Cheers

Our month as a merry little band of theatre groupies is coming to an end. We have spent our last couple days a few hours from London in Stratford-Upon-Avon, the town put on the map by William Shakespeare’s illustrious writing career. On our way to this town, we stopped at Oxford. We mostly navigated the area of the city defined by the colleges which make up the University of Oxford; they are forty-four Oxford colleges! We had a very knowledgeable and reasonably funny tour guide to give us all the tidbits about the city. I had the pleasure to go into a bookstore which has a large basement area which house thousands of textbooks and other books. I also stumbled on a chocolate shop which sold 100% dark chocolate.

Stratford-Upon-Avon is a lovely town that is very walkable. We went on the nicest walk this morning down to Anne Hathaway’s Cottage. The Cottage was the last of the four major Shakespeare stops. Yesterday, we hit the birthplace, looked in on the garden where New Place once stood, and the church where Shakespeare is buried. Both the birthplace and the cottage looked bigger on the outside than they felt on the inside. They are built long and narrow. Both houses were added onto after their initial building in some way. The Shakespeare residence is right in town. John Shakespeare used a room as his workshop and sold gloves right out the window. Today, there are a lot of businesses surrounding the literary pilgrimage spot. Likely, when the house was built, there were a row of buildings down the street. I was surprised to learn that John Shakespeare was at one time the mayor of Stratford-Upon-Avon. It is not often the narrative told that the Shakespeares would have been a well-respected family in their community. The Hathaway Cottage is on its own just past a modern neighborhood. The land the property is on was once a sheep farm as the Hathaway family made their money through wool. The last person to live in the house was a descendant of the family and left in 1911.

Stratfor-Upon-Avon is definitely smaller than London. However, the main street, (at least for where I have mainly been exploring) where the birthplace sits, almost feels like it could be tucked into a London alley. There is a river here like in London and quite plenty of bars. More buildings have survived from the Tudor age in Stratford. There are multiple buildings throughout the town that predate 1666 when the great fire burned much of London to the ground. With buildings from Shakespeare’s life front and center, the whole town itself seems to bleed history, seemingly frozen between years gone by and modern tastes.

I suspect one of the biggest differences between now and the 16^th century in a town like Stratford is transportation. The window to my room has been open, and it feels as if a car drives by every minute. Even at 11:30 pm last night, cars were cruising along the road. I would not be surprised if much of the town layout has persisted.

I have absolutely loved having the privilege of spending the month in England. I have spent so many years romanticizing this country, but as soon as I got here it became a real place which is amazing because I then truly got to explore it and live in it. People go on about their lives rather similarly to how we live in the states; they just drive on the wrong side of the road and have better options for public transport. I love England and very much hope I get the chance to come back and explore even more of this country.

I have also been so privileged to see fourteen plays during my time here. I can say that I genuinely like theatre after this experience. My eyes have been opened to the technical aspects of shows. Theatre is an art where the creators and the audience live in the moment together.

Theatre in London has been a 10 out of 10 experience for me. Thank you to the Honors College and my parents for helping make this experience possible. And thank you to Shawn and Susan for being some of the coolest professors out there; y’all made us feel seen and really made this an experience for us.