Transition in London

July 25, 2010

I discovered Hampstead Heath today! It’s a lovely little area, very hilly. These past two days have included lots of walking and exploration. I’m sitting her right now in my room at the Kings College Hampstead residency reading a book by Thomas S. Turgeon entitled “Improvising Shakespeare: Reading for the Stage”. I’m hopeful this book will provide applicable research for my critical paper that focuses on the question why teach Shakespeare through performance. Forgive me here at this may be a bit tenuous, but it’s a bit like my walks in London, yes? My London walks create meaning and understanding of the “place” that I’m visiting. Rather than hearing or reading about the narrowed, bricked streets, I’m experiencing them; rather than taking the guidebook’s word that Camden Market is touristy or my fellow classmates’ word that Camden Market is fabulous I take a bus and an underground train to experience Camden Market for myself. The journey leads me to an understanding that is richer, more nuanced than having either read or heard about it. When I visit Camden Market I can haggle with the woman in the stalls (they’re much better at it than I am!); I can search out the scarves and in the process find fun printed tights. So perhaps I forcing a comparison here a bit, but as Suzanne Langer has written, “Shakespeare is essentially a dramatist, and drama is not, in the strict sense, “literature.” So, if this is the case, if you get a clearer understanding of a geographic place by experiencing it (walking it) because it is a place and not a point on a map than can it be true that for students to understand drama it should not only be read, but experienced as a theatre artist even if that theatre artist is studying in what amounts to a traditional classroom? As Turgeon writes, “In theatre, drama isn’t a genre of anything. Drama stands by itself.”

Back to Hampstead – great, quiet, residential area to stay – fun shopping and a great “Heath” to explore! Also, very accessible to Central London city – except on weekends when they seem to close many tube lines for maintenance!