Last Updated on July 13, 2015 by
Professor Hurley
When asked to write a closing piece about my experience on the Globe Theater Program, I got a little nervous. How can you write one blog post about an experience that changed parts of your life? How can you put into words the classes you took and the opportunities that you were given? Then, after about five days, it hit me. Look back at you’re pictures.
Pictures can say a lot about an experience. The first couple of days were confusing for me. I didn’t enter the program until the second day. Everyone had bonded and I was worried I wouldn’t fit in. I was told to get to the Globe by 2pm. I started to worry about how to get there, considering I had only been there once. I got directions and made my way to the station wondering what to expect. When I arrived, a Globe education staff member was waiting for me and showed me around and took me to Theo’s, a little cafe where we would meet everyday before class. There I met a few of my classmates. I was very nervous about the acting class but our professor, Colin Hurley, was very welcoming and very supportive. He taught me that I could really learn and understand Shakespeare even though I thought it would never happen.
We had seminars every week where we learned new things about the Elizabethan era. These were taught by Dr. Will Tosh. He was so full of information and was always so lively and fun. I enjoyed every seminar we had. I don’t think I’d ever have seminars like that back home.
Original Shakespearean costumes
We also had classes in voice taught by Sarah Case, stage combat taught by Phillip Stafford, and movement taught by Simone Coxall. We also had lectures on costuming taught by Hattie Barsby who was one of the costumers when The Globe was doing Original Practice shows. During this class we got to dress two of our classmates in original Shakespearean costumes.
We also had a lecture on music and musical instruments of the era that would be played during a show, taught by Emily Baines. We heard what some of the instruments sounded like which was pretty neat too.
Now on to the topic of the shows. Being part of the Globe Education Program gave us the chance to see three shows at the Globe for class. We saw King John our first week, which was amazing because it was the first time it had ever been done at the Globe, which was built in 1997 and is a replica of the original. We always stood in the groundlings, which are the cheapest tickets and can fit about 1000 people if we squish together. We saw Measure for Measure in the second week which was wonderful as well. And the third week we saw As You Like It and let me just say this, it was my favorite show I saw out of the eight I saw while in London.
The throne from King John. I felt like a queen!
We were lucky enough to have a Q & A with an actor who was in Measure for Measure. He said something that really stayed with me: “Acting is shy people’s revenge on the world.” I’m not exactly a shy person but I get stage fright pretty badly before every show. It meant a lot to hear that I wasn’t the only one who had stage fright.
We also have the chance to go on tours of the Globe and sit on the stage and see props and costumes. We went on the first tour with our company manger, Chloe. She showed us the stage and different things around the stage. I went a little crazy and took many pictures.
We took the tour again the third week, but this time we took the full ‘Heaven to Hell’ tour, meaning from the top of the Globe to below the stage. The stage manager told us so many cool stories as he had been working at the Globe since it opened in 1997. I went full out picture crazy one more time.
Sitting at home in California and not having these classes to look forward to anymore makes me so sad. I miss it a lot. I miss Chloe:
I miss classes with Colin:
And I will for sure miss the crazy kids I got to spend those three memorable weeks with:
This program gave an amazing chance to do something I never thought I’d get to do. I wish I had more time there, and more time to spend with these amazing people. I miss London, I miss the Globe and weirdly, I miss Shakespeare.
