3. Now that you all have had a chance to digest the Globe experience, I’d like you all to write what it was like to see live Shakespeare in Stratford and the Globe. What did they have in common; what was different? Which made more of an impact on you? What felt relevant to you as a American college student; what felt strange and unfamiliar? After your two weeks in the UK, how would you describe “Shakespeare” to your friends back home?

Having loved Shakespeare most of my life and having to simply imagine the humorous plays to the best of my knowledge, being able to see one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, Much ado about nothing, was like a dream come true. Both the Globe and Stratford were two amazing experiences, they both made me feel utterly engrossed in the play, the way that the Globe basically made the stage a part of the audience and the way Stratford used audience participation, walking through the audience adding humor to the plot. I can’t really say which had a bigger impact on me but rather that they had different impacts on me, emotionally I felt drained, in a good way, after the Globe because I felt as though I had to deal with the same moral issues as the characters. After Stratford I couldn’t feel any pain in my feet because I was simply mesmerized the whole time. As an American engineering student what felt relevant was the stage presence of being able to connect so many people together with simple things such as laughter or sadness, whichever part of what they were saying made them feel that way. As an engineer, I have to consider an audience just as the actors and see through their eyes when creating things. This is how I would describe Shakespeare, as someone who brings people together and creates a common ground to be able to portray serious matters such as civil war and bigotry.