Piracy is Our Only Option

"You will care very much when your nose swells up." - Elinor Dashwood

"Please don't say anything important until I get back!" - Margaret Dashwood 

These quotes are some of my favorite lines from the 1995 Film of Sense & Sensibility.  Part of my homework this week was to watch this movie, and of course its one of the DVDs I brought with me to Bath!  As I just finished watching it, I thought it was only appropriate to include some quotes in my post. 

The Shakespeare Archives

Anyways, the highlight of this week was definitely my first study trip to Stratford-Upon-Avon.  My "Mythologizing Shakespeare" course joined up with the "Shakespeare in Performance" course to travel to Shakespeare's Birthplace for the day.  Our trip started at 10am, and we did not return until 1am the next morning!  It was definitely a long day, but Anna and I started it off with a delicious bagel from The Whole Bagel and coffee.  Upon our arrival in Stratford, we had around 45 minutes to eat and walk around before going to the Shakespeare Archives.  The Shakespeare Archives holds the scripts, photos, programs, and general records for every production of a Shakespeare play by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC).  As a class, we had just finished discussing The Taming of the Shrew, and so we were able to peruse the materials for four different productions of this play (1978, 1982, 2008, and one other one I can't remember!).  I especially loved looking at the prompt-copies of these plays.  These are the scripts containing all blocking, lighting, and sound notes.  It was so cool to see what parts of the play different directors took out or what they added, and how they had the actors move about the stage!

Shakespeare's Birthplace

After our time in the Archives, our tutor took us on a brief walking tour of Stratford (its actually quite a small town, and very touristy), showing us the main sites like Shakespeare's Birthplace, the Guild Chapel, and the RSC Theater.  We also had quite a bit of free time to walk around the town and get dinner before the evening performance of King Lear.  One of the most memorable moments of the evening was definitely meeting a British couple in the elevator of the RSC Theater.  The lady was celebrating her 70th birthday, and so she and her husband had driven from Bristol to see the performance.  They were very friendly and interested in what we were studying in Bath, etc.  And to make the encounter even more wonderful, the gentleman invited Anna and I over to their house for lunch (his wife later told us that he had had a couple of glasses of wine earlier, thus explaining this rather random request).  "Just hop on the little choo-choo train to Bristol!"  They were such a sweet couple - Anna and I could not stop talking about them!  The performance itself was absolutely wonderful, though definitely intense (as Shakespearean tragedies often are), and we were all thoroughly exhausted by the end of the night!

The RSC Theater

Looking ahead, I definitely have a busy week ahead of me!  I have another study trip Friday-Saturday to Haworth, the hometown of the Bronte sisters, which I am definitely looking forward to!  Also, I am SO EXCITED for Tasha and her friend Natalie to come and visit this weekend! :)