Shakespeare, Shakespeare...and more Shakespeare

I am now back from a trip to Stratford Upon Avon, the homestead of William Shakespeare.
This whole trip has been Shakespeare-ful.
We took a train to Stratford on Thursday and had a two hour walking tour of the town. It was raining, naturally. This is the UK afterall. But we saw lots of things, like where Shakespeare was born, his school, where he lived as an adult, and the church that he is buried in.

The graveyard was the prettiest graveyard I've ever seen. The whole town was absolutely gorgeous and just adorable. It was actually relatively cheap too...for the UK. So that was an added bonus.

One of the bathroom there also had a nice plaque displaying the fact that it was the loo of the year...ok then, UK, whatever you say. Just keep doing what you're doing I guess.

ANYWAY after that we had a master class taught by some guy named Eamon from the RSC (that's the Royal Shakespeare Company in case you were wondering). He was Scottish I think, so he pronounced his named like EEEEMON. That was entertaining. He is a voice coach, and works on RSC shows as well as Matilda over here on the West End. He had us doing a bunch of vocal warmups and activities he would have any professional actor do. That was awesome...he was awesome. And Scottish.

At night we went to see Titus Andronicus at the RSC. This is thought to be Shakespeare's first tragedy. We were so prepared for blood, because everyone warned us of how graphic Titus can be, and how people sometimes pass out and stuff. Let's just say I was EXCITED. However, I think a lot of us were disappointed because it could have been way, way more bloody. It definitely wasn't pass out worthy.
It's also not Shakespeare at his best...there really isn't much to it. I found some of the acting to be phenomenal, and I definitely found myself often more interested in the technical aspects like where they were hiding blood bags and things like that rather than paying attention to the actual story. This was my third Shakespeare play since coming to London/UK and I can definitely appreciate the guy more than I did when I was forced to read the plays in english classes throughout grade school...

Friday we walked around Stratford a lot because it was FINALLY a gorgeous day and we weren't leaving until 5. We got some tea, shopped a bit, took a ferry ride across the river, and then we headed back to the train station and back to our humble abode in London.

I only have 5 more days of classes here, 7 more days left on this program, and 13 days left in London. TIME FLIES!