Today we went to the globe Theater which is a replica of Shakespeare’s original globe theater. It was an interesting experience and as I watched “Much Ado About Nothing” I could see why during Shakespeare’s time it was such a valuable commodity for the people of the time. Being a groundling was interesting and really made me understand how just about everyone was able to enjoy the theater as even if you don’t get all the jokes the energy the actors give off and the intense connections they make with the audience could compel anyone to watch the show. Though we did read it in class it was so much more entertaining on stage the actors gave great performances and gave the characters so much more personality than could be seen just reading the script. The stage movement and accompanying song and dance was also incredibly fun to witness. I hadn’t thought that the show would be so interactive with the audience but it allowed the actors to be both more comedic as well as give a larger feeling of intensity.  This would most likely be a different experience in contemporary America as we tend to add a lot of gravity to Shakespeare’s work whereas this performance felt much more informal and laid back. I imagen during Shakespeare’s time performances would have had a higher stake to them as the audience could have been armed with rotting produce but for the most part I think the performance demonstrated by the actors would have been quite similar The only major difference would be that there would be no female actors as female actors were not allowed back then, their roles would have been manned by younger boys dressed as girls. I also imagine that it would have been even more informal as people always had things to do so having a completely captivated audience wouldn’t have been as easy especially in some of Shales[ears less interesting plays.

If you have spent any amount of time in a theatre department, you have likely wondered what it must have been like to experience Shakespearean theatre at the time of its production. Witnessing just how complicated modern productions, even ones of Shakespeare’s plays, can be, with hundreds of cues for lighting and sound, speaker systems and lighting rigs that can take days to set up, sets that in some cases could function as an actual house, leaves you questioning how it could have been done back in the day. What were the sets like? How were the characters costumed? How were the plays performed? What kind of instruments and music would have played during the shows? 

Watching a show at Shakespeare’s Globe, in my mind, is the closest I have been to seeing a Shakespeare play done in the way that it would have been done back in its original times. Stepping into the Globe was a great feeling, even if it showed its cracks in its Elizabethan facade. The exterior shell of the theater was incredibly well recreated, with the exposed wooden supports and stark white cement walls, along with the thatched, slightly overgrown roof circling the stage. The open-air space was incredibly unique, giving a combination of an outdoor theater’s environment and atmosphere while allowing for more complexity in set and costume design. The decor around the theater was very nice, with the stage painted with stars and Roman deities, similar to what an Elizabethan audience member would have seen. There were a couple details that bugged me about the reconstruction, however, such as the concrete flooring that the Groundlings stood upon and how on the highest circle of the house, the balusters were flat rather than the more sculpted ones on the circle below it. These details, while they did remove me a bit from the authenticity of the experience, did not impact my perception of the performance at all. And it was quite a performance indeed.

I had already read the script for Much Ado About Nothing for class before we embarked on this trip, so going into the Globe’s production, I had some preconceptions and expectations for characters and how things would be done. I really enjoyed this script and while it is not my favorite Shakespeare script, I was really looking forward to seeing it performed. And after watching it, I definitely was not disappointed.

Seeing as the seats we had almost wrapped behind the stage, I decided to instead watch the show as a groundling, which was definitely a good choice in the long run, even if my legs later did not agree. The set was very minimal, but helped to showcase the design of the Globe while making it unique to this show through the golden orange trees hung in the back and the sparse furniture decorating the stage. The show was incredibly well performed, with a cast that knew exactly what they were doing with Shakespeare. The entire performance was incredibly fun and casual enough to fit the comedy of the show, with the actors putting emphasis and emotion on words in a way that recontextualizes them, where even if you had read the script before you the joke would land like new (an example of this was when Leonato speaks to Benedick, he emphasizes and draws out the “dick” part of his name). My favorite part of the experience was how the actors and the show played off of the audience, with characters delivering lines directly to audience members, interacting with people at the front of the stage by way of handing them props or involving them with a monologue, or just riding the energy of the crowd and letting it subtly influence how they deliver their lines. These elements of interactivity and casual fanfare feel like what theatre likely was back in Elizabethan times, with the actors taking the show seriously, of course (there were many times, especially in the later acts, where the scenes got much heavier), but focusing on the theatrics and entertainment value above all. From the beautifully ornate costuming to the relatable and witty performances to just the feeling of being so close to the stage as a groundling, this show may actually be my favorite experience watching theatre.

Upon arrival at the Roman baths one is greeted with a smell of sulfur and the visual spectacle of ancient Roman architecture. While the height of their ceilings may be less impressive than it was back in the day, the artistry and craftsmanship on display is as breathtaking as ever. While walking around the museum, exploring their artifacts, and eventually even having a sip of their lovely, warm, and penny flavored water it felt like I was getting a real taste of history. My personal favorite part, pictured below, is a collection of witty curses written to different gods in response to different items stolen from common people. A nice bit of history that reminds us we’re really not all that different nowadays. 

Post the bathhouse, I had some amazing shawarma, picked up a gift or two for some people, went to a few stores, and generally had the pleasure of walking around Bath before tea. It was a lovely city to explore, my only real regret, not having more time. It felt like a location full of history but also very tourist friendly so I’m sad I didn’t get a bit more time to see everything I could. The highlight of the day trip was yet to come though, as it was tea time that I truly loved most of all. 

What is there to be said about tea at the pump room? I could tell you of the amazingly savory salmon spread with caviar, the scones that were to die for, or the number of sweet treats that put me into a food coma, and that’s before even touching on the phenomenal tea itself. No, I think it’s best to leave it at this. Perhaps the finest dining experience I’ve had in a long time, it managed to not only make me desire wealth over morality, it also made me realize that perhaps my favorite food on the planet is a scone. Overall, I am a changed man, probably for the worse, nevertheless, my trip to Bath was lovely and it’ll be very difficult to find something that tops it. 

To be in a building that is an exact replica of the one in which Shakespeare’s plays were performed in the 16th/17th century took me to another time. I played a game with myself as I gazed up at all the upper seating with my fellow groundlings, imagining the atmosphere of the past while emersed the Elizabethan architecture. I saw the peasantry audiences crowding the yard and the wealthy filling the seats. I will say, that the pit did not have the signature smell that scholars said it did back in the day of garlic and ale, which is fine by me.

I loved being an official groundling!! I was so grateful to be so close to the action, and also to be a part of the action. Beatrice used my assistance to get back onstage during the production after hiding and slinking around the crowd to overhear Hero and her maid’s conversation. She whispered for me to help her after she jumped up and couldn’t quite get the rest of her body on. I rugby lifted her up there and pushed her to slide the rest of the way. It was one of the most hilarious and lucky things to ever happen to me. I saw all the minor and major details of the costumes with their intricate construction, fabric patterns, and jewelry. They spared no expense on the elaborate costumes. One costume that comes to mind is Beatrice’s blue and gold dress she wore to Hero’s wedding. Each rhinestone on the dress was placed very specifically because the fabric didn’t have a specific pattern print. The cobalt and gold that climbed up her dress were cut and stitched onto a cream-white dress. It was beautiful and had such an effect up close.

I thought all the characters did very well with their deliveries and were perfectly suited to their roles. Ekow Quartey performed brilliantly in this show as Benedick, as did Amalia Vitale as Beatrice. They had undeniable chemistry onstage as they moved from enemies to lovers. All the actors onstage were of a different breed as Shakespearean actors. I don’t think I fully comprehended what Shawn meant when he brought it up during the class discussion. He said that we didn’t have to worry about following along with the play if we weren’t as familiar with “Shakespeare speak”. He was right of course. The actors were so good with their pauses and expressions that they clarified and conveyed the meaning of every unfamiliar colloquialism and lyric. That’s what it means to be a trained Shakespearean actor. To be able to familiarize an extremely coded piece of literature and experiment with it enough to understand when Shakespeare is joking, boasting, scornful, triumphant, or incandescently happy. The play became extremely relatable and interacted with the audience in a very tasteful way.

This version lived up to the production that I envisioned. It surpassed my expectations. I loved every second of it and laughed for most of the production. The set was just what I had imagined for Messina, Italy. It was so artistic and the colors were so polarizing that it was just incredible. The contrast between the bright orange to the cobalt was genius. The way they incorporated the orange orchards from the written play was a beautiful way to preserve the tradition of keeping Shakespeare’s plays fairly set-less and prop-less in the Globe but appealed to the eye so well. This play was so visually fun to watch as the actors could play with height with the small circular balconies attached to the huge iconic pillars of the stage. It was a wonderful element that gave the stage so much dimension for what I would consider a fairly plain stage.

I still think the story and use of female characters is super misogynistic. Its hard to watch women be mere plot devices. The way Hero forgave Claudio was terrible. Beatrice was right in her wishing to be a man , ESPECIALLY in a time where women had no freedom or means to live without a man or husband caretaker (not that its great today either, but at least its not 1598), because her presented gender completely changes whether she would be able to exact her revenge. The “purity” or virginity of a women is a major plot point, but men are free to live or have sex as they choose. In fact, sex and experience adds to the value of a man, but taints and destroys a woman and her reputation. It was a comedy at least. I think it could be written for this day and age better.

We went to see Much Ado About Nothing, written by William Shakespeare, at the Globe Theatre, an exact replica of an outdoor theater from the 16th century. My first thought is that it was cold. Very, very cold. The wind was blowing particularly hard, and I felt sorry for the actors. I used my bag as a blanket for the first half of the show and decided to rent a blanket at intermission. Once I warmed up, I really liked the natural lighting and fresh air. I think on a nicer day I would have enjoyed the play much more. The style of the building was fun and although I was warned that the seats weren’t comfortable at all, I actually disagree with this. I quite enjoyed my seat and felt I would have been a lot more uncomfortable standing.  

The show was pretty much what I was expecting but it was actually a little funnier than I thought it would be though I’m not sure if some of the parts I thought were funny were originally funny when Shakespeare wrote it or if it was just how the actors delivered the lines. Furthermore, I think it was supposed to be even funnier than it was, but I didn’t get all the jokes. I had a little trouble hearing some of the things the actors said and even if I could have heard everything just fine, I still had a lot of trouble following along with the Shakespearean way of speaking. This did not bother me much, because I have had difficulty understanding Shakespearean plays before and was pretty sure I was going to have trouble understanding this one before the play even started. I’m glad we discussed this play in class before we went to see it because I was familiar with the characters and plot which made it a lot easier to understand and follow along.

I thought the set was fun. There was not much done to create a set and we had to use our imagination. The trees on the set were a gorgeous gold color, there was a bench, and crates of oranges. There were also a couple cobalt blue balconies that really popped against the golden orange from the rest of the set. In addition, the stage didn’t have any special lighting, like spotlights or colored light, just natural sunlight. While outdoor theaters were probably common in the 16th/17th century, I don’t think it is common to find an outdoor theater nowadays. I did expect there to be a space in front of the stage for people to stand because we were told about it beforehand. What did surprise me was the actors moving through the crowd of spectators and using them as a part of the show. I expect that some of the jokes, gestures, and facial expressions the actors make in this time would probably have been different to fit the humor and mannerisms of the people back then.

Overall, seeing the performance in this environment was a fun experience that I’m glad I got to have. I think it would be fun to come back with my family and see another play at the Globe Theatre in the future.

Hello again, all!! Three days in a row of blogs. We are on a roll right now! Today, I will be discussing the incredible and harrowing experiences I had yesterday getting to see a show at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. I will start with the harrowing part because who wants to end with the bad stuff?

Kaylee, Cori, and I are basically proper Londoners now, so after our morning class, we decided to explore and go shopping before the show in the afternoon. However, while we were out, we missed a notice that the show time was not what we expected. As a result, we got back to the hotel when we were supposed to be meeting the group at St Paul’s, and we had less than an hour before show time to get on the tube and get where we needed to be. Conveniently enough, I have also been a little ill and was not feeling up to rushing through the great city of London in the coldest weather we’ve had since arrival (seriously, it was so cold yesterday). 

After realizing how much time we had, Kaylee, Cori, and I rushed out of the hotel, leaving my sandwich I had just gotten on the bed of course (I forgot it in the panic). We stuck together, thankfully, and began to follow the quickest option from google maps to get to our destination. However, after boarding the train, we realized we had gotten on the WRONG TUBE!! We had a not so funny laugh about our luck of getting on the wrong tube the day we were running late, but we were thankfully able to ride it a few stops down to another station and change trains. In the end, we did make it on time, and our fearless leader, Shawn, was waiting outside to greet us with tickets. (Thank you Shawn for waiting on us and being so kind about our tardiness!!) 

After a chaotic journey to the theatre, we finally made it to our seats in time to enjoy one of the best Shakespeare shows ever! Which leads me to the fun part… Much Ado About Nothing!!!

Oh my word. This production was incredible, and I have so much to say about the gorgeous stage, costumes, set, and top tier acting! I have not had the opportunity to see Shakespeare performed many times, so the experience of watching a show at the Globe may have ruined me for all future productions. Before diving into the show, I also want to talk about the theatre itself and how unbelievably powerful it is to be in that space. 

The Globe Theatre is designed to almost the exact specifications of the original Globe used in Shakespeare’s day. From the outdoor setting to the thatched roof to the wooden benches for seats, everything is as historically accurate as possible. There are no seats on the ground either, allowing for audiences to stand and watch the show as the groundings did so many years ago. This makes for an incredible experience, and it gave me a greater appreciation for the power of theatre and the lengths people went to in order to make it happen hundreds of years ago. There is no AC or heater, the benches are not all that comfortable, and you can hear loud noises from outside during the show. Today, audiences can go inside to warm up, rent blankets, etcetera, but that was not an options years ago. When you consider what conditions would have been like at the time, it gives some perspective as to how much audiences loved and needed Shakespeare’s work. They would stand for hours to watch the shows, exposed to the outside elements, but still they would come. It is a testament to the importance of storytelling and escapism, no matter the time period. I personally did not stand for the show as I was too exhausted, but seeing the groundlings and watching how the actors interacted with them and the rest of the audience was fascinating and so much fun! It felt so real, and it was the closest I will likely ever come to experiencing Shakespeare as it was originally performed.

Now for the show. Long story short, it was incredible! The actors were phenomenal, and I was amazed at their ability to interact with and respond to the audience while staying in character. They were always on top of their game, and I did not find that I was taken out by the breaking the fourth wall. In fact, it felt more true to the story since Shakespeare wrote so many moments that are intended to be delivered to the crowd. I think many modern performances of Shakespeare easily become very stiff, and the freedom to feed off the audience gets lost as people treat it more seriously than Shakespeare ever intended for the work to be taken. However, these actors did not shy away from leaning into the idea of Shakespeare as entertainment rather than literature, and I loved that! I do believe that the words are deeply important in Shakespeare, and I do not want to give the impression that I do not think them worthy of merit, but Shakespeare was also intended to be fun and rowdy, and this production seemed to understand that. There was so much physical comedy, and the timing and delivery of lines was perfect!! I think this is a testament both to the actors’ skill and the director’s vision.

Lastly, I want to express how much I enjoyed getting to see a Shakespeare show performed in the original time period and setting. Many modern performances of Shakespeare’s plays are adapted to be more “relevant,” so the setting is changed or time periods and costumes are different. While this can work, I think a lot of people do it without a good enough reason, and the show loses its impact. Context can be so important to the message or events happening in a show, and it is important to consider that. I have wanted to see a Shakespeare show performed in the correct period for years, and I was so happy to have that opportunity at the Globe Theatre!! While the show was not entirely original practices (there was a set, and there wouldn’t have been in Shakespeare’s day), I loved it and could still envision how it might have looked in the past. The set was beautiful but minimal, and the stage columns were still used often which gave me some perspective as to how actors in the past would have been able to hide and create a scene without scenery. 

In short, Shakespeare rocks, I love the Globe, and don’t go see an outdoor show in cold weather if you have a choice. But yes, I would still do it again. 😉

To begin today’s blog, I would like to paint you a picture, or write a self-insert fanfiction, as it may be. But first, a cute picture of me from this morning, which Kaylee sent to the group chat with the caption “Cori is the bestest of friends! Care packages for friends 🫶🏼🇬🇧💂🏼” See? My friends like me.

Anyway, let me paint the picture. You’ve been out of class for about an hour or two, so it’s around lunchtime. Between class and the showing of Much Ado About Nothing at Shakespeare’s Globe that you’re supposed to be seeing at 3 PM, you decide to waste time at TK Maxx, because who wouldn’t want to do that? To be safe, you arrived back at the hotel to relax and prepare to journey to the meetup location a solid two hours early. You open your phone once you get back on wifi to a horrifying message from Shawn Irish that reads “ALERT ALERT!! Today’s performance is at 2:00! MEET AT ST. PAUL’s TUBE STATION AT 1:00pm. SHOW IS AT 2:00PM!!” This message was sent at 11:59. It is 1 PM. The room is sent into a flurry of frantic readying and propelled out of the door by a mix of anxiety and confusion. You rush to the tube station, get on the first one, realize you are going in the wrong direction before switching lines to get as close to the theatre as you possibly can. You can’t possibly make the tube run any faster, though you wish you could. As soon as possible, you surface at a tube stop you’ve never been to before and rush across a bridge that is not the correct one, just to find Shakespeare’s Globe in a way that apparently shouldn’t be possible, according to Shawn. You arrive twenty minutes before the performance anyway. All is well… so long as you don’t count the mass amounts of anxiety caused by the entire situation.

Well, that’s about how the beginning of mine, Emma, and Kaylee’s journey to the Globe worked out yesterday.

After that, things began to look up. We got in smoothly, and I pretty much immediately decided to stand for the performance in the area of the theatre where the “groundlings” would have stood in Shakespeare’s day. I quickly found that this was the correct choice for me in the ideal of having the best possible experience during the show. Though my feet hurt terribly by the end of it, I got a wonderful view of the architecture of the theatre alongside the set, which was very nicely integrated, with the bones of the theatre showing underneath. It was absolutely beautiful. 

I initially expected there to be production elements in the show based on the advertisements’ colorfulness. My expectation was changed in class, when Shawn mentioned that productions at the Globe are generally performed under original practices. This would mean no set, if that were true; it was truly a wonderful surprise to see that they did utilize a fairly minimal set design that reflected the colorfulness of the advertisements I had seen online and in the tube stations. It brought a life to the show that could not have been achieved on a bare stage.

My initial expectation was that this production would reflect modern acting practices, by way of the actors partaking in character exploration, but in a way that also explored the intentions of the original text and performance. This play simultaneously lived up to both expectations. All of the characters were exceedingly alive apart and within their actor, and part of this comes from the effect of the text being wholly honored by their presentation of the work. I think that the latter expectation, however, is what sets this piece apart from modern American Shakespeare. While both Americans and the British have an appreciation for Shakespeare, I think that Americans tend to honor Shakespeare for its versatility, whereas the British appreciate its specificity. While I think that both of these viewpoints are valid, I often find that adaptations of Shakespeare into other places or times can make the work fall a bit short, which urged on my utmost appreciation for this production. 

This production could not have occurred in the United States under any circumstances short of the entire Globe Theatre, including audience and actor alike, being plucked into the air and dropped into the middle of the United States. I say this because the uniqueness of the experience is not isolated to the people in the cast, or even the set, which could be transported. The experience of being within the Globe theatre itself is a fundamental part of the production. The set could not be placed into any other theatre, and would not be nearly as effective without the historical building (or a replica of said building) in and around it. The actors, while they could easily go on tour with this production, would not have gotten the same feedback in the United States, as theatre is not appreciated in the same way in the States as it is here. Experiencing a Shakespearean play in the Globe is an affair that cannot be replicated, more-so than theatre already is.

Even with all of the wonderful shows that we have seen so far, I can say wholeheartedly that Much Ado About Nothing was easily the most enjoyable, awe-inspiring piece we have seen yet. All of the actors in this production, and the entire team, have earned at least one new fan.

Exciting days have passed and there are exciting days to come! Signing off from the hotel lobby,
CW

Going to Shakespeare’s Globe was a DREAM! (buckle up this is a long one)

In high school I would have never thought that a little building could bring out so much emotion in me, especially one relating to Shakespeare ( I was not a fan). As a more recent hardcore Shakespeare fan, being in the Globe still doesn’t quite feel real.

It was honestly much different than I was expecting, the outside was kind of underwhelming, I feel like there wasn’t a moment where I looked and saw like the full building, just a little side of it, but I guess that is expected when the building is a circle. I did however love the design of the outside, although it wasn’t the exact building as back in Shakespeare’s time I do think that this is as close as can get. It did not feel real seeing it in person and I think I’m still in shock.

Being inside was absolutely amazing. It’s funny because I always had such a specific image of what it was going to look like and it was much fancier than I was expecting! I kind of strayed from the group once we got in because I really wanted to just be able to soak everything in. I felt a presence in there that is kind of hard to explain and just felt overwhelmingly thankful that I was apart of something so iconic and historical.

The detailing on the stage was incredible. My favorite part was at the top in the “heavens” there were murals and the names of a bunch of the gods which was such a nice detail; it reminded me how important they were to the people in Shakespeare’s time and how much they sourced from them. All of the marble and other detail on the stage was so breathtaking, it almost drew me out of the show because I couldn’t stop staring at the stage detailing! Absolutely beautiful.

As far as the show goes I had an interesting experience. It was very different than any show I’ve ever seen before! I have never been in such a lit space before and in ways loved it and other times I felt very reminded that I was watching a show because of being able to see everyone and standing was just different for me. I was glad I stood because that is part of the Globe experience (#groundling) but I think I would have been more drawn in if I wasn’t thinking about my feet hurting etc. But enough complaining, the show itself was WONDERFUL. I was much more unfamiliar with this show compared to some of his other works so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I liked how much they used the audience in the piece because I believe that that’s what they would have done in Shakespeare’s time. I liked the stage design but part of me wishes that it was almost less so that it could resemble his time more but I get we are in modern times. I also really enjoyed the atmosphere. The audience was very engaged and appreciated the words, about time!!!! (Such a nice change from college students that are forced to be there) As someone who loves Shakespeare it felt very nice to be around people that wanted to be there just as much and wanted to get immersed into the story

I definitely had the moment where it was finally easier for me to understand them better but it took very active listening to get there. I noticed some of them were easier to understand and I’m sure that just has to do with training and knowing how to dictate those words.

The acting was overall very impressive. Of course Beatrice and Benedick were my favorite, I mean how could they not be?? She was probably one of the best comedic actresses I have seen in a very long time. She had a way of really bringing out the idgaf of her character but in a way that still made the audience like her. Benedick was hysterical. A very smart comedic actor for sure. He added so much to the character and did it so effortlessly too.

I would say that Much Ado lived up to my expectations, in terms of the story I still think the same thing that I thought about it going in, very mid in my opinion. I feel like there are some holes that I was hoping might have gotten filled in a live production and didn’t but that is also just the way this play is written. The story isn’t my favorite so I wasn’t like OH MY GOODNESS THAT CHANGED MY LIFE. I was more excited just to see a show in the Globe, THAT changed my life. I had an awesome experience though I really can’t believe that I can say I’ve been in the Globe. WOOHOO

Bucket list item- check!