Day 12 (Monday, July 22)

Monday morning started with a marvelous demonstration of Shakespeare for All, showing how a teacher would bring Shakespeare to students with a range of special needs, including people who have either sensory sensitivity or impairments.  This was taught by Fiona (Fe) Drummond, who used a few objects, such as bells, and a crown, and British Sign Language, to engage students in the issues of MacBeth.  She was just lovely, demonstrating how Shakespearian text can be -not translated or re-written- but edited, cut, to the simple phrases that get at its heart, and brought to all students.  After an explanation, Fe simply taught us a couple of the workshops she has used with her students, and then allowed us time to talk about what we had participated in.

After a short break we were all very excited for a workshop on stage combat with Yarit Dor, a dynamic and petite Israeli with a bit of an American accent as she has lived in the states.  Yarit has worked with many of the productions on the Globe stage, and I imagine that one thing the actors love about her is that she doesn't choreograph fights or intimacy but lets the actions come from the actors.  In other words, she might say to a pair of actors, "what do you want to do to this character when she says that?"  So the actions come from the actors and then she works to make them safe.  She requires actors to always get consent for touch, including where and what level of pressure, and then she works with them to make it look real.  In small groups we worked out some short exchanges of scuffles and repulsions, also practicing the consent process. Then we learned a couple of falls, and Yarit even let us film it!

After all of this physical exercise we were rather hungry as you might imagine and we had a two hour lunch break for a change so a group of us dashed over to Borough Hall Market where you can find anything you might imagine to eat.  One of the participants had raved about a tiny and very busy restaurant with amazing fresh pasta, so I put my name on the list and asked them to text me when there was a seat for me; that way I could wander among the various food stalls and tiny shops.  After admiring cheeses, spices, flowers, and a bakery stall with a small mountain of cinnamon buns, 

I bought two jars of fruited honey cremes to give as gifts, and shortly, I received a text that my table was ready.  I was seated up on a tall stool at a marble counter, and I had a lunch to die for:

After lunch we had an introduction to Merry Wives of Windsor (which we are to see tomorrow) led by the fabulous Mary McNulty, who made good use of our new-found stage combat skills and had us work in small groups on the climactic scene where Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Page dress Falstaff in women's clothes, ostensibly to sneak him out of the house, whilst actually holding the conflicting objective of seeing him severely punished.  I jumped at the chance to play Falstaff, and had my glasses knocked off in the fray (though incurring no lasting damage).

In the evening a friend from the program and I walked across the pedestrian bridge, the Millennium, which I picture in my first post, in order to eat Indian food and then see an indoor/outdoor production of Hamlet, which we thought to be at St. Paul's Cathedral, but realized at the last moment was actually at St. Paul's Church, The Actor's Church, over a mile away.  We dashed over, not vey late, and enjoyed the lovely gardens, and viewed some of the performance before we decided to leave at intermission.  It was only 12 quid, and we did stop at a nice bakery on the way back to our digs on the other side of the Thames.