Stratford-Upon-Avon

As most of you know, I love Shakespeare. I am really into theater and Shakespeare is one of the reasons that I love acting and writing so much.

The first time that I ever saw a play written by Shakespeare was when I was four. There was a Shakespeare in the park and they were doing The Winters Tale. Now I, being four years old, had no idea what they were saying and my mom had to explain most of the plot to me throughout the show (I didn't understand why Antigonus had to exit pursued by a bear. Why couldn't it be a bunny rabbit?)

Anyway, since then I have seen a lot of Shakespeare's plays (which is no easy task, and I have most certainly not seen them all) and done many workshops and stuff where we preform his work.

As a result, I absolutely loved Stratford. Everything was about Shakespeare! They had the house that he lived in when he was young and you could even go into the room where he was born.

They also had his daughter, Suzanna's house and William's school. There were statues of his characters sprouting up around town like weeds, so imagine that you are walking along in the grass next to the Avon River and you get to the main theater. You turn a corner and.... BOOM! Lady Macbeth is staring you down like, "get me some water to clean off this damn spot or I will make my husband kill you!" It was all very exciting.

It wasn't just all of the Shakespeare that made me like Stratford so much. It was just a really nice town. There were streets that were made entirely of the old Elizabethan houses and pubs called 'The Black Swan' or the 'Giggling Squid'.

Everyone was there to see plays and relax. In the center of town there was the Avon River that was surrounded by grass and flowers on each side with, like, one hundred swans hanging out. There were two kinds of boats named after Shakespeare's characters and we almost got in one but I decided that I didn't want to ride in a boat named "Ophelia".

By the Avon sat the main theater building. It was great, we went there everyday to see something or other. We got tickets to 3 plays for the three days that we were there:

#1 The Duchess of Malfi

I'm not proud of this story but I might as well tell you the truth. I had to leave this one during intermission. It was the most gruesome play that I have ever seen. We were in the second row and when the usher started to pass out blankets to the people in the audience who were close to the stage ("it gets a bit bloody," they said), I was out.

#2 The Fantastic Follies of Mrs. Rich

This one went exactly as you would expect. A crazy comedy full of mistaken personalities and a bunch filthy rich people trying to get a better social ranking. I was cracking up the whole time.

#3 Romeo and Juliet

I don't need to explain this one (I hope). To be honest I had never seen Romeo and Juliet before this and I think that this production was a very good start. It was based in a more modern world than Shakespeare's but without phones (thank goodness for that. Having phones would have completely ruined the plot). The Romeo and the Juliet were amazing and I totally got emotional watching it.

So that's it for Stratford! I loved it so much and I can't wait until we return. It's back to London for now.

Love all of you,

WM