My First Stratford Shakespeareance

I am sorry it has taken me so long to report about our first trip to Stratford on Thursday night! Wow, seeing Merchant of Venice in Shakespeare's home town was pretty powerful even though the play itself toed the line in terms of portraying MofV as a controversial text. The actors downplayed the religious, sexual, and racial issues that we spent so much time discussing in class; rather, they emphasized the ambiguity that so characterizes the play. Is Shylock a villain or victim? Is Antonio in love with Bassanio? Why does Portia love Bassanio? Is Portia racist? I was eager to see how the players dealt with these interpretive decisions and while I was a little disappointed that they didn't really seem to deal with them at all, I also felt that they illuminated the minor characters for me. I had trouble "seeing" Graziano, Lancelot, Lorenzo, Jessica, and Nerissa in my reading of the play, but the actors portraying these characters stole the show. Their lines were infused with humor, eloquence, and emotion, and I really appreciated their reading of these often overlooked characters. The set was strikingly bare throughtout the play until the powerful courtroom scene, when they set up an altar as the space on which Antonio was to be sacrificed. They also depicted Portia's Belmont as an ice castle, complete with ice caskets and modern effects and music--still deciding what I think about that. My favorite actor in the play was definitely the woman who played Portia, and lucky for us she is the one our class gets to have dinner with on Monday night before seeing A Midsummer Night's Dream. Our professor is making dinner for us and we get to talk one-on-one with a pretty distinguished and talented Shakespearian actor--how lucky are we?? Click here if you want to see a trailer for the play, some images from the play, and more: http://www.rsc.org.uk/WhatsOn/6914.aspx

Stratford itself is charming--a mini-Shakespeare world. Before the play Jessie, Ali, Terri, Adam, and I wandered our way through the streets, grabbed a drink at a pub, and then ate dinner at Thai Kingdom before the show. We were definitely loving life. By the way, the sheer number of thai and indian restaurants here in England is astounding; I feel like I am in culinary heaven.

We have our first paper due on Monday: a description and justification of how we would stage the opening moments of A Midsummer Night's Dream. It's a great assignment and I am having fun with it. We have four papers total this summer, which is very manageable. We continue to love our professor, Miriam Gilbert, who is both super smart and wonderfully considerate.

Next play: A Midsummer Night's Dream on Monday at the Courtyard. Hooray!

A Few Pictures

Hey Team--I am still trying to figure out how best to publish this blog and am experiencing a few technical difficulties (including two lost postings), so for now I am going to leave you with these pics and promise to write about last night's journey to Stratford for Merchant of Venice super soon...for now, I must get started on a paper :-)


Lincoln's Dining Hall


Ali, Jules, Jessie and Lizzie


Jessie, Jules, Ali, and Annie


Former Roomies!


Beautiful Thames River


Head of the River Restaurant

Darn it! Lost to Jessie :-)

And it begins!

Days 2 and 3 have been just as blissful as Day 1--and our schedule is starting to pick up a lot. Last night was our first "High Table" (code for formal) where our featured guests (speakers and Oxford tutors (professors)) sit at a table that is slightly elevated over the rest of us. Seniors fill in the rest of the spots at the table on a rotational basis...and last night I was seated right next to my Shakespeare professor, Miriam Gilbert. Okay, Sara, gear up. She was FANTASTIC--warm, engaging, so clearly knowledgable, and clearly eager to get to know her 12 students this summer. Sharing Game Fowl with her and the others at the high table got me even more excited about our class and this summer. Watched a little Merchant of Venice (Al Pacino version--intriguing, but a little too explicit...I wish it were more subtle and ambiguous, especially considering MofV is such an ambiguous play), stopped by the pub, chatted with my amazing husband on Skype (Brittany, the web cams rock!), and then hit the bed hard.

This morning I went for a beautiful run along the Thames River. Keeping me company were several crew teams and rowers on the water. After breakfast, we were introduced to the Bodleian Library, which is stunningly impressive. It holds a copy of every single English text that was published after 1640--and many, many earlier texts, too. Each of us had to take the Bodleian oath saying that we would abide by the rules of the library (including swearing not to set the place on fire--I am for real) and then we were given a photo card that we had to swear we would not lose. Crazy, but it makes me think there might be something to spending some time in this famous, and famously guarded, place. That said, the "tutorial" we received about how to actually use the library was over an hour long and dizzying; the fact that anyone ever finds anything in this library is a miracle.

Just got back from my first class with Miriam. She was just as engaging today, and the 11 other women in my class (which isn't surprising considering there are maybe 10 guys here total out of 70 students) seemed sharp and thoughtful, too. No big talkers yet--let's hope that continues. BL has a tendency to encourage people to talk just to hear themselves talk, which isn't always an endearing quality to the rest of us :-). Anyways, we did a cool exercise that focused on analyzing various Shakespearean lines, many of which we did not recognize and had to interpret solely based on the words. Loved it--already marked it as a possible entry way into Shakespeare next year with my students at GPS. We primarily focused on the connotations and structure of the words themselves and then got into a discussion about how motion can affect interpretations. Perfect lead-in to an analysis of the scene in MofV when Bassanio asks Shylock for the loan. We watched four movie versions, each very different, and discussed the lighting, body language, accents, clothing choices, set designs, soundtracks, and use of emphasis in speech of each version. Two portrayed Shylock as menacing and foreign while the other two suggested he was thoughtful and approachable. I can't wait to see how the production at the Courtyard in Stratford tomorrow night chooses to portray Shylock--that one decision can so dramatically change our reading of the play.

This afternoon I meet with my professor individually for the first time, and then tonight we have our first senior meeting to learn more about graduation (!).

A quick shout out to Dad for winning the trial he has been working so hard on the past couple of weeks (and probably months)! Way to go!

p.s. It's raining here today; hence the Shakespeare quote :-)

Hit by a Bus

Yes, after a weekend of moving into McCallie and catching a red-eye to England, I do feel like I have been hit by a bus...but today I actually WAS hit by a bus: a beautiful, classic red Oxford bus that was minding its own business until a slightly groggy English teacher going for an afternoon run tried to dodge her way around the crowds and stepped for just a moment off the curb and right in front of it. I received a little love tap on my backside before resuming my stride, pausing for just a moment to turn around and give a thumbs-up and a smile to the bus driver, who looked a little concerned. It was just what I needed: a little nudge to keep going :-)

Otherwise, it's been a jolly fine first day in Oxford--brilliant, just brilliant! It is BEAUTIFUL here!! Oxford is a charming, picturesque town full of quaint storefronts and gorgeous stone buildings, people young and old riding bikes through the centre (like that spelling?) of town, and lots of nooks and crannies that are fun to explore. Just around the corner from Lincoln College is the covered market--a delectable maze of fresh fruit stands, bakeries, and even a huge smoothie shop. Uh oh, I'm in trouble...especially if the Oxford food continues to be this bad. I heard it was bad. It's pretty bad. What isn't bad are the people--it's been great to reunite with Ali Jean, Juliana, Lizzie, and Teri. Annie is due in any minute and Jessie arrives tomorrow. Hurray!

I have been excited about this Oxford experience for the past year...actually, for the past 5 years. I am pumped to take the famous Page to the Stage course and study who I consider to be the master of the English language: Shakespeare. I look forward to exploring the charm and culture of Oxford, and I can't wait for Clay, Mom, Dad, Brittany, and Jason to come share this experience with me. I hope this blog will provide not only an easy way for me to stay in touch with friends and family, but also a means by which I can record my observations and reflections of what I am reading and learning these next few weeks.

Orientation starts tomorrow morning, and classes begin Wednesday. I can't wait.