of February has slipped by me. I spent the first week on tour with Much Ado, was snowed out of our last two performances (so we are making one up tomorrow). The next two weeks I was in London taking classes at the Globe. If ever anything has felt good and at home and a place that I felt I belonged and was doing good work it was there. I thank God that we got to go and that it was a wonderful experience. I wish we had more classes like that and instructors like that. But we make due with what we have. The past week I have been recovering from London. It was nice to rest for a while because I was in all day rehearsals all through January. On Sunday we go to Stratford for a week to do research at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. And see the Tempest and meet with Antony Sher afterward. Exciting!

Last weekend I did something called Shake in a Day. Where we had people give us Shakespeare play suggestion, we put them in a hat, picked one completely at random, cast the show, rehearsed it, memorized it and performed it in 24 hours. I have never been so tense for so long in all my life. But it was so much fun. We ended up doing Taming of the Shrew and I got to play Kate. That is one of my favorite roles of all times. It was so much fun. I was very surprised at how much actual Shakespeare I memorized in that little amount of time. We didn't have to be word perfect, if we knew the gist of the line we could try and improv through it in "Shakespeare" sounding words. It was great fun. I got to work and meet some undergrads that were loads of fun.

But for all the fun and amazing things that we have been doing over the past month there is a divide happening among our little group. I hate that it is happening. We are all trying not to notice it and pretending that it doesn't exist, but it is there. And I am waiting for someone to start the fight that will make the division more pronounced and horrible. We have a break coming up in two weeks and I don't believe that it can come soon enough. I am not a confrontational person, so I'm not going to say anything. But it is affecting us. If you can pray for unity. Because I want it to be an "us", not just people together that stand each other. I want ensemble again.

On a happier note, when I was in London I saw a wonderful production of Three Days of Rain by Richard Greenberg. It was a show that reminded me why I do theatre, that wonderful things like that can occur and people are challenged to think and question and reflect. The greatest point of all was that James McAvoy was in it. It was only a three person show and everyone was brilliant. After the show I went to the stage door to get an autograph. I got James McAvoy to sign my program and he handed it back and I said "thank you" and he said "cheers" back to me. James McAvoy talked to me. (I know I'm being very girly right now. Apologies.) It was an enthralling night. It made me happy for a week!