Day Trips 2018

Each year, we put together a host of short day trips that get us out of the city and allow us to see another view of England.  The city is wonderful, full of brilliant shows, fascinating people, and interesting things to do, but as the British aristocracy has always known, the country provides its own pleasures.

Featured Excursions in 21018

The following excursions are built into the program and parts of these trips are paid for in advance through your program fee. If there are any extra charges associated with the trip, those are noted, as well.

Oxford or Cambridge? (Travel = Pre-Paid; Tour = £10-15)

Each year, we take a day-trip to either Oxford or Cambridge so that you can get a sense of what that style of college/university life is like. It’s different enough from US higher education that it’s worth seeing, and there are building in both places that are older than the United States as a nation. Our tour guides have always been wonderful, somewhat perfectly “British” and fitting every stereotype you’re looking for. At Oxford, we see lots of sites, like the courtyard at New College where “Mad Eye” Moody turns Draco Malfoy into a ferret in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. There are lots of other Harry-Potter-related sites in Oxford, as well, that you could do as part of your own walking tour. (PDF) Cambridge offers equally beautiful sites as Oxford, as well as some beautiful first editions of A. A. Milne’s Pooh books, and artifacts related to the discovery of DNA, as well as places you’ll have seen in the recent film about Stephen Hawking, A Theory of Everything. In both towns, you have the chance to go “punting” — you shouldn’t miss it. Grab a bottle of wine (or two) and put a group together for a punt. There’s nothing quite like a relaxing summer boat ride around Oxford or Cambridge to relax you and also to make you feel a bit like Rat from The Wind in the Willows!

Kew Garden (Course Trip: Pre-Paid)
One of our favorite early “outings” each year is to hop on a Thames River Boat Tour and head out to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. After four or five days in central London, it’s fun to get away from the hustle and bustle of city life and see one of the most interesting botanic gardens in the world.  Kew really came of age in the 19th century as English explorers traveled the globe and brought back rare plant specimens to London for study and cultivation. Kew Gardens produced the first tropical fruits in England, which became extremely important for sailors who often succumbed to scurvy while traveling. The vitamins in citrus fruit help keep the sailors healthy.  But Kew also has Queen Charlotte’s summer palace, and the Treetop Walkway: take a few minutes to climb the stairs and look out over the London suburban countryside from the sky! And whatever you do, make sure you try the orange juice at the Orangery: fresh squeezed each day, it is the best OJ we’ve ever tasted … seriously!

After we’ve had our fun in the garden, we’ll head to the Original Maids of Honour Tea Shoppe for an afternoon “cream tea.”  You’ll definitely want to try their eponymous confection, the “original Maids of Honour” pastry, but if you’ve never had afternoon “cream tea,” complete with rejuvenating hot tea and a scone that’s been slathered in delicious clotted cream and jam, well, you’ve been letting the best in life pass you by! You’ll want more tea-and-scone afternoons after this one, and let’s face it: after all the miles we’ve walked in London and in Kew, the calories won’t matter.

Additional Excursions in 2018

Stratford-Upon-Avon & the Shakespeare Institute (Optional Extra Trip: £30)
This year, because we have a former student, Karen Harker (London 2012), studying at the Shakespeare Institute, we have the opportunity to take a quick train out to Stratford-Upon-Avon, birthplace to the Bard. While there, we’ll have an expert on the area (and Shakespeare — Karen’s finishing a master’s on playwright!) who has offered to give us a tour around town.  She also thinks she can introduce us to some of the actors working at the local theatres.  Imagine it: a day trip to the country complete with free tours, a great play, and a chance to go behind the scenes! How can we pass up an opportunity like that? Come join us at Marylebone station, and we’ll take the train up together!

Did You Say Harry Potter? (Optional Extra Trip: £50-75 depending on tour options)
Caught that did you? The fact that there’s Harry Potter sites to see in Oxford? Well, what about the Warner Bros. Studio in Watford Junction, which has an amazing tour of Harry Potter sets, props, costumes, and all the Butter Bear you could ever ask for?! That’s right: you can sate every one of your HP desires by taking one of the tours.  We went two years ago and had way more fun than we thought we would, and then last year, the tours had gotten so popular that they were sold out for all of July by the time we got there. If you want to do the Harry Potter Studio Tour, you’ll want to book early. We can help you do that and get a group together. It’s way more fun with friends!

But That’s Just the Beginning …
While we’ll do some of these things together as a large group, there are so many other wonderful day or afternoon excursions you’ll want to enjoy.  It’s a simple trip to grab the train at Paddington and hop over to Windsor for an afternoon to tour Windsor Castle and see the town.  Or if it’s Henry VIII you’re interested in, go to Hampton Court Palace. The tour of the palace is wonderful, but you can actually the hedge-row maze for free! If Stonehenge and Bath are more your speed, then there are very inexpensive coach (bus) tours that pick you up in Central London and spirit you around to cool places, all in a day. Students over the years have really enjoying putting together afternoon or all-day-Saturday trips to Stonehenge-Bath-and-Oxford.

If you’re interested in “the Continent,” then now’s a great chance to go. From London’s 4 airports, it’s easy to grab a cheap ticket on RyanAir or ValueJet to Paris, Rome, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, or really anywhere in central Europe.  Put a group of 3 or 4 together and get a room for the weekend. Since we don’t have classes on the weekends, you can escape on Friday afternoon and stay until late Sunday.  You’ve got your passport, you’ve got friends, why not see more of Europe, Ireland, or Scotland?? Now’s the chance!

Travel 2016

COMING SOON: Below is the information from 2015 to give you a sense of how our travel worked then. This stays fairly constant from year to year.

Good news: we’ve finalized the flight plans for the Summer 2015 trip. The current price is hovering around $1,400—not bad for London in late summer (and currently $200 cheaper than last year)!

In the following message, you will find (1) an explanation of our air travel plan, (2) details about the flights you should book, (3) instructions on ordering your tickets, (4) information about alternatives to these preferred flights, and (5) some additional flight-related suggestions.

 Our Air Travel Plan

As we discussed at the information sessions, each participant will need to book his or her ticket individually. Although you will book your ticket individually, we’d like everyone to book the same flight from Charlotte to London, if possible. That way, we can arrange an airport shuttle to take the group in from the airport to our London lodging. Some exceptions can be made, of course (for instance, people who are going to be somewhere other than North Carolina in June might want to fly directly from that location rather than returning to ECU before departure).  But if you book a flight that’s different from the booking provided below, you’ll have to take a train from the airport to the city, and very few train stations have escalators, which makes traveling with luggage rather frustrating. Aside from that practical matter, it’s just nicer to travel in a group!

To make it possible to travel together, we’ve selected flights for which there are still lots of open seats.  Nevertheless, it’s important to book your flight soon; we have more than 20 travelers, and we want to grab all our seats before others take them!  There’s no way to predict how long the space will remain available, and there’s also no way to know that the price will remain the same.  (It looks very, very doubtful that the price would go down, but, as the flight fills up, it’s normal for the prices to go up.)

 Flight details (a.k.a. “Book this itinerary!”)

Here’s a summary of the itinerary that you should book as soon as possible:

Outbound: Greenville to Charlotte to London-Heathrow

US Airways: US4768 (PGV-CLT)
Departs Greenville 3 July 2015 @ 2:21 pm
Arrive Charlotte 3 July 2015 @ 3:37 pm

US Airways: US730 (CLT-LHR)
Departs Charlotte 3 July 2015 @ 6:45 pm
Arrives London-Heathrow 4 July 2015 7:40 am

 Inbound: London to Charlotte to Greenville

US Airways: US731 (LHR-CLT)
Departs London-Heathrow 26 July 2015 @ 11:00 am
Arrives Charlotte 26 July 2015 @ 2:53 pm

US Airways: US4797 (CLT-PGV)
Departs Charlotte 26 July 2015 @ 4:12 pm
Arrives Greenville 26 July 2015 @ 5:21 pm

If you want, you can join us in Charlotte (in Concourse D – International Concourse) and skip the PGV-CLT leg of the trip.  At the moment, you’re not saving any money – it’s actually more expensive – but that may change.

 How to Book Your Tickets

The best way to book your ticket is directly through USAirways website: http://www.usairways.com. You can go through Expedia or Orbitz or another reseller option, but the prices — at least at the moment — are not any better.  In my experience, when you book with the airline directly, you get better service should something go wrong.

When you get to the USAirways site, you can search for the trip as such:

REMEMBER: the flight numbers are everything! Make sure those are correct with the flight you book. The times sometimes shift by up to 15 minutes, so don’t be surprised if your time if 5 minutes or 10 minutes different from when I took the screenshot. As long as the flight numbers are right, we’ll all be together on the same flight.

At the moment, it is $400 cheaper to fly from Washington DC to Charlotte to London – honestly, there is no logic here – than it is to fly from Greenville to Charlotte to London or even, believe it or not, to fly straight from London.  I mention this because the exact same plane for all three of these goes to London (USAir Flight #730). So if Greenville isn’t the closest option, you might check around airports in the area where you have family or friends you might spend the night with. You might save yourself some money on the flight.

As you go through the process, you’ll see that you’re asked to enter your traveler information. This is very important: it MUST match what’s on your passport, so be sure you enter this information correctly.

Eventually, you may be asked to enter your Passport Number, so be sure to have it handy.

Send me an email at BANKSW [at] ECU [dot] EDU to say that you’ve booked your ticket and what your itinerary is (Group from Gville; Group from CLT; or On My Own). If you are traveling on your own, please send a copy of your itinerary so that we know where you are and how we might best make plans to meet you once we’re all in London.  We instructors will be three bundles of stress between now and the time that every student has booked a ticket.  Please settle our nerves by telling us when you’ve booked.

If you want to share a seat with someone you know from the program, then just book your flights at the same time and choose seats together.

Alternate Bookings

Some of you already have plans to travel on different days or from different airports.  You might need to book flights different from those listed above for different reasons:

• You plan to be somewhere other than Greenville before our departure date, and you prefer to fly from where you are rather than coming back to Greenville to fly out with the group. If Charlotte is closer for you, you can just meet us at the gate in Charlotte (and of course book just that leg of the flight). But if you’re in eastern NC, there’s really no financial advantage to driving over to Charlotte. Just fly out of Greenville with the rest of us!
• You plan to stay in Europe for additional travel after the trip ends (lucky you!)
• You wait too long and there are no more available seats on the specified flights.

In each of these situations, the process of booking your flight remains the same, but, of course, the specific flights will differ.  If you’re departing from an airport other than PGV (Greenville) (e.g., if you’re going to be in New York, Atlanta, Virginia Beach, or Peoria), you might want to search for the best fare from your location. If possible, try to get a booking in which you will be landing at London Heathrow Airport (LHR) before the group’s arrival time (7:50 am). If you do that, we might be able to meet up in the airport so you can take our private shuttle bus in to the city.  The shuttle can’t wait if your flight is delayed, but don’t worry.  You will have to get from the airport to the city on your own, but it’s not difficult, and I’ll give you the necessary instructions.

If you plan to travel in Europe (post-trip), note that you can book an “open jaw” flight (that is, a flight where you arrive in one airport, but return from a different airport—e.g., Greenville to London, then tour Europe by train, then Madrid to Greenville).  The airline websites provide instructions for booking this type of flight.  If you’re on the continent, an open-jaw booking may be cheaper than returning to London first.  The exception is Paris; if you’re visiting Paris, it may be cheaper to return to London and fly out the next day.

This is important.  If you plan to use an alternative booking, PLEASE let me know as soon as possible!  I’ll keep a list of everyone’s booking status.

Additional Suggestions and Comments

Become a member of the USAirways “Dividend Miles” frequent flyer miles program!  Now that USAirways and American Airlines are the same company, if you already have an AA frequent flyer account, you can connect it to USAirways and add these miles. It’s free, and this flight will give you almost 10,000 frequent flyer miles right from the start.  (That’s almost halfway to a free domestic flight, and almost 1/3 of the way to a flight to the Caribbean!)  You can book your ticket first, then sign up for the miles program; as long as you’re a member before you board the plane, you can count the miles.

Reminder: use the exact same name for your flight booking that you have on your passport. No nicknames! I’m talking to you, Richard “Muscles” Taylor.

Some of you may not be sure yet whether you’d like to travel after the program.  It’s possible to book your tickets, arrive in London, decide that you’d like to stay longer, and change your return flight by paying a change fee.  That fee is something like $200 plus any increase in the new booking.  So it’s possible to be spontaneous, but if you know for sure that you’d like to stay longer, you’re better off booking the extended itinerary from the start.

That’s it for now!  Please, please let Dr. Banks know when you’ve booked your ticket.  We’ll sleep better knowing everyone’s successfully booked.  Summer is a busy travel time for London, and the earlier we’re all booked, the more likely it is that we can travel together. This is especially true if you’re planning to fly out of Greenville, since it’s a smaller plane and there are fewer seats available. Book ASAP, okay?

Have questions or need help?  Just ask.  We’re going to have a great trip!

Day Trips for 2016

COMING SOON: Below is the information from 2015 to give you a sense of how our travel worked then. This stays fairly constant from year to year.

Each year, we put together a host of short day trips that get us out of the city and allow us to see another view of England.  The city is wonderful, full of brilliant shows, people, and things to do, but as the British aristocracy has always known, the country provides its own pleasures.

Stratford-Upon-Avon & the Shakespeare Institute
This year, because we have a former student, Karen Harker (London 2012), studying at the Shakespeare Institute, we have the opportunity to take a quick train out to Stratford-Upon-Avon, birthplace to the Bard. While there, we’ll have an expert on the area (and Shakespeare — Karen’s finishing a master’s on playwright!) who has offered to give us a tour around town.  She also thinks she can introduce us to some of the actors working at the local theatres.  Imagine it: a day trip to the country complete with free tours, a great play, and a chance to go behind the scenes! How can we pass up an opportunity like that? Come join us at Marylebone station, and we’ll take the train up together!

Oxford or Cambridge?
Likewise, we often take a day trip to either Oxford or Cambridge so that you can get a sense of what that style of college/university life is like. It’s different enough from US higher education that it’s worth seeing, and there are building in both places that are older than the United States as a nation. Our tour guides have always been wonderful, somewhat perfectly “British” and fitting every stereotype you’re looking for. At Oxford, we see lots of sites, like the courtyard at New College where “Mad Eye” Moody turns Draco Malfoy into a ferret in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. There lots of other Harry-Potter-related sites in Oxford, as well, that you could do as part of your own walking tour. (PDF) Cambridge offers equally beautiful sites as Oxford, as well as some beautiful first editions of A. A. Milne’s Pooh books, and artifacts related to the discovery of DNA, as well as places you’ll have seen in the recent film about Stephen Hawking, A Theory of Everything. In both towns, you have the chance to go “punting” — you shouldn’t miss it. Grab a bottle of wine (or two) and put a group together for a punt. There’s nothing quite like a relaxing summer boat ride around Oxford or Cambridge to relax you and also to make you feel a bit like Rat from The Wind in the Willows!

Kew Garden
One of our favorite early “outings” each year is to hop on a Thames River Boat Tour and head out to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. After four or five days in central London, it’s fun to get away from the hustle and bustle of city life and see one of the most interesting botanic gardens in the world.  Kew really came of age in the 19th century as English explorers traveled the globe and brought back rare plant specimens to London for study and cultivation. Kew Gardens produced the first tropical fruits in England, which became extremely important for sailors who often succumbed to scurvy while traveling. The vitamins in citrus fruit help keep the sailors healthy.  But Kew also has Queen Charlotte’s summer palace, and the Treetop Walkway: take a few minutes to climb the stairs and look out over the London suburban countryside from the sky! And whatever you do, make sure you try the orange juice at the Orangery: fresh squeezed each day, it is the best OJ we’ve ever tasted … seriously!

After we’ve had our fun in the garden, we’ll head to the Original Maids of Honour Tea Shoppe for an afternoon “cream tea.”  You’ll definitely want to try their eponymous confection, the “original Maids of Honour” pastry, but if you’ve never had afternoon “cream tea,” complete with rejuvenating hot tea and a scone that’s been slathered in delicious clotted cream and jam, well, you’ve been letting the best in life pass you by! You’ll want more tea-and-scone afternoons after this one, and let’s face it: after all the miles we’ve walked in London and in Kew, the calories won’t matter.

Did You Say Harry Potter?
Caught that did you? The fact that there’s Harry Potter sites to see in Oxford? Well, what about the Warner Bros. Studio in Watford Junction, which has an amazing tour of Harry Potter sets, props, costumes, and all the Butter Bear you could ever ask for?! That’s right: you can sate every one of your HP desires by taking one of the tours.  We went two years ago and had way more fun than we thought we would, and then last year, the tours had gotten so popular that they were sold out for all of July by the time we got there. If you want to do the Harry Potter Studio Tour, you’ll want to book early. We can help you do that and get a group together. It’s way more fun with friends!

But That’s Just the Beginning …
While we’ll do some of these things together as a large group, there are so many other wonderful day or afternoon excursions you’ll want to enjoy.  It’s a simple trip to grab the train at Paddington and hop over to Windsor for an afternoon to tour Windsor Castle and see the town.  Or if it’s Henry VIII you’re interested in, go to Hampton Court Palace. The tour of the palace is wonderful, but you can actually the hedge-row maze for free! If Stonehenge and Bath are more your speed, then there are very inexpensive coach (bus) tours that pick you up in Central London and spirit you around to cool places, all in a day. Students over the years have really enjoying putting together afternoon or all-day-Saturday trips to Stonehenge-Bath-and-Oxford.

If you’re interested in “the Continent,” then now’s a great chance to go. From London’s 4 airports, it’s easy to grab a cheap ticket on RyanAir or ValueJet to Paris, Rome, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, or really anywhere in central Europe.  Put a group of 3 or 4 together and get a room for the weekend. Since we don’t have classes on the weekends, you can escape on Friday afternoon and stay until late Sunday.  You’ve got your passport, you’ve got friends, why not see more of Europe, Ireland, or Scotland?? Now’s the chance!

London Plays 2015

COMING SOON: Below is the information from 2015 to give you a sense of how our travel worked then. This stays fairly constant from year to year.

Not everyone loves a musical, as hard as that is to believe, but we defy you to give the London theatre a chance and not come away liking plays/the theatre a little more than you did before. We have seen some amazing actors and some amazing shows over the last two decades in London, and each summer surprises us with another gem. Sometimes, we have to go searching in the smallest theatres around town for them; other times, the great show is playing on one of London’s most famed stages.  This year is already shaping up to have a little something for everyone!

For some reason, London remains fascinated by the culture and literature of the American South: three years ago, there were four or five Tennessee Williams plays running; since then, we’ve seen a number of writers from the American South show up on the big stages. This summer, a staged production of To Kill A Mockingbird will be showcased on the main stage at the famed Barbican Centre, one of London’s premiere spaces for theatre and music. No doubt, you read Harper Lee’s classic novel in school, but if not, you should. The story centers around a young girl, Scout, and her brother, Jim, and a fateful summer when a South nearly 70 years away from slavery still can’t quite deal with the reality of black and white citizens living together. It’s a heart-breaking story, but one that continues to offer hope for change to readers. We can only imagine it will be a beautiful story to share on stage!

The National Theatre, which consists of four different stages/individual theatres, is always a good bet for excellent theatre.  Recent shows that have taken New York by storm (War Horse; One Man, Two Governors) got their starts at the National, and both are still playing in London’s West End, as well.  The National does good work! This summer, one classic 18th Century farce and two new shows sound really interesting.

George Farquhar final play, The Beaux’ Stratagem, promises to be a “carnal comedy,” typical of the farcical shows we often get from that time period: “The ‘Beaux’: Mr Aimwell and Mr Archer, two charming, dissolute young men who have blown their fortunes in giddy London. Shamed and debt-ridden, they flee to provincial Lichfield. Their ‘Stratagem’: to marry for money. Lodged at the local inn, posing as master and servant, they encounter a teeming variety of human obstacles: a crooked landlord, a fearsome highwayman, a fervent French Count, a maid on the make, a drunken husband, a furious butler, a natural healer and a strange, turbulent priest. But their greatest obstacle is love. When the Beaux meet their match in Dorinda and Mrs Sullen they are most at risk, for in love they might be truly discovered.” Sounds fun, doesn’t it? Dr. Taylor has taught this play many times over the years and promises us we will have to stitch ourselves up after we explode with laughter!

Of course, it’s hard to go to London and then not see anything at the Globe Theatre, a contemporary reproduction of the theatre Shakespeare spent most of his time writing for and performing in.  Located on the South Bank in Southwark, the Globe Theatre is a wonderful place to catch a show.  The breeze from the river help keep you cool in this outdoor theatre, and even the noise of that 8:20 British Airways jet overhead is kinda cool.  This summer, the Globe is showcasing a two histories (King John and Richard II) and two comedies (As You Like It and Measure for Measure).  Most likely, we’ll see one of the comedies as a group, but once you’ve gotten a taste for the Globe, you’ll probably want to go back on your own to another show!

The first of the new shows, The Mother**cker with the Hat (what a title!), will be finishing it’s run in the Lyttelton Theatre in our first week. According to the website, “Steven Adly Guirgis’s play received six Tony nominations on Broadway. Poetic, profane and hilarious, this whip-smart look at love and addiction finds light even in the darkest corners of New York City.” The second, The Red Lion, will be wowing small audiences in the Dorfman Theatre.  The Red Lion explores “the dying romance of the great English game [soccer] – and the tender, savage love that powers it.” If you’re into sports/football, this is your year for London theatre!

Another West End option for Summer 2015 is the new(ish) play The Audience by Peter Morgan. When it opened in 2013, we couldn’t get a ticket!  Helen Mirren originated the role and every night was sold out.  This summer, acclaimed actress Kristen Scott Thomas will be reviving the role of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, in this smart and interesting play by one of London’s best living playwrights. The Queen has famously met with each of her Prime Ministers on a weekly basis for her entire reign; at this point, that’s over 12 different prime ministers, starting with Winston Churchill! Can you imagine what those conversations must have been like? While the unwritten rule is that neither PM not Queen will repeat anything from those meetings, playwright Peter Morgan imagines what those scenes must have been like in a charming, witty, and utterly absorbing play that shows history through some of the great personalities to have lived it.

In keeping with the theme of “great actors on stage,” this summer puts Simon Russell Beale back on stage at the Donmar Warehouse in Temple, a new play by Steve Waters. According to the website, “On 15 October 2011, Occupy London makes camp outside St Paul’s Cathedral. On 21 October 2011, a building that had kept open through floods, the Blitz and terrorist threats closes its doors. On 28 October City of London initiates legal action against Occupy to begin removing them from outside the Cathedral … Steve Waters’ new play is a fictional account of these events, set in the heart of a very British crisis – a crisis of conscience, a crisis of authority and a crisis of faith.”

London Musicals 2015

COMING SOON: Below is the information from 2015 to give you a sense of how our travel worked then. This stays fairly constant from year to year.

The new year is upon us and shows are starting to appear on the London theatre websites, letting us know what sort of fun shows are showing up. Are you into musicals? Okay, let me rephrase that because, seriously who isn’t into musicals. How much do you LOVE musicals?? I know, right!  Here are a couple that are launching this summer or making a glorious return to the various stages around London.

The big new shows this year is a musical-dance version of the young adult film Bend It Like Beckham, a story of two young women – one white and English, the other Punjabi and English – who live in Southall, a small suburb of London, which features constant airplane flights overhead (it’s next to Heathrow).  Both girls love football (soccer) and David Beckham, but Jess comes from a traditional Punjabi family and football isn’t their idea of what a daughter should do. We’ve been looking forward to this show for a couple of years. If you’ve not seen the movie, do it ASAP and then get ready for a great show at the Phoenix Theatre in July! Even better, tickets are selling as cheaply as £15 ($22), so you will NOT want to miss this show!

London’s also planned for a few classic musicals that you’ll want to add to your list: Gypsy and High Society!  Gypsy is a THE musical in so many ways, the story of Mama Rose and her desperate desire to make her daughters into stars. Mama Rose is the archetype “show biz mom”; those women on “Toddlers and Tiaras” have nothing on Mama Rose! Every great musical actress has played (or wanted to play) Mama Rose, from Rosalind Russell, Bette Midler, and Bernadette Peters to Linda Lavin, Betty Buckley, and Patti LuPone.  You’ll recognize the amazing songs of Jules Styne and Stephen Sondheim: “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,” “Some People,” and “Let Me Entertain You.”  Gypsy heads into Savoy Theatre after a successful run in Chichester and stars everyone’s most hated Harry Potter figure, Delores Umbridge: Imelda Staunton! We can’t wait to see her on stage and we hope you’ll join us!

This radio interview of “Late with Kate” interviews Imelda Staunton on her new role:

Like Gypsy, the Cole Porter musical High Society is chock-a-block (know your English phrases!) with wonderful musical standards that you’ll recognize or, if not, that you’ll want to.  You’re invited to the wedding of the year, the “IT” event for everyone in high society, what a great party it will be! Based on the film The Philadelphia Story (what? you haven’t? OMG, go watch it immediately!), High Society involves a posh socialite, Tracy Lord, her fiancé, her ex-husband, and now a gossip reporter who wants in on the action, all on the weekend of Tracy’s wedding. A classic “who will she choose” comedy with fun songs like “True Love,” performed beautifully by Bing Crosby here:

http://youtu.be/PAO8vlvPS88?t=3m26s

Over the next couple of months, we’ll have many more that show up in addition to long-running musicals that you may also want to catch, including Billy Elliot: The Musical, The Book of Mormon, Les Miserable, Let It Be, Lion King, Matilda: The Musical, Miss Saigon, or take in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers at the wonderful Regents’ Park Open Air Theatre!

A Day in London

You’ve decided you want to join us for a few weeks in London, and now you’re wondering all sorts of things, like Will we have any free time? How often does class meet? Are we in class on the weekends? What if I want to go somewhere else in Europe while we’re abroad? We’ve been facilitating this study abroad trip for enough years that we can tell you that you will have lots of free time to explore and enjoy the city; to us, that enjoyment and exploration are central components of the trip itself, and much of the coursework involves your finding your own away around the city.

So what does a typical day look like?

Monday – Thursday, we start class at 9:00 am, and we continue, with perhaps a bathroom break, until noon or 1:00 pm depending on what we need to accomplish on a given day.  We try to start class a little later than we might (the sun will typically be up around 4:30 am!) so that you can get some breakfast in the flats; we also try to finish class in time for you to make a sandwich in the flat before going out. These two meals “in” will do a lot to help you save money since food in places around the theatres and tourist stops is typically rather pricey. Remember, like New York or Paris, London is a big city and you should expect to pay city prices for food.

On Fridays, we meet at 9:00 am for an hour to discuss anything we did on Thursday evening as a group and to make sure everyone is clear about weekend plans. Because we do not hold class or required events on the weekend, we hope you’ll do some fun things in small groups on your own: go to Portobello Rd Markets in Notting Hill, for example, or head up to Camden Markets for shopping and a hodge-podge of culture, or maybe over to Spitalfields Markets (can you tell that weekends are about the markets?);  take in a matinee on Saturday afternoon; or go to a church service at The Collegiate Church of St. Peter (aka Westminster Abby) or St. Paul’s Cathedral. Or you might decide you want to head to Paris or Barcelona or Bruges for a day or two. There are wonderful one-day or multi-day trips at reasonable prices. The same companies typically offer tours of places outside London at reasonable prices, so you might look into those, as well.

The first week we’re there, we do more things together as a large group, so typically after class, we will “muster” (the term Brits use for “gather” or “get together in a group”) outside the flats and take off together for an excursion. We do things together so much at first because we want to be sure that you’re all able to use the Tube by yourselves and know where you’re going and how to get home. We try to plan most of the group theatre events in the two weeks for that reason, and we try to do a few group things like the British Museum or the Tower of London then.

Usually, in the first week, we go as a group out to Kew Garden, so on that day, we will not meet for class but will muster and head down to Westminster Pier to catch the boat to Kew; the boat trip is wonderful and the captain tells us all about the buildings that we see on the way. The trip typically takes an hour and a half.  In the last week, we typically go out to Oxford or Cambridge for the day, and we’ll have to muster early on those days, as well, because we have to get an early train out of town.

Beyond that, and the required evening theatre events (typically, four or five), you’re on your own once class ends.  The faculty love to be invited along to things, but we also don’t want to plan everything for you or make you feel that you have to bring us along. This is your trip, your chance to experience London, and one of the things we love about this trip and this city is that you, as students, get to make the trip your own: you can focus in on parts of London you love, making frequent trips, or you can try to sample a little bit of everything. It’s up to you!

Now let’s get across that big pond and start having some fun!

London Theatre 2014

Summer 2014 is suddenly shaping up to be one of the richest and most interesting in several years.  While we’ll miss out on some fun shows and famous people — Kristen Davis (of Sex & the City fame), Kevin Spacey, and Angela Lansbury will all have finished their shows before we arrive — we will have so much more to work with this year by going in July.

First, there are the plays we will most likely see as a group: Titus Andronicus at the Globe Theatre is a must see, of course, for all the gore, but also because it is so rarely produced.  We will also have the chance to see a version of Euripides’s Medea at the National Theatre, one of the most wonderful stages in the world. One of the major Greek tragedies, Medea explores questions of love and betrayal, and the lengths that one woman will go when cast aside by the man she loves.

We may also have the wonderful opportunity to see The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, a stunning adaptation of Mark Haddon’s award-winning novel.  The story follows Christopher, a boy on the autism spectrum, as he attempts to uncover the mystery of how his neighbor’s dog was killed.  Using his powers of deductions, and relying on his uber-methodical sleuth-mentor Sherlock Holmes, Christopher strikes out on a path of questions and observations that ultimately shake his faith in the people he knows.  You simply won’t believe how amazing this play is, situated in the reliable logics of mathematics and inductive reasoning!

But beyond the group plays, you also have a world of theatre opportunities that you shouldn’t miss out on.  If you’re a fan of Henry VIII and the world that gave rise to this famous king, then you might enjoy seeing this summer’s stage adaptations of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall and Bringing Up the Bones; both are on at the Aldwych Theatre.

The Harold Pinter Theatre offers us Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, a classic comedy about manners and anything-but.  If you can’t get a good laugh out of Earnest, well, there’s simply no hope for you! If more serious theatre, and the delightful Bill Nighy, are more your taste, however, you might want to get tickets to the revival of David Hare’s Skylight at the wonderful Wyndham’s Theatre in the very heart of Soho/Leicester Square.

But if more fun and frivolity are you thing, be sure to check out the hilarious and comical Matilda, the sweet musical that stole all the big awards two years ago.  Based on Roald Dahl’s famous novel for children, Matilda ones again shows that love and compassion always conquer fear, hatred, and deceit. One of the most beautiful songs from Matilda is “When I Grow Up,” a must-see on stage!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kdj_wLH7Unc

The Globe Announces 2014 Season!

Nothing says “great Christmas present” like the email from the Globe Theatre that their 2014 season has been announced.  This coming summer looks like a good one, full of violence, romance, and camp absurdity!

Summer opens with two of Shakespeare’s least read/produced plays: Titus Andronicus and Antony & Cleopatra.  Titus is a problem play of sorts, not fitting in beautifully in any of the simple genres that school students learn (comedy, tragedy, history).  In truth, this is a bloody story of what happens to even the victorious after a war, as Titus returns from battle only to see his own family and state both crumble because of choices he can and cannot make. The darkness of the story keeps it away from most readers, which is also somewhat true of Antony & Cleopatra, a play whose long passages many nineteenth and early twentieth century school children would have learned and recited:

The barge she sat in, like a burnish’d throne,

Burned on the water: the poop was beaten gold;

Purple the sails, and so perfumed that

The winds were lovesick with them; the oars were silver,

Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made

The water which they beat to follow faster,

As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,

It beggar’d all description: she did lie In her pavilion, cloth-of-gold of tissue,

O’erpicturing that Venus where we see

The fancy outwork nature: on each side her

Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids,

With divers-colour’d fans, whose wind did seem

To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool, And what they undid did.

Shakespeare’s Globe 2013: “Season of Plenty”

This year, the Globe theatre offers us two amazing plays during our 3-week stay, plays which will showcase some of Shakespeare’s most engaging uses of the supernatural. In The Tempest, Roger Allam, whom some of us remember as a formidable and hilarious Falstaff in 2010, is set to shine as Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, and for those of you who follow the show Merlin, you’ll recognize young Colin Morgan when he takes the stage as the gender-bending Ariel.

We also get to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Dr. Banks’s favorite comedy. At night, a blue-black sky above the open circle of the Globe, there is simply no better way to see Shakespeare’s Dream. We traipse into the green world and watch as fairies unmake and remake our loves … and we get Puck! Last time the London group saw the Dream, we had an older, rather chubby Puck, one constantly out of breath and clearly frustrated with following Oberon’s wishes. I wonder what sort of Puck we’ll get this time? And how often he’ll come through the house?

If any of you are staying late, you might want to take in Macbeth, which begins the day we leave. It’s dark and tragic and full of blood, but maybe that’s what June calls for?

Let’s Go Waltzing Matilda in 2013 …

You’ll have to pardon our bad pun about the classic Australian folksong, “Waltzing Matilda,” but we’re ever so excited that our London 2013 group will be attending the hit new show, Matilda: The Musical, with music and lyrics by the delightfully impish Tim Minchin (see “Prejudice” or “Rock and Roll Nerd“).  The musical is based on the popular children’s book Matilda by Roal Dahl (a Welshman, who moved to London), about a precocious and clever young girl whose parents are at best unsupportive and often somewhat contemptuous of their child’s abilities.

Recently, Matilda: The Musical was nominated for 10 Olivier Awards (the maximum number of nominations a single show can receive), winning Best Musical, and has won several WhatsOnStage awards.  The show promises to be a brilliant romp appropriate for young viewers and old.

You can listen to parts of the soundtrack here: http://uk.matildathemusical.com/sights-sounds/audio/.

We’ll read the novel for class and attend the show during week two of class as part of our ongoing exploration of “Staging Childhood.”