Shakespeare's Globe and Oxford

I first want to make it clear that The Globe and Oxford are not in the same vicinity, I am just combining them so I don't have to make a bunch of different posts in one day.

I secondly want to apologize for the slowing in my posting. My internet seems to be getting increasingly more terrible the longer I am here. It makes using the internet utterly unenjoyable and I have been opting to just chat with people (via AIM or Facebook Chat) while I watch the telly. I also haven't had as much free time as I have in the past, due to sight-seeing and homework.

Ok, on to The Globe.

My Shakespeare class and I attended an evening performance of Much Ado About Nothing a few days before our scheduled tour. When Erika and I got out of the tube station near the theater, it was pouring rain. Naturally we were a little nervous, as the Globe is an open air theater, and no umbrellas are permitted. We waited out the worst of the rainfall and made it to the Globe in time for the show.

Thankfully it didn't rain on us and we could enjoy Much Ado in all it's glory. Our professor got us "groundlings" tickets, which meant we had to stand for the ENTIRE 3 HOURS of the play. It was an experience though, and we got to see what it was like for the poor of Elizabethan England.

Part of my British Life and Culture class is made up of field trips. The first one, you might remember, was to Parliament.

For this trip, we met at the Globe around 10:45 am to start the day.

To get to The Globe, you walk a short distance from the tube stop to the Millennium Bridge,

then you get the pleasure of crossing it.

We were met by a young actor (who has been in a few productions at the Globe). He took us around the theatre and talked a little about its history and the history of theaters in general. He told us how much harder it was to act in a theater like The Globe because of how the lighting is. Unlike most stages, where the light shines onstage, darkening the audience, the Globe lighting (as well as the small dimensions of the space) forces the actors to see each individual audience member. This means they can see if people are paying attention, sleeping, chatting, or making out. I can only imagine that it could be really distracting, if not unsettling. The Globe is lit this way to simulate daylight (as in Elizabethan times, they did not have shows at night due to their inability to light the theater properly).

After our time at the theater, the actor/guide, took us to a nearby studio where he had us do an "acting 101" workshop. We were all a little nervous at what that would entail, but it actually ended up being fun, if not a little silly. One minute he had us running around the room, playing some weird version of "Simon Says" and the next minute we were paired off and doing a "mirror exercise" where one person moved and the other tried to mirror them exactly without breaking eye contact. We played around with our voices and body language in another exercise, and we were finally passed out parts to Much Ado About Nothing, which we read out.

It was a good way to spend class, the only unfortunate thing was having to return to the University for our last classes of the day, which was a hassle (though I got to watch Shaun of the Dead in my class, so I had it pretty good).

That Friday, Erika, Ryan, and I went with AIFS to Oxford.

After about an hour's drive, we pulled over at a rest stop, since our guide said Oxford is not the place to go for a large group of tourists who need to use the toilet.

This is how England does rest stops.

Oxford is best known for two things. The first is its amazing college system and the second is that many campuses were used in the Harry Potter films.

Oxford University isn't a university like we Americans know. Within the city there are multiple "colleges" that make up Oxford, and some are huge. There is no central "Oxford campus".

Our tour guide took us around the city, speaking of the different colleges and educating us on how the college works. We were told that we would get a tour of Christ Church College, which is the most famous for its scenes in Harry Potter.

Sadly, when we arrived there (after a long walk from the coach, I must add), we found the college was closed.

Our guide said that despite his calling ahead numerous times, and being told they would be open, the college had to close because they had not yet received a delivery of scaffolding. It was expected to come that morning and they needed to remain closed until they could get it in the building. They apologized and said we could try later, but no promises.



Our guide took us to the river and said we could try our hand at “punting” or take a few hours to explore the town.  Punting involves one person with a large stick pushing a boat along the river.  Our guide warned us that it requires balance and coordination, and many tourists often find themselves in the river when the stick gets stuck in the mud.


After watching this guy (who I am pretty sure was American) struggle, we opted to explore the town.

We set off down a mainstreet and popped into shops as we pleased.

We found a cheap pub and ate lunch, before shopping a bit more. Eventually it was time to find our guide.

He led us back to Christ Church, and thankfully it was open.


We found the "Hogwarts Steps" that McGonagall greeted the first years at.  The best part? Those steps actually led to the room they used at the Great Hall.  Even better? The “Great Hall” room is actually a “Great Hall” as these pictures show, with a table at front for the professors.  Talk about totally geeking out. 

Christ Church is also famous for being where Charles Dodgson worked.  Most people know him as Lewis Carroll, who wrote Alice in Wonderland.  The real Alice’s father was the Dean of the college (and Dodgson’s boss) and the little girl inspired Dodgson to write the story we all know today.  The hall has a stained-glass window of Alice at the far end, but sadly we couldn’t get to it.

After we finished geeking out over the “Great Hall”, we returned to the steps and took more pictures.

We continued our walk through the colleges

and ended up at the Divinity School, which is where all of the hospital scenes from Harry Potter were filmed.  The sick beds were gone, but  you can still recognize it as the room that contained a poor, beat-up Harry many-a-time throughout the years.

We got another hour to shop after Christ Church and the Divinity School, so we grabbed whatever little souvenirs we wanted, and headed back to the bus.