Everything you need for class…
Download to your phone
VoiceMap, “Theatreland Walking Tour” (5/9/24)
Ticketmaster app for accessing ticket for ABBA Voyage (5/13/24)
Lord’s app for accessing ticket for cricket (5/16/24)
“Dublin Walking Tour” or “1916 Walking Tour” (5/18/24)
Spectatorship
Our starting point for the class…who are we when we assume the role of spectator? How does the spectator engage meaningfully and ethically in a performance experience?
Course materials for May 8,
Royal pageantry as national performance
Yes, we’ll be fighting some jet-lag, but wake up, grab some breakfast, and meet in the lobby where we will travel together to Buckingham Palace to watch the Changing of the Guards ritual ceremony and consider how this regular performance characterizes British nationality.
Course materials for May 9,
Culture as Tourism
Today will be packed with activity as we introduce you to London’s commerical theatre scene. After breakfast, we will travel to Leicester Square where we will begin a walking tour of the theatre district. We will also reflect on the cultural institution of afternoon tea as a performance of wealth and social class before ending our day with our first West End musical, Les Misérbles.
Course materials for May 10,
Heritage as Performance I
After breakfast, we will travel together via train to Hampton Court, one of the palaces of King Henry VIII (the one with eight wives). The palace is a showplace of British heritage, and as spectators we will ask: how do the conservators tour people through the space to perform its heritage? An audio guide will also help us experience the site as a scenic backdrop for film and television, when the palace quite literally becomes a stage for telling stories set in British history.
Course materials for May 11,
Theatre as Nation
Take the morning off after two full days! In the afternoon, we will meet at the Victoria and Albert Museum. This museum draws focus to British design and the applied arts, including a few galleries with artifacts from Britians’s theatrical past. As spectators, we will ask: how does exhibition space perform a national past? That evening will we see Underdog: The Other Bronte Sister at the Royal National Theatre, a publicly subsidized theatre that serves the British citizens. While among mostly tourists on the West End, we will be joining Londoners tonight.
Course materials for May 12,
Shakespeare as Tourism
Southbank, here we come. Get ready for a delicious lunch at Borough Market and an afternoon of Shakespearean frivolity as we ask “Did they really need to build a replica Globe Theatre to stage Shakespeare?”
Course materials for May 14,
Seeing America in London
What is it to be an American in London? While we tour London, what do Londoner’s observe about us? Today we reflect on those questions in advance of our attendance of Stephen Adly Guirgis’s Between Riverside and Crazy at the Hampstead Theatre in Camden.
Course materials for May 15,
London’s Fringe
Two epic venues, two new plays…
Course materials for May 16,
Sports and Spectatorship I
Course materials for May 18,
Sports and Spectatorship II
Welcome to Dublin! Today we will start with a walking tour, and tonight we will experience hurling by attending a game between Dublin v. Kilkenny at Parnell Park!
Course materials for May 19,
Heritage as Performance II
Many Americans visiting Ireland are “welcomed home,” as ancestors of the over six million Irish who have emigrated to the United States. Today we’ll examine the tourist industry that sustains their quest for Irish-ness.
Course Materials for May 20,
Touring as Performance
Long day….Dublin to the Cliffs of Mohr to Galway and back. All while staring out a bus window and wondering why the guide won’t stop talking…
Course materials for May 21,
Storytelling as Performance
Irish fairy in a Dublin pub? You betcha…
Course materials for May 23,
Walking the City: Edinburgh
Day trip to Edinburgh to explore its castle, streets, underground vaults, and the city’s witchy history.
Course materials for May 26,
Sports and Spectatorship III
Day trip to a Scottish Highland Games at the Blair Atholl Gathering.
