Summer is here!

Summer for me has officially started because I just had a week of doing nothing productive.

This May I went overseas for the first time for a study abroad class. Under normal circumstances this would sound like a summer vacation, but this was one exhausting trip. It was a Shakespeare English class where we saw 7 plays and travel around to scads of cities. We started off in Stratford Upon Avon, Shakespeare’s pad, to see performances by the Royal Shakespeare Company. Here we saw King Lear, Antony & Cleopatra, and Romeo & Juliet. These were truly amazing performances and my favorite from the whole trip. We even got to talk to Greg Hicks, the actor who played King Lear. He was so intelligent and surprisingly willing to talk to us. I also loved Kathryn Hunter who played the fool in King Lear and Cleopatra in Antony & Cleopatra.

Holy Trinity Church, where Shakespeare was buried

Then we went to London for a week and this was my favorite place we visited. There was so much to see and do it was a shame to go to bed each night! I love the fact that everything has history and is gorgeous. In London we saw Twelfth NightHenry XII, MacBeth, and Women Beware Women (by Middleton). Twelfth Night was a non-traditional performance at the Tricycle Theater. There were only 6 actors for all the parts, and it was a modern adaptation. I really liked it but some of my classmates didn’t like the idea of changing Shakespeare. Henry & Mac we saw at the Globe Theatre, and these were good performances but I found the theater atmosphere a little distracting.Women Beware Women was in the National Theatre. This was a great performance as well. (It’s hard to give a deep description of these performances in a blog, maybe I will later [probably not]).

While we were in London I also saw Avenue Q a musical I’ve been dying to see since I heard about it years ago. I absolutely, whole-heartedly, adored it! I was hilarious, witty, musical, fun, and fancy-free! I was on an absolute high after I saw it. In case you’re wondering, it’s pretty much a Sesame Street that deals with adult issues in a hilarious way. Obviously, not for everyone, but happy with a sharp undertone is muh fav. I also got to see Wicked, which was good, but I didn’t like it as much (this could have been because we had very bad seats).

Oh man, I could go on for ages. Maybe I’ll stop here and talk about Italy next time. Or I should probably talk about myself first, huh?

I’ll surprise you.

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