Globe Education Academy - Day 1 (part 2)

Yesterday after lunch we had the first of three opportunities to work with our movement coach, Glynn MacDonald.  Everyone here has told us that we were really going to enjoy Glynn and man, where they right!  Glynn's amazing!  She is a wealth of knowledge and tells it like it is.  Let's just say, if she doesn't think you're funny, she won't laugh.  We did a lot of movement activities with the eyes, hands, knees, upper body, and um... other places.  It was a lot of fun, and very interesting.  The purpose of the eye work was to make us conscious of what we know.  When we say "I see," it's to say that we know or understand, and seeing is done with the eyes, just like when we touch with our hands or are touched, we feel.  As Glynn says, "You can't move someone if you can't move."  We did a lot of movement to better understand how those movements connect to feelings and emotions.  I can't wait to work with her again Thursday morning on the Globe stage.  Apparently, we were pretty lucky to get such a choice spot to work at that time.

After Glynn, we met up with Patrick Spottiswoode again.  Patrick is the Director of Globe Education and has been here since 1984, years before the Globe was built in 1997.  He took us on a Globe Walkshop around the area close to the theatre to tell us a bit of the history of this Globe and the first Globe theatres.  A few blocks away is where the original Globe was from 1598 to 1613.  It's a bunch of residence buildings now but there is a marker on the ground where part of the wall would have been.

We also saw the office building that is built over the foundation of the Rose Playhouse, the Southwark Cathedral where Shakespeare "worshipped."  Southwark is pronounced "suthuk" by the way, short "u" sounds.   We a wall that was discovered upon demolition two warehouses that was part of Winchester Palace, the Clink Prison Museum, and what used to be London's first brothel.  I've learned that brothels were very important to Londoners...

Anyway, our walk concluded back at the Bull Ring where we began that morning with an afternoon tea and champagne welcome reception.  It was very nice.  They offered us little cucumber, salmon, egg salad, or ham sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and jam (awesome!), teacakes (soooo good!), tea, and champagne.

We ended the day watching our first show at Shakespeare's Globe, a performance of Henry VIII.   It was phenomenal.  The actors have no microphones, nor do they need them, the costumes were beautiful, and the performances were wonderful.  It had been a really long, full day and we were all exhausted, but watching the show was worth staying out late.

This is a photo of the curtain call.  Please excuse the wooden post.  This was my view from my seat, but since the theatre is an auditorium (auditory being the important part of that word) hearing is the most important part.  The groundlings are standing in the yard in front of the stage, just like in Shakespeare's day.  Also, the sun had gone down by this point and so lights are used today, but they would not have had an evening performance back in the day.  Actually, the sky really had just gotten dark a little bit before the end of the show, 10:30 PM.  The sun is out much later in England in the summer!  Still bright out at 9:30 PM, pretty cool!

Once the show was over, Tara and I lingered a bit to use the internet, but on our way out we stumbled along Ian MacNeice, "the bishop" in the play.  He signed my program and let me take a picture.  You might recognize him from several movies like From Hell or Ace Venture 2 When Nature Calls and tons more.

Fantastic day!!!