As we got to the end of our tour, the rain was finally dying down and the blue sky was peeking through the clouds! OF COURSE it was now time for us to go inside to do a workshop with one of the voice coaches of the Royal Shakespeare Company. I guess the sun would have to wait. The voice coach we worked with was a really young Irish guy who had the most adorable accent! (Just had to add that in there.) He made us do a warm-up similar to what we do in George's voice sessions, but for some reason this one was more fun. He then gave us text to work with from Titus Andronicus (which was the play we were going to see that night), but we were not allowed to look at the text until he said we could. We then got in a circle and on his mark, we all turned our papers around and went around the circle, each person only reading one word of the text and reading it as though "it is the most exciting word in the whole entire world." It was funny how we went through the entire text reading it like this, and when we finished, had no idea what we had just read.
He then had us walk around reading the text and every time there was any type of punctuation mark, we had to change the direction in which we were walking. This was supposed to emphasize the separation of each phrase as having it's own meaning. We were all familiar with this exercise, because we have done it in George's class before. We did several more exercises, but my favorite exercise that he had us do with the text was stand in a circle, and one person starts by reading as much of the text as they want while walking across the middle of the circle to another person on the other side. When they reach that person, they have to stop reading and give a very strong encouraging push to the person whose spot they stole in the circle. This person is then launched into the circle, and must continue the text from where the previous person left off. This went on and on until the whole text was read. What was significant was how some people would run across the circle so that they would only have to read on word before pushing someone else, while other people walked very slowly and read lines and lines of the text. The exercise not only showed how we all supported each other, but how it helped to emphasize the beginning and endings of each line and make sure that we do not slack off and become lazy while reading.
At the end of the workshop, we talked about what we had learned during the session. What we all came away with was the fact that not once during the whole session did we do any type of discussion of what the text was actually about. But, through all of the different types of exercises and reading the text in different ways, we all knew what it was about anyway. It was pretty cool to think that we didn't have to sit and do a boring thorough analysis of the text to understand what it meant, and that it could just come so naturally. Maybe George should take a cue from this voice coach, I like his methods better!
For dinner, Maggie and I went to one of the little pubs in the town called the Golden Bee. It was so weird, being somewhere outside of London...everything was so much cheaper! We ordered a pitcher of Pimm's Strawberry Lemonade. Pimm's is England's signature alcoholic drink. We aren't sure what type of alcohol it is exactly, but it is usually mixed with lemonade, sprite, and a lot of different fruits. After dinner, we made the very short walk (this town is really tiny) to the Royal Shakespeare Company's Swan Theatre to see Titus Andronicus. Now, Maggie and I have been dreading seeing this play since basically the first full day in London, especially after Charlie told us it would be "extremely graphic." We had googled and researched beforehand, reading things that said it is Shakespeare's most gory and disturbing work. You could say our stomachs have been churning for weeks on end just preparing for it. Three and a half hours later, and we survived Titus! And, if these words are actually coming out of my mouth (or more like coming out of my fingertips), I have to say that Titus was not all that bad! The storyline was confusing and as always I could barely follow the Shakespearean dialogue occurring without, but the plot and the acting were all so captivating that it was easy to stay awake and follow along (somewhat). And as for the gore? Almost every stab had absolutely no blood, or was done offstage. Only in the final scene, was there a complete and utter bloodbath occurring before my eyes, but it happened so quickly and so randomly that by the end when there were bodies strewn everywhere, Maggie and I found ourselves laughing hysterically at just how terrible executed that whole last seen was. It was just SO fake! We were relieved to know that we had survived and would never have to see Titus Andronicus, or any other Shakespeare play, ever again (unless we so wanted to.)
Today, we had a free day to wander around Stratford. Maggie and I checked out of the hotel and made our way to one of the bakeries, where I got a banana and chocolate pasty. A pasty is a very traditional English food that is a pastry that can be filled with meats, cheeses, or in this case...sweets! It was delicious, and I felt like I was just eating a banana drenched in Nutella. After a yummy breakfast, we weaved in and out of all of the little shops of Stratford where I got the majority of my souvenir shopping done! Yay! Sadly, the size of Stratford in proportion to the strides that Maggie and I take is very small, and in under two hours we had made it through the whole town. We still had five hours to waste before getting on the train back to London. You could say that we wasted our time well, sitting in the sun by the canal and browsing a little street market that was happening. We then finally found an outdoor beer garden (something we have wanted to do all month) and ordered ourselves drinks while we sat outside in the sun. I had a delicious Strawberry and Lime cider, and sat on a bench outside for over an hour trying to learn my sonnet for George's class. Thankfully, I got the sonnet down and finally had some quality sun time...apparently my shoulders even burned a little! (This is a good thing.) After our beer garden beverages and sonnet studying, we grabbed some lunch and made our way to the train station. I didn't realize how exhausted I actually was until I got back to our room at Hampden House and sat down on my bed! What a relief!
I can't believe that tomorrow marks one week until I head back home to Boston/New York. It is extremely bittersweet, but I am ready to make the best of the next week and then I am most definitely ready to head home and see my family.
Tomorrow we only have class in the morning, and then Maggie and I have a reservation for a traditional Afternoon Tea! Yay!
Weather forecasts are bright for this week...we may be blessed with a very warm and sunny final week in Londontown which is a dream come true.
Until next time!!
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