Shakespeare with a side of Spinoza

Yes, yes, yes -- it's been days since I wrote you, and it's 12:02 a.m. so even now, I really should go to bed, but I am just too jazzed from tonight's theatrical experience. Tonight, a bunch of TSIers went to see one of our teachers, the absolutely phenomenal Michael Tolaydo (this is he, tho' not in this play), perform in a play by David Ives, titled "New Jerusalem: The Interrogation of Baruch de Spinoza at Talmud Torah Congregation: Amsterdam, July 27, 1656." Yeah, the title is a mouthful, but it's like a mouthful of rich, thought-provoking, weep-inducing...um, chocolate cake. OK, block that metaphor, as they (used to) say in the New Yorker. But the point is, it was an absolutely stunning theatre experience in every way -- incredibly well written, with an ensemble that met each other at the highest possible level of performance. And though the subject that sounded abstract at first -- the interrogation of Baruch de Spinoza for his (supposed) atheist beliefs by his own Jewish leaders as well as a burgher of Amsterdam (the purported "New Jerusalem of the title for it's purported tolerance of Jews), we were led through beautifully wrought explorations of love, friendship, the bonds of fathers and sons, and really, what makes the world go around AND worth waking up in each day. It was just amazing.

I felt even more privileged than I already had to be being led in my explorations here by people like Michael, Caleen Jennings, Sue Biondo-Hench, and Mike LoMonico. They are all so creative and talented in so many spheres -- O, for a muse of fire, that I could find a way to say more! But I'm finally sleepy, so will leave it at that, and promise that I will take the opportunity of having a research paper AND a curriculum project to complete this weekend to do some really choice procrastinatory composition.

Cheers,
Gingy

P.S. Anyone who's in DC before July 25 NEEDS to see this play; here's the link:
http://washingtondcjcc.org/center-for-arts/theater-j/on-stage/09-10-season/new-jerusalem/TJ-New-Jerusalem-Main.html

Holla, Barnardo!

"Holla" actually appears in many Shakespeare plays -- don't tell me this guy wasn't ahead of his time! The title reference is from Hamlet -- the best part of teaching that play...just ahead of the moment when it dawns on someone that "Hey! This is the story of 'The Lion King'!" Ah, Disney -- where would we be without you?

So it’s time to get real, people. Enough of the swanning about, taking fun pictures & writing blithely pithy little missives. The temperature is up, the routine is down, and we’re here to work. Toil. Labour. Put our studious noses to Henry Clay Folger’s mighty grindstone.

OK, it’s still really, really fun. I was just trying to set a tone. I’m also including at least one picture, and here it is: it’s our schedule, specifically last week’s schedule, but the basic routine is the same each week. For those who’ve been itching for some nuts & bolts, here they are.


Each morning, at 7:45, those of us staying at American hop on our yellow school bus (you remember Albert, our driver, from a few posts ago), for the ride down to Capitol Hill; it’s a lovely ride, taking us by Rock Creek Park, along the Potomac, and then all around the Capitol to the back of it, where the Library sits, kitty-corner from the Supreme Court (Dan asked me if I’ve seen Elena Kagan in there, measuring for new drapes…not yet, is the answer). At the library, we are greeted most enthusiastically by our fellow TSIers who are not staying in the dorms, along with our wonderful camp counselors: Folger staff, scholars, performance & curriculum masters. It’s very jaunty.

As you may be able to see, I made note of the crucial 8:45-9:00 am event: coffee.

From 9-10 for 3 mornings each week, then, we are treated to AMAZING lectures by our scholars: Jay Halio, emeritus professor from the University of Delaware, Margaret Maurer from Colgate, and Stephen Dickey from UCLA. Each delivers a lecture on the play of the week, which the first week was 1H4, or Henry IV, Part One, for you laypeople out there; after that, 12th Night, Measure for Measure, & we’ll finish with Mackers. After each lecture, the scholar takes questions informally, before we break into our official seminar groups, in which we all go off with one of those same scholars for a (somewhat) more structured discussion of the lecture, the play more generally, and just about any other aspect of anything Shakespeare ever wrote or thought about writing, because these folks Know Their Stuff. It’s rather awe-inspiring.

We have lunch from 11:30-12:30, and about 4 days out of 5, there’s something happening during lunch, a talk or a demonstration or something like that, including sometimes having a guest lecturer who joins us. For instance (and this is going to be particularly juicy for my teacher chums), last Friday, the lecture was by Barbara Mowat, co-editor of the entire Folger Shakespeare Library. As in (look in the bottom right corner – that’s where her name appears on every single play in the Folger editions!) …


This is her, counseling my TSI colleague Randall; she’s the warmest, most soft-spoken person, and she speaks of Shakespeare from the deepest place in her heart – to the point that she told us that there were some years in her professorial career in which she could not teach King Lear, it moved her so.


I must confess the following: the Folger (maybe obviously) is a non-circulating library, so there are empty shelves around the Reading Room where scholars in residence can store the books they’re using, so they don’t get re-shelved. And I took a picture of Barbara Mowat’s shelf! Here it is! Folger-ites reading this, please don’t narc me out – I’m really not stalking her! I just couldn’t resist, especially since it was right below my own shelf (yes! you read that right!) I presently have a little Dymo labeled shelf of my very own in the Folger Library Reading Room! Don’t believe me? Let the iPhone tell the story – here’s me & Barbara, just one floor apart, at least until July 23:



In case you’re wondering, on Barbara’s shelf is old stalwart Fowler’s Modern English Usage – some things never go out of style.

OK, so that takes us to lunch – and it only took me 4 days to write this. Crikey! I’ll post this now, so I can hold my head up in the imaginary Blog Republic of my mind, and try to get busy with what the rest of our days typically look like + some highlights of other events along the way.

Cheers,
Gingy

I have a dream...

Jessica Speck, one of my fabulous colleagues here, taught me this last night -- always include some part of yourself in your travel pix, or else who will believe you were there?? Love it. So here are my feet, halfway up the steps to the Lincoln Memorial, on the plaque honoring Martin Luther King Jr. I do have a dream of universal peace and love, but I also have a dream of a good night's sleep, so I'm about to pack it in.

OK, I'm starting to be a little afraid that this is going to turn into a blog about not being able to blog, but I hope this condition is only temporary. We will be on a mini-break this weekend, so I'll have breathing room and will get caught up, including giving you a sense of our days here. But for now, I'll sign off with a picture of Albert, our bus driver, who drives us to & fro AU & the Folger every day (at 7:45 am & 5:00 pm, NOT that I'm complaining!!!) with a great smile & some really sensational tunes on the bus-wide stereo. As you can see, I hope, Albert & I share a #1 hero in common.

Cheers,
Gingy

Do not think so.

You shall not find it so. Those are a couple of Prince Hal's lines, ones I spent this afternoon physicalizing, which was fun...and it was one of 157 fun things we did today, including a 3 hour tour of Our Nation's Capital (on which we actually were almost stranded on an island!), and moving our cars at 10:15 p.m. because our glorious prez is speaking at AU tomorrow (he's still my #1 hero -- they could have towed my car, actually, if it would help him). In other words: wonder if you'll find me blathering at my usual excruciating length? Do not think so. You will not find it so. Try again tomorrow, my faithful follower friends!

Yours in exhaustion,

All-Out-Of-Ginger Gingy

P.S. If I start to sound too much like Julie Powell, please extend me a swift kick in the shins -- literally or electronically. Many thanks.

Remember Rocky Horror?

(c) www.rockyhorror.com/downloads

Why do you ask, Gingy? What could the fabulous Tim Curry, Richard O'Brien, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick et al. possibly have to do with Shakespeare, the only thing you're meant to be thinking about right now? OK, nothing except for that rip-roaring song Touch-a Touch-a Touch-a Touch Me, which was running perversely through my head all afternoon today, because today was the day we saw -- and TOUCHED -- The Books. Like: one of the Folger's 79 First Folios. And a Second Folio that was censored during The Inquisition. And an indenture indicating the sale of a house in Stratford by Mr. Hercules Underhill to (of course) Mr. William Shakespeare (OK, that was in mylar, but that's all that stood between me & the dusty possible remnants of William Shakespeare today). And did I mention the actual manuscript (1st draft) of James I's essay on Demonology? Like, I touched something that James I held in his haggisy Scottish hands!! I texted Kitty that I was freaking out a little, and she replied "Allowed." Thanks, KWil!

Speaking of which, I have to get in bed & finish Kitty's masterwork, so I'll leave you again with some photos of my day. They just this week started allowing digital photography inside the library -- oh frabjous day!

The indentures...so called because of those indented cuts along the paper. Isn't English FUN?!


The hand of the Inquisitor at work! See the blacked out lines on the left side of the page? Yup, that's him. There's also an entire play missing (Measure for Measure); maybe because the bad guy in that one, Angelo, is the one trying to uphold the fiercest kinds of moral laws (like "off with your head for knocking up your fiancee!")...that is, until he falls head over ramrod-stiff spine for a novice on the EVE of her initiation into the strictest order of nuns she can find, and offers to free the knocker-up (her brother) if she sleeps with him. Ha ha! Onto the pyre with that one, says the good friar!


A family tree in a history of Scotland by John Leslie, showing (my friend) James I at the top...and good old Banquo at the root. Just like in Act 4 of Macbeth! Gulp!


And you'll have to turn your computer sideways for this one, because no, Martha, I still don't have horizontal & vertical quite mastered in this mystical world of photography. These are my Folger buddies. We like velvet.

It rained today...

...actual rain, and lots and lots of metaphorical rain, rain of knowledge and laughter and ideas and -- well, you get the picture. The real rain may presage a break in the heat & humidity; the metaphorical rain presages days & weeks of growth & learning for yours truly.

Specific things I learned today: Michael LoMonico will find you, no matter what corner of cyberspace you think you're hiding in. Mike is one of the curriculum specialists running this shindig, and I hadn't been here 24 hours when (after the daily 3:00 tea held in the basement of the Folger -- yesssss, you heard me, they serve TEA EVERY AFTERNOON), he stops me & says "You're the one blogging about this, aren't you?" I've blogged once. And once before this, over a year ago. Cue mild Minority Report-style paranoia. Hi Mike!

I learned when you spend the day listening to a fabulous lecture on Henry IV Pt. 1 by Library Director Gail Kern Paster that was a string of about 27,000 A-HA moments for me, and front-loading curriculum ideas, and improv-ing a scene or 3, and introducing yourself using only words that alliterate with your first name, it's really, really, really important to stay hydrated. I just got back to my dorm room and drank about 40 ounces of water in about 12 seconds. Amazing how that headache just evaporated.

I learned – well, OK, I already knew this, but was reminded for about the 112th time – that other teachers ROCK. I want to tell you about Simone, who teaches in NYC, but I have to get her permission first. You won’t believe it. Likewise, Megan, my blindfold-walking partner, Barbara, who helped me find word processing on my Netbook, and on & on & on. I’ll check with them & get back to you.

I learned that, to paraphrase Deval Patrick, I looooove me some Netbook (it’s even better when he uses the phrase, because it’s his grandmother’s, and she uses it like this: I looooooove me some Kennedys!). Anyhow, this Netbook is the CAT’S PANTS – small, light, easy to use, and adorable. Thank you, Rick Andersen at Staples!

I learned that all those people (and you know who you are because it was all of you) who said it was hot in the summer in Washington were 100% right. Africa hot. Tarzan couldn’t take this kind of hot. And I learned that to combat this, it is possible to turn my dorm room at AU into a meat locker. Bring. It. On.

And I learned that my friend Kitty Wilbur is one hell of a writer. If you don't know it already, write that name down; you'll be seeing it at your local Barnes & Noble soon enough.

I think that’s all I can do for now. Need more water. And a shower. And maybe one of those microwave brownies Mary gave me on my way out the door. Bless you, child.

Oh, wait! Here are some pix. I never am able to format captions with photos in this Blogger program (maybe Mike can help me with that tomorrow), so I'll say that the first is my dorm room (and no, Dan, that's not a scorpion bowl on the microwave, but my salad bowl, harumph!); the second is the bus that Albert drives us to & fro the Library in, playing some very groovy tunes along the way; and the third is the entrance to the Library, featuring Margaret Maurer facing the camera, who is a faculty member here & at Colgate, and who is already my boon companion because (a) her daughter just married a Boston Latin alumnus (sumus primi!) and (b) she's a crossword fanatic.

OK, must become prone. Cheers, one & all!

My door

OK, just for starters: how adorable is this? This is the door to my room here in Centennial Hall. Each of us has our name, plus a poster from one of the plays. Love it love it love it love it.

All Folger's Eve

So, here I am. After a rigorous, college-esque application process (I'm a LOT more sympathetic to my juniors now), after driving 8 hours listening to Henry IV Part 1 AND Measure for Measure AND (most of) 12th Night because OF COURSE I hadn't read them sooner, and after locating The Other Mass. Ave., I'm finally here: the Teaching Shakespeare Institute, put on by the Folger Shakespeare Library, sponsored by YOU, my taxpaying peeps, via what must be a colossal grant from the NEH (listen, I'm getting PAID to do this). I'm excited, exhausted, exhilarated, and extemporaneously restarting this blog in hopes that I'll be able to keep you, my unofficial sponsors, posted on the goings-on. I can't promise that this won't be the first AND last post, but I'll do my best, 'twixt this and that, to share my quiddities and quillities (don't really know what those are, but quiddities appear in at least TWO plays, and I love the sound of it). For tonight, I have some other reading to do (Kitty, this means you), so I'll leave you with this: I'm ensconced in a dorm at American University for the duration; once having unpacked, I went down the hall in search of a Girls' Room, but found none. However, I did hear the unmistakable sound of the flush from someone else's room...so I went back to mine, and finally opened that other door...to find MY OWN BATHROOM (OK, I share it with one woman on the other side, but we each have our own sink!). Are you KIDDING ME??!?! All that PLUS Shakespeare for 4 weeks?! Bliss.

Anon, friends!

Ginger