All the World's a Stage: Visiting the Globe

The students had the opportunity to tour Shakespeare's famous, Globe Theater in London and returned in the evening for a performance of Henry V.

Several interesting things we learned on the tour:

- Actors were not highly regarded nor well paid when the Globe was built. It was only over time that the mindset around actors and acting changed as something to be appreciated and admired.

- The theater was a places where the masses came to learn, it was not purely for entertainment.

- In addition to plays there used to be animal fights and bear baiting at the Globe (Yikes!). Luckily, this is not the case today.

- Like many structures in London, the Globe theater has burned down and been rebuilt a few times.

- During Shakespeare's time the crowd would have been very loud and rowdy. They'd let you know through shouting, cheers, or booing. At times crowds would have witnessed a brawl or two for a seat in a crowded stall.

In addition to the interesting historical information, we also learned that the Globe theater is not strictly about past conventions and traditions. It has become very open-minded about the cast and crew and the way in which the plays are performed. Not only did we see a diversity of cast members (ethnic backgrounds and ages), but we also noticed men playing women's roles and vice versa (much to the delight of the students who giggled when Princess Katherine appeared on stage). They also now offer some performances with a British Sign Language (BSL) interepreter on stage (pictured below, photo credit: Shakepeare's Globe Facebook page)

The performance wrapped up with a drum line and brief call and response. The students loved it, bobbing back and forth to the music as the performance concluded.