As You Like It

Earlier this week I had the amazing opportunity to pursue my research at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Library and Archives. I spent two full days looking at videos of past productions, thumbing through photos and news paper articles and generally, on cloud nine with two days of Henry V all day all the time. My thesis is centered around performances of Henry V in historical context. I am particularly looking at aspects of heroism and patriotism, nationalism and the ways in which directors react to England's involvement in war times correlates with various portrayals of Henry and Englishness.. :) It is GREAT! or will be if I can ever get my crap together. In any case I am really grateful for my tutor for helping me get a small research bursary that paid for me to travel down there for a few days and work. Thanks Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Jubilee Fund!

Last night as we were leaving Stratford, we had one more wander around. I didn't book any tickets to see a play whilst in Stratford because I knew I would be working most of the time (which I did) and that we would be driving back on Wednesday evening. Wednesday is when As You Like It was playing at the RSC, and then I saw that Michael Boyd was the director for this particular production. Well I will be darned if that isn't one of the directors I am looking at for my thesis! So Tim and I wandered over to see if there were anymore tickets for the show that night. Our luck! There were two tickets returned for that very evening. hooray!

It was a really great performance. I feel like every time I have read As You Like It, I kind of skim over the songs, but watching them in performance, watching Jacques sing them on stage was pure magic. There was a lot of music Incorporated into this show, something for everyone, the shepherd even skinned a REAL rabbit on stage. Not my favorite part, but I did think it was a unique way to show the realities of 'country life' in the play.

Two days of research, two nights with a crazy lady at a B&B, a fantastic Royal Shakespeare Company Performance, and a new toast rack? Does it get much better than that? I don't think so.

Oh! Although... when we were leaving Stratford-Upon-Avon, literally about to drive off after consulting the map... two gals walked up to us and asked if we knew how to call a taxi. They were Americans (I can tell) and didn't have a phone that worked over here (I understand that! Silly locked sim cards!) So we called them a cab, and I noticed she was wearing a purple jacket that had a small yellow 'W' on the front. For those of you who do not know, this is the insignia for the University of Washington in Seattle, the university very near my home town.

I asked if she was from Washington, and she said yes, that she lived in Seattle. Then I said, 'Get out of town! I am from Auburn!' I discovered that she is originally from Federal Way and attended Decatur High School, a high school in the very school district where I spent my entire childhood. Crazy. This world keeps getting smaller everyday.