UK BLOG: SUMMER 2014 James Brendlinger

LONDON: JULY 12, 2014

I arrived at Gatwick Airport yesterday around 11:30am, but was detained for a couple hours because the border guard didn’t think my paperwork from The Globe looked very official (?!?) and wouldn’t let me into the UK until she got someone at The Globe on the phone. A couple of hours later I exchanged my dollars for pounds (which was demoralizing—I felt rich with my fistful of dollars but I feel poor with my polite stack of twenty pound notes.) Then I got on a train that took me to Bridge. I have to say, the train ride was not scenic—I think I expected a bit too much thanks to those Harry Potter movies. I walked with my luggage from the station to Southwark, something I will never do again--the streets were crowded and my suitcases heavy. We are staying at Bankside House, a dormitory for the London School of Economics which functions as a bed-and-breakfast during the summer months. Once I had my room for the night, I slept for a few hours, then took the short walk to the waterfront and saw The Globe Theatre for the first time. It is very beautiful, but I chose not to go inside because I have friends joining me tomorrow night and I think it will be better to all experience that together. I had dinner at the Porky’s BBQ right next to the theater and afterward I realized that the things I thought were 50 pence are actually two pound coins. So the waitress is probably going to marry me because I gave her a pretty unnecessary tip.

LONDON: JULY 13, 2014

Breakfast is served cafeteria style. The front desk made a big deal about being careful not to lose my ID card for breakfast, but no one checked for it while I was dining. Guests may have six items from the line for breakfast, so I had an apple, scrambled eggs, bacon, a croissant, fried bread, and hash browns. The portions were enormous and the food was good. I already knew that British bacon is more like what we would call ham, but it was delicious.

The variety of British accents in the dining hall made me realize that every bad attempt at an accent that my students have ever done in class is probably an existing accent after all. I’ll be nicer about it in the future. At least one of the guys at my table sounded exactly like Christopher Guest trying to imitate Henry Higgins in WAITING FOR GUFFMAN. A lot of girls here look like .

I walked to St. Paul’s and back, crossing the Millennium Bridge each way. It was about 8am on a Sunday, and I didn’t pass anyone on the bridge going in either direction, which I thought was strange. After that, I had to move out of my temporary room at Bankside House and wait for my permanent room to be made ready. After stowing my luggage in their storage room, I went for a long walk along the river. By now there were crowds, which was more what I was expecting. I bought a ticket for a clipper that goes up and down the Thames—and once again, no one checked my ticket getting on or off the boat, and it only lists a date and not a time so I might take another ride tonight. The ride was great. It was not a tourism boat, so there was no official narration, but these businessmen who work in the shipping industry were seated next to me and one of them pointed out a lot of really cool things. I had my headphones on but I turned the music off so that I could hear all of it. We went past Greenwich and then turned around and came back—I was on the boat for two hours. After that I had lunch at Vappiano’s (margherita pizza) and read the rest of STILL LIFE WITH WOODPECKER which I had started reading while I was detained at the airport yesterday.

I moved into my new room, which overlooks the forecourt of Bankside House. I have to share a bathroom with the room next door, but the room is set up pretty well and I’m hoping not to spend much time in it anyway. Kristen Wheeler lent me her electrical outlet converters so I’m able to charge my laptop, phone and iPod. Internet is free in the hotel and at The Globe. I’m taking a nap soon because I’m still screwed up time-wise. Tonight I’m hoping to walk to a grocery store and maybe take that boat ride again. Tomorrow we start at The Globe :)

LONDON: JULY 14, 2014

Last night I met up with the other two Central Florida teachers who are here, Krystin Beavers and Kristina Thompson, and we walked down to the river to find a restaurant for dinner. We chose Founders Arms by the Millennium Bridge, and I would say we had a perfect experience---I had a steak with roasted cherry tomatoes and a cup of salt-and-vinegar fries, and our table was on the patio with an unobstructed view of the entire river bend and St. Paul’s Cathedral. The weather was ideal for eating outdoors.

Afterward we crossed the bridge and explored the grounds of St. Paul’s. I wanted to know what’s in the basement of a place like that. Out back we found The Bowler Hat, a small (inflatable?) theater which is taking part in the City of London Festival. This Wednesday night they are presenting a former Edinburgh Fringe show called THE ONLY WAY IS DOWNTON, so of course I bought a ticket. We found a Subway (not the tube—a Subway sandwich shop) so I’m glad to have a less expensive meal alternative. We saw some buskers, but none that grabbed my interest enough to stop and listen. There is also a small Tesco by the Blackfriars Bridge, so I bought some snacks and bottled water to put in my bag while working at The Globe. Lake Howell High School has conditioned me to expect lunch at 10:30am, so I’ll need some help getting through the morning.

Today was just one of the best days of my life. It’s also my sister’s fiftieth birthday, so I wish I could have been home to celebrate that with her, but I know she understands. I met the girls for breakfast this morning, and afterward we met several more people who will be at The Globe with us this summer and we all went for a walk around St. Paul’s Cathedral. The basement, by the way, is full of tombs. The weather was just perfect all day. When our walk was done, we went to The Globe and gathered with the rest of the crew. There are 25 of us in total. The first half hour reminded me a bit of the opening of a season of SURVIVOR because it’s just a bunch of random people thrown together. We did not vote anyone off the island. The team at The Globe is extremely good at what they do—I usually hate ice-breakers, name games, team building activities, and (frankly) not being in charge, but I just had so much fun all morning getting to know everybody and I feel like I made some friends that I’ll keep for good. Everyone is really enthusiastic about what we are doing here. I made a point to sit down with different people at every juncture of the day and I’m so glad I did.

I don’t want to get too lengthy or no one will read this. I’m sure I’ll write about all the instructors and the new friends I’m making in other entries. For now, everyone is beautiful and no one punched me or anything except for Jeniene and it was an accident all three times. In the morning Jo Howarth took us into the theatre for the first time, and I’m honestly not sure which I’m more enthusiastic about—seeing The Globe for the first time, or being instructed by Jo Howarth. She has been with the theater since before they opened in 1996, and directed a famous production of . She is everything you’d want a Shakespearean actress, director, and educator to be. I could listen to her incredible projection and enunciation all day. (Well, I mean, I did exactly that.) As for the theater itself—one of the other guys in the group said it best—this is a childhood dream coming true for all of us. I’m not sure I’ve ever been in such a large group of people who so specifically care about something that I’m passionate about—except maybe that time I was in the front row at the Heart concert and Ann Wilson held my hand all through the opening to “Magic Man,” but that’s a different journal entirely. That’s why instead of going back to my room to sleep like I was thinking about doing all afternoon, I joined the others when they went to the pub tonight. We sat in an upper room at The George and I got to sit in an open window overlooking the crowded patio and listen to all my new friends telling stories while I drank my mango juice. Today was a very good day.

LONDON: JULY 15, 2014

The past two days have been a bit of a whirlwind—we have worked with six different instructors and are learning and practicing The Globe’s style of rehearsing a production. I’ll never direct a play the same way again, or teach my acting and directing courses the same way as I used to. Their process is simple and clear, and moves actors from understanding the text to performing it very quickly and effectively. We spent this morning working through scenes from JULIUS CAESAR with Jo Howarth, and in the afternoon had our first Voice workshop with Alex Bingley. My favorite part of the day, though, was the Period Music Demonstration with Adrian Woodward. He was delightful—he had maybe fifteen different instruments from the 1600’s that he played live for us and then showed us how they’ve been incorporated into the shows at The Globe. He kind of reminded me of a Fred Armisen character, in a very good way—he is so clearly overjoyed to be doing what he does for a living. We also toured the library and archive of The Globe--I’ll need to take another look at that before we go home, to fully appreciate it.

LONDON: JULY 16, 2014

Today we shadowed some of the educators who work with schoolchildren who visit The Globe. Everything is always so busy around the theater, like Disney World, but it wasn’t until today that I fully appreciated the scope of their work and just how much is going on there. Each year, over 100,000 school children come to The Globe for tours, workshops, and plays. We got to follow along with one group—I was partnered with Bradford Carpenter, who teaches at an all- boys private school in Connecticut, and we shadowed Conor Short as he took 25 middle school girls from through The Globe’s rehearsal process until within the hour they were enthusiastically performing a scene from A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM. “This Helena seems a bit of a stalker!” one girl exclaimed. Anyway, Conor was a masterful teacher and director. We had another tour of the theater itself with the students, and then explored the theater’s exhibition space where we saw a lot of costumes, props, and the building process for The Globe replica. Amazing.

This afternoon we had a session with Fiona Banks, who literally wrote the book on The Globe’s creative approach to teaching Shakespeare through performance. Our group is so much fun to work with—even those who are way out of their comfort zone just throw themselves into all of the activities, and the hours are always just packed with things to do and learn, and everyone applauds the instructor at the end because of how useful and rich the lessons are. I also like that when we pair off or form groups everyone is so inclusive and happy to work with anyone. I love working with different people each time, and we are probably learning almost as much from each other as we are from the instructors.

Tonight one group went to the West End to see about getting discount show tickets, and I went with a group to see the one-man show THE ONLY WAY IS DOWNTON, a spoof of DOWNTOWN ABBEY acted by Luke Kempner. It was a great show, and if anyone is going to the Edinburgh Fringe this year they should check it out. He played about 20 characters on his own, each with just the right voice and mannerisms.

Tomorrow we are going on a scavenger hunt that will take us all over London, and then we will see our first of three plays at The Globe—JULIUS CAESAR!

LONDON: JULY 17, 2014

Today we broke into groups and explored the city a bit. Our scavenger hunt was to find a list of famous images of all over the city. My favorite was a huge stained glass window in Southwark Cathedral loaded with references to his plays. But all of the things we saw were cool—from his very famous portrait in the National Portrait Gallery (where I’ll admit I spent much more time looking at the Andy Warhols) to the rustic wood carvings in the oddly- named St. Andrew-By-The-Wardrobe church. It was great to see some other parts of the city and get to know some of the group better. I traveled with Jeniene Matthews from Boston, Megan King from New Orleans, Carrie Dabelow from Illinois, and Cassie Neuman from Ohio. Megan is the mistress of the tube, one of those people who can just glance at the colored lines on the map and immediately tell you which trains to use for any given sector of the city, and Carrie knows the London streets really well. My job was to handle awkward conversations with the custodians of some of the off-the-beaten-path locations, like St. Andrews. No one is as good at awkward conversation as I am. We had so much fun, and I finally had my fish and chips. The verdict? My aunt’s fish and chips are ten times better than those at the Shakespeare’s Head pub, and hers don’t cost me 16 pounds.

Last night we went to see our first play at The Globe—JULIUS CAESAR. I’ve seen more Shakespeare plays than I can count, but this production was one of my top favorites. We were groundlings, which meant we had to stand on the floor of The Globe for three hours to watch the show. It was totally worth it. We were treated to a rough little puppet show first—hilarious. Then the real show started, and The Globe was sold out. I have to admit I got a little emotional when the horns and bagpipes were blaring as Mark Antony raced through and touched Calpurnia as Julius Caesar looked on. At the end of the play the entire cast did this amazing jig on the stage to close the show—half the characters had died awful deaths, but everyone left the theater feeling exhilarated. Afterward we went to The Swan, a pub connected to The Globe, and I got to talk to several of the actors about the show. Then we went back into the theater and watched a group from New Zealand do their one-hour performance of JULIUS CAESAR, as we will be doing in two weeks. All in all, it was a beautiful night.

LONDON: JULY 18, 2014

This morning I met with my research team for a project we are working on, and then the whole group attended a lecture with Patrick Spottiswoode, the Director of Education at The Globe. I can’t effectively describe his lectures because I mostly just sit there with my jaw dropped as he speaks. He sort of effortlessly includes transitions like, “This afternoon when I was giving the Prime Minister a tour…” or “now when I presented this idea to the ambassador from China, he said…” It reminds me of Scott Thompson on THE KIDS IN THE HALL ending stories with things like, `It reminds me of something that Yoko Ono once said to Malcolm X in a bistro in Rome: “Oh the food’s terrible. But the waiter’s hilarious.”' And that’s not actually capturing it either— Patrick is a Shakespearean expert and a genius and a force of nature. Informative, confident...alarming.

Afterward—Historical Dance with Huw Prall, the head of dance education at The Globe. I was dreading this, and actually trying to find a way out of it, but I couldn’t figure out how to make a clean getaway—and then, of course, I had the best time. We learned several dances that started in a ridiculously simple manner, but by the end of 90 minutes we were doing one of those social dances from PRIDE & PREJUDICE. Which isn’t that surprising, because if you watch the version of PRIDE &PREJUDICE you can see Huw Prall dancing in it. And so…there was that.

And then we began working on our scenes from JULIUS CAESAR. We used The Globe’s rehearsal structure to begin tackling the script, and I’m thrilled to say I’ll be performing as Brutus on The Globe’s stage! We had a very productive rehearsal, and then had a meeting with Fiona Banks to reflect on our week a bit.

Afterward, Krystin and Kristina and I took the tube to Piccadilly Circus and had dinner at a ramen restaurant. We went sightseeing a bit, concluding with a visit to Buckingham Palace. Tomorrow: Stratford-upon-Avon.

STRATFORD-UPON-AVON: JULY 19, 2014

Today Kristina, Krystin, Cassie and I joined Charles Hobby (from Texas) and Cynthia Poinsett (from Colorado) for a day trip to Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare’s hometown. We took the train and saw some beautiful countryside on the two-hour ride. I was picturing a very small town, and that we could walk to all of the historical sites. Actually, though, Stratford is pretty large and there’s no way we could have comfortably seen everything on foot. So we rode around on a double-decker bus! I know it sounds touristy—and of course I never like to think of myself as a tourist, for whatever reason—but I loved riding on the top level of the bus, even though I got slapped in the face by a tree branch, and even when the girls chose to ride downstairs Charles and I tried to live in denial about the fact that it had begun to rain. WORTH IT.

We toured the farm owned by Shakespeare’s mother, Mary Arden, which is beautifully preserved and is being run as a sort of living museum, with women in period costume baking bread in the dark kitchen and so on. We also walked through the house in town that Shakespeare probably grew up in. Through the window of that house we saw David Carrington, another member of our group who had come to Stratford on his own to see TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA at the Royal Shakespeare Company that night. David is one of the best people I've ever met. He is often quiet in our activities and then will suddenly offer the most thoughtful analysis or ask the most poignant question. Anyway, my favorite place we saw in Stratford was Anne Hathaway’s cottage, which is beautifully restored and has extensive gardens all around it. We ate at a nice café across the street. The only thing we didn’t get to do there that I had been hoping to try was boating on the River Avon—it was not a particularly nice day for boating.

LONDON: JULY 20, 2014

This morning I slept in, trying to catch up on the sleep I’ve been missing all week. This afternoon Kristina and Krystin and I were joined by Elisabeth Ballard, who teaches at an American military school in Italy, to see THE COMEDY OF ERRORS at The Rose. The play was wonderful—six actors performed all the parts, acting as if they were a troupe of traveling actors doing a Commedia dell’arte take on Shakespeare. The theater itself is one of the strangest things I’ve seen in London. The Rose existed as a theater during Shakespeare’s time, but it was closed and torn down around 1606. The foundations of the theater were uncovered by developers in the 1980’s, and there was a big fight to save the historical site. As a compromise, they built the high-rise around the ruins, so the foundations of The Rose exist in the basement of a modern building. To preserve the foundation, they had to flood it with water. A stage and audience seating area are built off to one side of the basement, next to the dark water with the foundations outlined in red neon. In the future they plan to continue the restoration. Right now, it’s cool and a bit haunting.

Afterward, I stopped by The Globe to buy a couple of books at the gift shop. One is CREATIVE SHAKESPEARE: THE GLOBE EDUCATION GUIDE TO PRACTICAL SHAKESPEARE written by our amazing instructor Fiona Banks and outlining much of what she is teaching us about The Globe’s approach to rehearsing and performing Shakespearean plays. The other thing I bought is a hardcover reproduction of JULIUS CAESAR from The First Folio. I thought it would be cool to get all of our group to sign it as a souvenir from this experience. It also has an essay by Patrick Spottiswoode in the front.

Tonight I had dinner at Founders Arms again, which I’ve decided will be my Sunday night tradition. I’m here for four Sundays, so that means I’ll eat four rib-eye steaks, four buckets of chips with salt and vinegar, and four vines of roasted cherry tomatoes. The rest of the week I have to be a bit more conservative in my dinners, but Sunday nights I’m eating like a king. Specifically Henry VIII.

LONDON: JULY 21, 2014

Today we went to Dartmouth House in Mayfair, the headquarters of the English Speaking Union, which is the organization sponsoring our experience at The Globe. Everyone got dressed up and we had tea with members of the ESU from both the UK and the USA, as well as with British teachers who recently completed a trip to the United States. When I say we had tea—I actually had a glass of water and a slice of cake that seemed to have some kind of paste on it. I felt a bit nervous and out of place, but it turned out that one of the British teachers was Mary Kate Devereaux, who came to my school as an observer last spring. We had a good time catching up and I got to introduce her to some of my new friends. She was dressed up like Audrey Hepburn in ROMAN HOLIDAY, so I was glad I had worn a tie and my best corduroy jacket. There were a few brief speeches from ESU dignitaries, and it really did underline how fortunate we all are to be having this experience. Overall, it was a very nice event and Dartmouth House was impressive.

After returning to Bankside and changing clothes, the group reunited in a large rehearsal room near The Globe where we met our movement instructor, Glynn MacDonald. She is earthy, sarcastic, and powerful—like if Gandalf and Galadriel had a baby. She might be the most intense instructor I’ve had anywhere for anything, and I’ve had some pretty hardcore instructors over the years. No one will be late, no one will look away even for a moment, no one will notice that two hours have just flown by as this madwoman has us doing shoulder- stands and suddenly, alarmingly hugging each other. As Fiona said later in the day—if the syllabus had listed the activities Glynn had in store for us during the class session, few of us would have shown up. But we did, and Glynn somehow got all of us to try everything—and celebrated our success with us.

We had a two hour session with Fiona Banks afterward, whose calm but enthusiastic presence was very welcome after what we had just been through. This was followed by dinner and then a two hour rehearsal with Jo. By the end of the day I was exhausted. Also I had the worst frozen yogurt I’ve ever tasted, and tried oddly-flavored British potato chips. They tasted like roast chicken and made me long for comfort food like that good lemon cake with paste at Dartmouth House.

LONDON: JULY 22, 2014

Today we did the activity I’ve most been looking forward to: we woke up early for a complete tour of The Globe’s backstage area, from top to bottom. The stage manager led us to the “tiring room” just behind the central entrance to the stage, and then let us walk out through the archway and onto the main stage. Everyone was silent for a long time as we explored the space and looked out over the empty theater. The oak floor of the stage is stained with blood just about everywhere. The three layers of seating areas seem to tower over the stage. He took us up onto the balcony over the main stage, and then down to the basement where he demonstrated how the trap doors worked. All along the way he shared a ton of stories about performances in The Globe. It was my favorite experience I’ve had here so far.

After that we broke into small groups, and I enjoyed two hours of breaking down the scene where Cassius confronts Brutus before they lead their troops to Philippi. Then we regrouped for another session of movement instruction from Glynn MacDonald, and two hours of text analysis with Philip Bird. This was followed by a question-and-answer session with an actor from The Globe’s current production of JULIUS CAESAR. I thoroughly enjoyed all of today’s activities, but I’m still trying to catch up on my sleep so I’ve taken this evening off.

LONDON: JULY 23, 2014

We started this morning with hardcore scene rehearsal with Margo Gunn. I know it’s good for me as a teacher and a director to be given instruction by someone else and learn some new tricks—but I’ll admit it is also sometimes hard for me. I have learned a great deal so far about different ways to approach scene work, and that’s the whole point of this—but I feel like Luke Skywalker on Dagobah much of the time during rehearsal. Hurry up, teach me The Force, and let’s get the show on the road. Margo is very good at what she does. But for the first hour or so, my X-Wing was sinking in the swamp while we did warm-ups and theater games. I know it will all add up to something great, but inside I’m very impatient to get to blocking and line delivery, etc.

After that, we met one of the costumers from The Globe and had an amazing interactive lecture about “original practices” in costuming shows at The Globe. Hattie Barsby showed us how they researched the type of costumes worn onstage in Shakespeare’s day, and then had us dress two actors in elaborate, period-appropriate costumes. I wish they would give us a tour of the actual costuming facility—I’m going to see what I can do about that. I enjoyed Hattie a lot—she is practical, talented and funny. Just what I like.

In the afternoon, we attended the non-Shakespearean play HOLY WARRIORS in The Globe. We were groundlings again, but this time we knew to get there early to get in line, and when the doors open walk very fast to get places where we are standing up against the stage. It was like seeing a band at the House of Blues—as long as you never need to use the restroom, you have the best spot in the house to see the show. I knew the play was about the Crusades, and I pictured it would be like a sequel to THE LION IN WINTER because the two lead characters were Richard the Lion-Hearted and Eleanor of Aquitaine. The first act was very much like I imagined—but then Richard got killed, went to purgatory, and spent the second act witnessing a collage of 1000 years of holy wars in the Middle East. A large section of the second act reminded me of the Vietnam-on-LSD sequence in HAIR. The story could not be more timely, as my cell phone keeps getting emergency news updates about fighting in Gaza several times a day. The play was beautifully staged and acted. Glynn asked if I liked it, and I said I felt like it required too much background information for me to get the full impact of the story, and when I got home I had to look many of the incidents up on Wikipedia to begin to understand them. She replied that if the play was good enough to make me go home and do research, it did its job pretty well. Fair enough.

After dinner, I led a group across the Millennium Bridge to a diner for milkshakes. They weren’t up to the majesty of Bananas Diner in Orlando, or even Steak’n’Shake, but they were pretty decent. I’m making some good friends here, plus they were playing WHAM! in the diner.

LONDON: JULY 24, 2014

Today was the busiest day we have had yet—rehearsals and workshops and lectures. Jo Howarth worked us over for two hours on the assassination scene, and then Alex Bingley worked with us on voice for an additional two hours. After a very short lunch break, we had another session with Glynn. It is amazing to see what that woman (one part Rafiki from THE LION KING, one part Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother, a dash of Ursula the Sea Witch) can get people to do. I got a lot of great ideas for our auditions this fall—I hope my students enjoy horseback riding. I’m especially glad that no cameras are allowed in our work sessions: the world will never see me as Brutus dancing the tango alone in front of a mirror.

After that we met with Philip Bird who works with us on the text of Shakespeare’s plays. He is extremely adept at improving our readings of the script in a short span of time. After that, we went to the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, the Jacobean candlelit theater attached to The Globe, for a presentation from scholar John Wolfson about his theory that there are several scenes from JULIUS CAESAR that were lost over the past 400 years. His presentation was fascinating, but I was more intrigued by the fact that Mr. Wolfson has a library at home of all of Shakespeare’s original quartos and folios, plus all of the original resources Shakespeare used to write his plays. He must be a billionaire. And he has bequeathed his personal library to The Globe. Just amazing.

Tonight I took a walk around St. Paul’s and then got to work on my lines. I am loving it here.

LONDON: JULY 25, 2014

This morning we had a long rehearsal for JULIUS CAESAR with Margo Gunn, and it was a much more positive experience for me. I knew all along that the rehearsal activities we were doing in the previous sessions were “scaffolding” to prepare us for the actual blocking and line delivery process, but I was getting impatient to get on with the work, and so it was very satisfying to spend the morning putting it all together. I’m mostly memorized (a miracle!) and I’m enjoying working with the other actors and with Margo. My chief scene partner is Tim Reyes, a teacher from Denver who is playing Cassius. We are a good match for each other, especially when we really get cranking on the “fight” scene. Brutus is supposed to be stoic, so it’s hard to find the right level of emotion to show. This is a guy who basically says “everybody has to die sometime,” when his beloved wife commits suicide, so how angry should he get when Cassius is pushing his buttons? We are having a good time figuring that out.

Our first afternoon session had to be rescheduled, so for the first time ever we had time off in the middle of that day! The girls and I hurried to the tube and went to Baker Street. I’d like to tell you it was because we are all Sherlock Holmes fans—who isn’t?—but it was actually because there is a Chipotle on Baker Street and we were all ready to experience the exotic cuisine of Mexico. It was well worth the trip! We have tried to avoid going to restaurants that we could easily go to in America, but I’m glad we made the exception.

Later that afternoon we had a long session with Fiona Banks, who has a real skill for drawing out people’s true feelings and helping us stay positive. I have thoroughly enjoyed all of my time here and all of the teachers I’ve met, but there have been some moments of tension between various people as there will be when any group are kept together for a long stretch of time. Our talkback session with Fiona addressed some of the issues and I feel like the people involved feel a bit better and ready to enjoy the rest of our time together. Another thing Fiona talked about was the way even talented, experienced people can feel like imposters or phonies at their jobs. Even some of the most amazing instructors at The Globe have confessed that they sometimes feel “less than” when they consider where they work and what others expect of them. I hadn’t realized that this feeling is somewhat universal. I have often felt that because I am not published, or because I haven’t completed my Masters degree, or because I once produced a stage version of GREASE 2, that eventually someone will call me out as being an imposter as a theatrical producer or theater instructor. I can’t really recreate the full conversation here, but it meant a lot to me and I’ll remember it in the future as needed.

Tonight was kind of wonderful, even though we had no plans other than to go to the pub. I had a great time hanging out with everyone, clinking my ginger ale glass against their more elaborate concoctions, and afterward we went out for pizza in a restaurant overlooking The Thames. I had so much fun with Kristina, Krystin, Megan, and Ethan Warner (from Connecticut) and the rest of the gang. I walked out with Megan to the edge of the river so she could smoke, and all the bridges were lit up teal and purple and blue. She recited William Wordsworth: “The river glideth at his own sweet will: Dear God! The very houses seem asleep; And all that mighty heart is lying still!” And then she pointed toward the Westminster Bridge and said, “He wrote that right over there.” Kristina sometimes interrupts our dinner to just say, “Guys, we’re in London.” I’m glad I have such great people to share this with.

I went back to my room and packed for my weekend trip to .

EDINBURGH: July 26-27, 2014

Two things happened that made this weekend possible for me. My Aunt Linda had a going away party for me back in Florida, and she went all-out with Union Jack decorations and the best fish and chips I’ve had yet. Our friends the Pitchfords and the Bernhardts came to the party, and they very kindly gave me some “fun money” to do something special while I was in The UK. My parents added to the pot, and I promised I would use it for something amazing. Meanwhile, when I was working at the Orlando Fringe Festival in May, I was introduced to Barry Church- Woods, who is the Venues & Company Manager for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. I attended his seminar on how to produce shows at the Edinburgh Fringe, and afterward when I told him I was coming to London this summer he said I should visit Edinburgh. When I started posting about my activities in London of Facebook this month, he sent me a message reminding me of his invitation. So this weekend I decided to use my gift money to see a bit of Scotland. I’ll admit, the trip got off to a rocky start. I bought my train tickets a week ago, but reserved seats were unavailable on the East Coast Railway website. I didn’t realize the significance of this—but it turned out it was because every seat on the train was already booked. My ticket afforded me a space to stand in the aisle for the five hour trip to Edinburgh. It was a rough trip. I am too tall to see out the train windows when standing, so I listened to my iPod and read the entirety of a David Sedaris book and then the first ten chapters of GONE WITH THE WIND. (I have no idea what I was thinking when I packed books to read for this trip. Some Thomas Hardy or P.D. James would have been nice.)

But once I got to Edinburgh, everything was great. Barry met me at the station and we walked down Princes Street to his building at Leopold Place. Barry’s apartment building is over 200 years old, and is like something from a magazine. His living room has big windows looking out at Calton Hill with the observatory and monuments on top. The floors are made of broad wooden planks, all the details of woodwork and hardware are beautifully preserved, but the kitchen is immaculately modern. Best of all—after weeks of sleeping on a cot in London, the guest room at Barry’s has a real bed! I dropped off my bag and then we went back out into the city.

We walked up Calton Hill, which Barry is accustomed to RUNNING up, and after I got my breath back from the climb, I enjoyed checking out the unfinished Parthenon replica and the various towers and monuments up there. From the top of the hill you can see most of Edinburgh laid out in every direction—Edinburgh Castle over there, Arthur’s Seat (a dormant volcano on the edge of town) over there, The Firth of Forth, layers and layers of churches and towers and beautiful old homes. One weekend is nowhere near enough.

Barry actually had to get back to work, as the Edinburgh Fringe is in just a week and he is in charge of the venues for 50,000 performances of over 3000 productions in the next month. (WHAT???) So he took me to the Royal Mile and showed me some of the notable Fringe venues and the Fringe offices along the way. After he returned to work, I went to Edinburgh Castle. My fourth grade teacher Miss Gillespie once sent me a postcard of Edinburgh Castle, so if anyone knows where Miss Gillespie is today, please tell her I made it. My favorite parts of the castle included the mural depicting all the kings of Scotland—including our friends Duncan, , Malcolm, and Donalbain; the Scottish Crown Jewels; and especially the Stone of Destiny. There’s something about seeing such a legendary item face to face that makes history really come alive.

After that, I bought a sandwich on the street and hiked down to Princes Street again to do something terrifying: I climbed the Sit Walter Scott Monument. This is a gothic spire in the middle of town, looking like something from THE LORD OF THE RINGS. I have no idea why I thought climbing it would be a good idea, because I get nervous on stepladders, but I wanted to see the view. The top of the tower is accessed by a narrow, spiral stone staircase with 287 steps. There are four landings, and no room to pass, so if someone is coming in the other direction, one of you has to back up for 40 or 50 steps. The last staircase is pitched to the right, not tall enough for me to stand upright, and on this rainy day had a small stream floating down it. I made it to the top, looked at the view for possible 3 seconds, and then hurried to the bottom. The ticket guy laughed when I passed by him. “Had enough, have ya?” And yes, yes, I had had plenty.

After that I hiked back to the top of Calton Hill because I wanted to look at all the buildings again. By now the rain had turned into a sort of constant cold mist in my face, but it was not unpleasant. I wandered around the top of the hill till mI was truly exhausted, then went back to the house for a hot shower and a change of clothes.

When Barry came home from work, he brought two women with him, both from New York City. Lucie Pohl is a comedian, actress and writer who moved from Germany to New York in her formative years. She is bringing her one-woman show, HI, HITLER to the Edinburgh Fringe. It’s stories about growing up in both Germany and America—if you’re attending the Fringe, she is performing almost every day at Gilded Balloon Sportsmans, Teviot Square. Jessi Hill is her director, originally from Colorado, vegan, beautiful smile. The four of us sat in Barry’s book- lined living room talking about all kinds of things, and then headed out to a local pub for dinner. I absolutely loved every minute of it—all of their stories about productions, trading ideas about Fringe productions, laughing, eating tons of macaroni and cheese. A great night.

In the morning I took a long walk around the city on my own, and then headed for the train station. I talked to someone in ticketing about my disappointing ride from London to Edinburgh, and to my surprise they gave me a reserved seat in First Class on the way back. I have never been in the First Class section of a plane or train, and it was wonderful, There were free sandwiches, free drinks, and I had a seat and everything. The landscape was just like I imagined it would be—like Harry Potter’s trip to Hogwart’s. The farmland looked much like Pennsylvania, but sometimes the farmland would give way to views of the sea, and of course every once in awhile there were castles and things.

When I got back to London, I met the girls for a late dinner at Founders Arms and we shared stories about our weekends. I must go back to Scotland someday.

LONDON: JULY 28-29-30

Our rehearsal schedule kicked into full gear this week. Last night we were onstage at The Globe until 2am, because if we want to rehearse on the actual stage we have to wait until the evening show is over. But no complaints—we are all having a wonderful experience! Over the past few days we have had long sessions with our directors, educational workshops with Fiona Banks, and voice class with Alex Bingley. We had some free time during the day on Tuesday, and so Kristina and I decided to climb to the top of St. Paul’s Cathedral.

St. Paul’s is definitely my favorite place in London. We toured the main floor of the cathedral first, and it was just too much to fully take in. I could look at the paintings on the ceiling for days and still not catch all the details regarding the life of Paul. We explored the crypt on the lower level and looked at some historical displays down there. Then we climbed the 500+ steps to the top of the dome. The view of London was incredible, although the height made me extremely uncomfortable. It still wasn’t as bad as the Scott Monument in Edinburgh, even though St. Paul’s is twice as high.

After rehearsal this morning, we all went to see ANTONY & at The Globe. Having learned some tricks in the past few weeks, a group of us got the very best standing spots in the house—I was right up against the stage, just right of center. The show was beautiful. I’ve directed it twice at Lake Howell, so I’m very familiar with it and now I want to direct it again because they had such cool ideas in their adaptation. It had more humor in it than many comedies I’ve seen, but they still got the heart of the story right.

Cleopatra was played by Eve Best. If you’ve seen THE KING’S SPEECH, she played Wallace Simpson in that film—the lady the King of England abdicates his throne to marry. In my opinion, he made the right choice. During today’s show, at the part where Cleopatra teases her ladies about going fishing for men, she singled me out from where I was standing in the front row. For someone who is involved in theater for a living, I cringe at getting attention in front of a crowd. But she kept wiggling her finger in my face and she gave me a quick nod to let me know I needed to play along—so in front of 1500 cheering people, she hooked her finger into my mouth. Then she got down on her knees and kissed me for a very long time. Like—modern wedding kiss. Like a Big Red Gum commercial from the eighties. The crowd went wild. I don’t really remember much after that—Rome invaded Alexandria and some people got bit by snakes. After the show, a guy interviewed me about my experience and Abby bought me a drink. It’s just like David Bowie says: we can be heroes just for one day.

Since there’s no way anything else today is going to top that, I’m taking the night off to run my lines and write sonnets and things.

LONDON: AUGUST 1-2, 2014

Yesterday we had our final workshop sessions at The Globe. We had a chance to give feedback about the entire experience, and had a fun closing activity with Fiona Banks where we improvised scenes based on our favorite experiences over the past weeks. I got everyone to sign my hardcover copy of the JULIUS CAESAR First Folio reproduction. Afterward we were all invited for tea in a private lounge overlooking The Globe’s lobby. I didn’t actually drink any tea, just water, but I think I ate twenty or fifty tiny sandwiches and followed them up with most of the tiny éclairs that were on the buffet table. From beginning to end, this experience has been a class act by the Globe Education team. It was hard to turn in my keycard that opened all the locked doors at The Globe. It was fun while it lasted.

We finished our evening by going to The Swan pub, where we had drinks with some of the cast of ANTONY & CLEOPATRA. (A certain beautiful superstar was missing from the scene—as Fleetwood Mac reminds us, players only love you when they’re playing.) As different members of our group said goodnight, there were emotional partings because most of them would be leaving the UK in the morning. Brad Barfield (from West Palm Beach) and the girls and I are all on the same flight Monday, and Ethan is staying the weekend as well, so we still have some fun activities to look forward to. I’ve made some really excellent new friends this summer, and the educational portion has been invaluable.

Today I had to move to a different room at Bankside House. I was disgruntled about having to move, but actually I got an upgraded room so it turned out to be a good thing. I was trying not to complain about it too much, but my room for the past three weeks has been pretty rough. I had a narrow cot with a pallet-mattress, and a shared bathroom with a seldom-functional toilet. I just reminded myself that most summers I voluntarily stay in a rustic cabin in Seattle, so why complain about any discomfort here? Anyway, I have a much better room till Monday. I’ll be glad to get back to my king-sized bed and giant shower though.

I bought a picnic lunch at the Borough Market and ate it in the courtyard at St. Paul’s, where I read a book for much of the afternoon. Tonight Brad and the girls and I went to Nando’s for dinner. Tomorrow we are meeting Ethan for a picnic in Hyde Park, and then we will have our final dinner at Founder’s Arms tomorrow night.

LONDON: AUGUST 3, 2014

Today was our last full day in London. The girls and I went to Hyde Park where we met Ethan for a picnic by the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain. I went wading in the fountain until my feet were numb from the extremely cold water. We took a long walk through the park and got ice cream cones. Afterward we went to Harrod’s Department Store. What would it be like to be so wealthy that you could just go there and buy the things you see that you like? There were many items in the store that cost more than my house.

Tonight the four of us joined Brad and Jeniene for a final dinner at Founders Arms. We had an excellent table right on the edge of The Thames with a great view of St. Paul’s Cathedral and the bridges from Waterloo to the Tower Bridge. I had my usual medium-rare rib-eye steak, roasted cherry tomatoes, chips, and some kind of rice-like stuff that I keep forgetting the name of, but it’s made with barley and is delicious. After dinner we had a birthday cheesecake for Ethan and Jeniene’s birthdays which are later this week.

Since we are flying home tomorrow, this is my last journal entry for the London trip. I am so thankful to have been given this opportunity—I know it will remain one of the very best experiences of my whole life. Thanks to everyone at The Globe for offering such an amazing program, the 24 other teachers who made the last month such a happy one (especially my Orlando girls!), Barry Church-Woods in Edinburgh, the English Speaking Union for the scholarship, everyone at Lake Howell High School who wrote letters of recommendation or provided encouragement for me to do this, Kristen Wheeler and Matt Palm for their travel aid, and my friends and family for their love and support. And thanks to everyone for reading this journal—it was your feedback that helped me stay consistent in writing throughout the trip.

My favorite moments here included walking into The Globe Theatre for the first time, Glynn’s final class session with us, sitting in the window of The George Pub listening to all my new friends tell stories, the final tea with the team from The Globe—and being kissed by Cleopatra. And it goes without saying that I will never forget that I once had the privilege to perform on Shakespeare’s stage.

JAMES BRENDLINGER’S TOP 15 SONGS ABOUT LONDON COUNTDOWN

15. “Down to London” by Joe Jackson

14. “London’s Brilliant Parade” by Elvis Costello

13. “Get Out of London” by Interferon

12. “Play With Fire” by

11. “Werewolves of London” by Warren Zevon

10. “Dark Streets of London” by The Pogues

9. “West End Girls” by The Pet Shop Boys 8. “On the BBC” by Ming Tea

7. “Walking in London” by Concrete Blonde

6. “Baker Street” by Gerry Rafferty

5. “Sultans of Swing” by

4. “London” by The Smiths

3. “London Calling” by The Clash

2. “Hairdresser on Fire” by Morrissey

1. “Waterloo Sunset” by The Kinks