Day 6... One week in.

Last night we got to see our first show at The Globe, but more about that after I've described the rest of the day.  The Globe Education Department has this practice of 'storytelling' that they use to introduce Shakespeare plays to younger children, as young as five years old, and where they balance staying true to the stories with allowing the children some ownership over them.  For example, children might tell us how a character might be feeling, or help choose the elements that make up a storm.  The storytellers themselves work closely with school teachers over eight week sessions so that the teachers develop comfort with becoming story-tellers themselves.  The programming person we spoke to in the morning described this as helping to build students' literacy and auracy early on.  Then we went to the Wanamaker Playhouse to observe a lovely group of ten-year-olds participate in the story of The Tempest with Liv, the story-teller.  Some of the interesting things I noticed were that she spent much longer on the back-story than Shakespeare does, that she kept a neutral but fluid perspective so she could ask the students how the different characters were feeling at different times, that she used a few minimal props so that each character was represented by something, for example, a bell for Ariel and a drum for Caliban, and that the children helped to create a soundscape for the story, and at a few points she asked certain students to come up and help to act out the scene.  The students were extremely excited and participated with glee, and then afterwards we had a talk-back session with Liv.  After lunch we had a reflection session with Tom as well as some physical work walking in straight lines (like the strict rules of Athens) and in curvilinear and spiraling lines (like the forest wild).

After a fifteen minute break it was time for a lecture by Dr. Callen Davies, Research Fellow on the "Before Shakespeare" project, based at the University of Roehampton.   Dr. Davies packed quite a lot into this two hour lecture, discussing theatre of the time period, the spectators, Dreams, and Dreamworlds.  The lecture was of interest but a bit dry, especially for late afternoon on the day before we were to see our first play.  I took a nap on the floor in an empty rehearsal studio afterwards, before dinner.  Then, on to the play!

We lined up quite early, about 6:45, as we had tickets for "the yard" and, as we were reminded by the ushers, we wouldn't be allowed to sit anywhere; not on the floor, not on any stairs; we planned to race for the edge of the stage and lean on it for support (and hopefully to interact a bit with the actors, as audiences would have been able to do at the original globe).  Our group had to split up a bit: some to the right and some to the left, but we all made it up to the stage.

It was great fun, and we had several interactions; one of our group even had to help an actress up on stage, by giving her a boost, and Hermia looked at us after a snog with Demetrius and said, "That was really hot!"  Midsummer Night's Dream was set at Mardi Gras, with Oberon and Titania done up as the 'Indians' who lead parades.  The same actors doubled as Hippolyte and Theseus.  Then, everyone else, including the four lovers, also played fairies, and shared Puck's lines.  They all wore T-shirts with "PUCK" stenciled on them.  The rude mechanicals performed a hip-hop prologue, and a random audience member was drafted to play Starvling.  The play was very entertaining, but not too deep psychologically, and the script was cut quite a bit.  Well, it was a wonderful experience, and I certainly didn't feel as if I'd been standing for 150 minutes.

At the end of the play I headed out to the Riverwalk for some fresh air, and when I looked down I saw two swans.  How magical after a play about marriage; after all, swans mate for life: