#searchingforshakespeare

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Journal Entry 2:

  It was cool to pick out things relating to theatre on our trip to the British Museum! From top to bottom:

 -Masks from Japanese No theater from the 17-1800s

 - modern shadow puppets from a 2010 contemporary puppeteer -traditional shadow puppets and their screen

 - a ring belonging to Kind Richard the first (Richard the Lionheart) which he may have used to seal letters

 - a statue of Thalia, Muse of comedy  

- and finally the Goddess Fortune standing on a dolphin. Fools of hers often find themselves in sticky situations in Shakespeare's plays.

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#searchingforshakespeare and finding one of the first folios in the Victoria and Albert museum, and puppets in a shadow box for sale in a toy shop.

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Journal Entry 4:

Today was a full day, in activities and bellies! We explored the Borough Market, The Globe and Sam Wanamaker Theatre, the Millennium Bridge, Southwark Cathedral, and St. Paul’s Cathedral. I didn’t have to do too much #searchingforshakespeare because his history and image was much of what I saw today! The images right to left are as follows:

Interior of the Sam Wanamaker Theatre which is entirely candle lit! This is where we saw The Little Match Girl and Other Happier Tales. Unfortunately most of the seats in the house are restricted view. 

A costume worn by Marion Cotilliard in Justin Kurzel’s Macbeth, as Lady Macbeth.

A stone on the patio of the Sam Wanamaker showing John Cleese’s name as thanks for his donation.

One of a few Shakespearean Herbs and plants I spotted! others were strawberry, fig, and bay. 

Shakespeare, depicted in the Southwark Cathedral in remembrance and appreciation for his contribution to posterity.

Interior of the Southwark Cathedral, featuring one of many stained glass windows.

Shakespeare, depicted in mural form on a stone wall, featuring the groovy-ness I know to be part of his work.

Interior of The Globe! There was another group there from Rutgers in New Jersey rehearsing Julius Caesar, to be performed in this very space. I can’t say I wasn’t a little envious!

Much of what I saw today, though it was exciting to see in its home of London, made me think of my schools back home. My high school was one of few in the area to have its own freestanding Shakespeare club that included performance, and it really cultivated an appreciation for the language in such an enjoyable way and brought everyone who was “brave” enough to join close together. To this day I am excited by the passion that club ignited. The Marion Cotilliard costume reminded me of my honors seminar on Shakespeare's Macbeth, and how my university maintains phenomenal faculty and a cultivating honors college. The John Cleese engraving brought to mind when I saw him speak as part of University at Buffalo’s Distinguished Speakers Series, and how many other brilliant and inspiring people enrich the lives of myself and thousands of other students. The mural reminds me of the brilliance of Shakespeare, writers, theatre, and art in general, and how it is for everyone because it affects them in someway, can be interpreted a thousand different ways and picked apart or held at a distance, held in highest regard and even be poked fun at. This trip is a culture and performing arts appreciation expedition where half of the students study theater and half do not. I am excited to be hearing how other people appreciate and analyze things I have been learning about for years and continue to study on a daily basis.