The best professional development I ever did experience!

The man!

The view of St. Paul's while standing outside The Globe

The stage.. perhaps all the world is one but this one is pretty great!

I'm coming out of the backstage doors and about to deliver my monologue...

The Globe it all its glory!

This past weekend I went to London with my English Department plus two drama teachers for some specialized Professional Development. It was... in a word.. inspiring! How cliche can you get? However the older I get the more I realize that there is a definite place in this world for cliche. Sometimes a little cliche is just what a girl needs... but I digress...

Friday morning we went to The Globe. We met with one of the actors who took us on a tour of the theatre, letting us sit in the seats and stand on the stage and explore backstage. To stand on the stage and look around at the seating put the entire Shakespeare experience in a whole new light. To see the interaction that was able to happen because of the theatre layout was enlightening. After we toured The Globe we went to one of the rehearsal rooms where our actor friend talked to us about making Shakespeare relevant and accessible for our students. We learned so many interesting little tricks and approaches that I'm finding myself counting down the days until I can teach it.. 63 to be exact... It was fun to act out various scenes with different members of my department and to brainstorm together about how we can directly apply these things now.

Kate, me & Kristen

With our Globe experience still fresh in our minds we boarded the train to Stratford. We checked into a nice little hotel and then met for a glass of wine before heading to see The Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Twelfth Night. It was interesting to see how they gave it a mediterranean/arabian feel. Personally, it is probably one of my least favourite Shakespearean plays which I tend to forget until I'm about half way through it but I thought they did quite a good job. Also a few famous actors were starring in the production. One of them was in Sense and Sensibility while the other was in Notting Hill and Persuasion. I'll double check their names.

The stage and the theatre... all set for Twelfth Night

The next morning we wandered around Stratford at our leisure, visiting Shakespeare's birth place, popping into Shakespearan book shops, stopping in little cafe's before heading back to the hotel. On the train back to London I was part of a brainstorming session where I think we came up with a pretty great idea for a production incorporating all we've learned.. stay tuned.

Outside Shakespeare's birthplace..

Kate, Angelique & me looking artsy in Stratford...

Saturday night we went for a nice dinner and then saw Billy Elliot. It was actually my second time seeing it and I must say-- what an emotional event. I liked it even better the second time. You may have seen the movie and whatever your opinion on that was, don't rule out this production because it was all the things one wants theatre to be, happy, entertaining, inspiring, hilarious, tear-inducing...

Sunday morning we had a slow start and were free to do what we wanted in London. My friend Kate and I had breakfast in Covent Garden and then meandered down Oxford Street for some shopping. Later we met up with the rest of the group at St. Paul's where we took a Shakespeare and Dickens London City Tour. It was great to go down all sorts of back streets and see where Shakespeare walked and networked and learn about some of the things that perhaps inspired some of his plays. It was also fascinating to see where Dickens grew up. After sweating my way through A Tale of Two Cities I had pretty much written him off as dull and tedious but I always forget about his other works and I must say.. the tour made me want to give him a second chance. We were able to see places that definitely popped up in Great Expectations, Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol. Walking down dark side streets and through little parks and looking at intimidating old buildings did make those texts come more alive in my mind. I will give him a second chance.

This is a very important building that dates back to very important things but this was at the end of the tour and I'm not quite sure why it was so important... but it was! Trust me. I'm reliable.
St. Bartholomew's.. also the place where many a film was filmed... Four Weddings and a Funeral, Shakespeare in Love.. just to name a few..
One of the places where they believe Shakespeare bunkered down to write a few plays..

A very nice park called... um.. sorry but it was featured in Dickens' works as well as the opening scene of the film Closer. The buildings around it are where they believe Dickens' had set parts of Great Expectations. Now that I've proven myself to be a total flake you are free to never check this blog again...

And so now I'm back in Dusseldorf, quite happy to have been able to have such a great experience and thinking about ways to use what I've learned in my teaching and writing.