GEA - Day 6 - Video added!!

July 19, 2010

The weather warmed up a bit today.  It wasn’t quite as hot and humid as it was when I arrived last week, but it was pretty warm for London.  I enjoyed it though, knowing that you’re all dealing with 100-degree weather.  Last week the temp cooled as the week progressed.  I just hope it doesn’t rain anymore.  I like sunshine better.

Though this weekend was far from relaxing with all of the traveling I did, I felt refreshed and ready to begin the second week here at Shakespeare’s Globe.  We were fortunate to have a later start time this morning of 11:00 AM since our rehearsals took many of us to 1:00 AM Tuesday.  My group was lucky enough to be released at midnight, however. 

Our first session this morning was a guided tour to The Rose Theatre excavation site.  The Rose Theatre currently has a large building over it but there is space underneath the building for a small theatre where shows are performed just above the old Rose stage.  The Rose site is under water and Plexiglas material at the moment in order to preserve everything so that an archeological team can uncover more at a later time.  Under the water, there are strings of red lights that outline where we can part of the outer and inner walls of the Rose as well as part of the stage.  The area is pretty dark though.  Shakespeare’s first two plays were performed at The Rose.

Next, we had a short session with Chris to talk about what to expect this week.  It was pretty straightforward.  Tomorrow night is our scene performance of Macbeth, which means we have a lot of rehearsing to do.  Most of tomorrow will consist of rehearsals.  After our performances are over, the following days will detail how we are going to implement our newfound skills and activities in our classes so that our students can perform scenes from Macbeth. 

We had a dance class with Huw Prall today as well.  Yes, you heard it.  I took a dance class.  And I was actually successful… at least I feel I was.  You can judge for yourself in our video.


This was a Historical Dance class.  We learned some very simple “walking” dances that were of the time of the Renaissance.  I feel pretty confident that I will be able to teach my students these dances.  I think it will bring a very important element to whatever Shakespeare scene I do with them, even if that scene doesn’t need dance (which I doubt any of Macbeth does) because they will have a greater understanding of what the people of that time did for fun.  Plus, the way kids dance today looks like spasms anyway, so it’ll be good for them.  GEEZ, I sound so old!

Anywho…  Dance was followed by text work with Giles Block.  Giles has an extensive background with acting, directing, and studying Shakespeare and discussed with us ways to work through complex Shakespeare text. 

After our dinner break we had a rehearsal marathon.  I am happy to say that I learned all of my lines before today and was “off book” for rehearsal.  It makes blocking a lot easier when you don’t have to worry about reading your lines.  But as I said before, my rehearsal ran until midnight and it’s after 1:00 AM now, so I’m ready for bed.  I’m excited about performing tomorrow.