![\"2013-02-15](\"http:\/\/blogs.nd.edu\/shakespeare\/files\/2013\/02\/2013-02-15-13.41.12.jpg\" "\\"Lake")
<\/a>Water on the British driver’s side! Lake Shore Drive the road is called and it’ll take you up or down.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>A home in Nashville.<\/p><\/div>\n
We kicked off the week with a tour of Notre Dame\u2019s DeBartolo Performing Arts Center with its several plush, beautifully designed performance spaces \u2013 each one breathtaking in its own way and breath taken away completely on entering the great Hall with two organs \u2013<\/p>\n
<\/a>Andrew Fallaize preparing for work<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>A Horse and Buggy!<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>It’s 9:30 AM?<\/p><\/div>\n
Then to the Academic meeting to meet Peter Holland and the other professors \u2013 Debra, of course, had set out a delicious spread of food and drink and we were still munching and chatting with some of the professors until long after we\u2019d got our lesson briefs, beaming with the warmth of the welcome back and the comfort of the proceedings as administered by the abiding anchor of our entire experience in the US \u2013 Debra.<\/p>\n At an early point in the week, Ryan handed Andrew back his robbed-in-week 1-at-7-eleven ten dollars! He\u2019d gone in, evidently laid in with a high moral tone and emerged with the goods. Andrew has been seeking out 7 elevens ever since and was significantly spiritually restored.<\/p>\n Pete found the Fiddlers Hearth in downtown South Bend for a session of Irish music and we followed him there with his violin and drank Guinness, our eyes filling with mist as he joined what we assumed were a family of other fiddlers, drummers, a guitar and a couple of tin whistles.<\/p>\n Another good week of classes: Shuna enjoyed her session with Peter Holland and his group of teachers and Terry took on a back to back pair of sessions on King Lear in breathtaking form with an investigation into the sexuality of \u2018the milk of Burgundy\u2019 and \u2018the vines of France\u2019 which the Professor took entirely in his stride, beaming all the way through.<\/p>\n Pete, Andrew, Shuna and Terry pitched up for the SonnetFest on St Valentine\u2019s Day \u2013 we read two each and watched a procession of academics and students reading theirs at the pulpit, as the four hours of sonnets was beamed round the world via internet to any interested parties. Two were read in Chinese, one in Italian and one was sung in opera style by a very impressive Baritone.<\/p>\n This same Baritone was also the Director of Opera Studies and Charlie, meanwhile, had bravely agreed to take a session with his opera students studying a libretto in French. He emerged entirely unshaken and wishing he\u2019d had more time.<\/p>\n Two drives out into Amish Country were a highlight for Shuna, Andrew and Charlie. Graciously laid out homesteads, bright white barns, a nice picnic lunch bought from an Amish deli and a chat with a furniture maker, born and bred on the farm and hoping to make a visit to his ancestral home of Switzerland, when his community take a European tour this year. Yelps of delight and dropping of cameras as we spotted our first horse and buggy. Charlie nearly spent $450 on a beautiful Amish rocking chair, but was defeated, alas, by the cost of shipping.<\/p>\n Washington Hall did us proud for our shows and Hamlet<\/em><\/strong> held together. A good chin wag with Peter and his professor wife, Romana, afterwards. The second and final South Bend performance was packed up in record quick time and we bee-lined, untypically, back to the hotel immediately after it. We were up at the crack the following morning and embarking on Hamlet<\/em><\/strong> again less than 12 hours later, 9.30 am kick off at Elston Middle School in Michigan City. Ashen faces gathered in the lobby at dawn\u2026.. it was an outlandish experience, but the kids \u2013 mostly 12 year-olds and kept under control with iron discipline \u2013 apparently lasted the course and gave us a riotous reception. Scott, Ryan, Chuck and Debra all came with us to the school and were invaluable in helping us set up in the huge barn of a theatre. Bleary-eyed but relieved to have got through it, we all piled into two cars and headed for our great treat \u2013 the Chicago weekend.<\/p>\n Great excitement in Chuck\u2019s car as we sailed past a heck of a lot of Police barriers and traffic control in anticipation of Obama\u2019s visit that afternoon. Heavy sighs from Scott\u2019s vehicle as they got caught in the mayhem. Chuck, again an excellent guide \u2013 and some fascinating stories of his experiences directing The Sound of Music<\/em> with a very mature Maria. Chuck, a dark horse at the best of times, now pressed play on his iPOD and we zoomed along Lake Shore Drive (along the shore of Lake Michigan) with the astonishing Chicago skyline ahead, listening to the song, Lake Shore Drive<\/em>, which Shuna has now acquired as a life long reminder of this wide-eyed arrival.<\/p>\n Hurried farewells and sad to say goodbye to Chuck and Scott. Very glad to have had the car journey to chew over some fat.<\/p>\n What a city! A weekend on a different planet and we all came away raving. We all had adventures in all sorts of directions (including UPWARDS \u2013 ascents were made of Sears Tower and John Hancock Tower) \u2013 Ryan took us in hand and led us to Buddy Guy\u2019s Legends for some late-night blues where the bass guitarist had huge hands. Andrew met a flautist from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra who Shuna and Charlie found themselves watching at a concert the next day. Pete and Ryan took photos under the enormous, silver sculpture of a bean, Terry found his beloved Crannach The Elder paintings of Adam and Eve at the Art Institute and Pete, in the same building says he \u2018found a nipple\u2019, and showed us a photo of a painting of a girl called \u2018Resting\u2019. Shuna and Charlie saw a terrific show by Steppenwolf,\u00a0The MotherF**ker with the Hat<\/em> and attended a \u2018gospel brunch\u2019 where they ate like hogs and sang Hallelujahs.<\/p>\n We all loved the city and found the people very friendly indeed. Sensational architecture \u2013 Art Deco still alive and part of it all \u2013 all agreed it would be a fantastic place to try and live. Quote of the day is Terry\u2019s: on asking a man the way to walk to somewhere, the man answered, \u2018 Sir, you don\u2019t walk in Chicago you WAAAARK!\u2019<\/p>\n And now Nashville, by Christ! The Tennessee voices are rolling thick and fast \u2013 wow, they sound good – and we\u2019ve glugged beer and spent a long evening in a bar cheering along a Country singer with no audience but ourselves for her four hour set.<\/p>\n We had a friendly welcome from Laura and Leah at the airport and have now met the faculty and had our first session on stage \u2013 it\u2019s an intimate, studio-style theatre and it\u2019ll be a refreshing change to be in a small space. All sorts of plans for the week and the classes have got off to a good start with very bright, up for it students. Arrived to Spring-like sunshine, but tonight it\u2019s only a couple of degrees above freezing. – Shuna<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hamlet \u2013 Blog 6 Time has blazed by and a lot of US water has flowed under a lot of US bridge: in the last ten days, our tiny footsteps have pattered to and fro across the St Joseph River … Continue reading <\/a> <\/a> one mighty, wood carved wonder at one end and at the other, organ scholar in situ and pressing the keys as we entered, a 16th Century Neopolitan beauty. Gothic Cathedral-like high, triangular ceiling with huge crossbeams.<\/p>\n
\nOur first slap-up dinner at Terry\u2019s old haunt, Shaw\u2019s Crabhouse after a few Chicago dogs at a tavern near our characterful hotel, The Tremont on W. Chestnut street. Ryan explained what it is that makes a Chicago \u2018dog\u2019 so much more distinguished from a common or garden Hotdog \u2013 it\u2019s a pickle thing and the quality of the sausage, broadly speaking \u2013 and the boys all downed theirs at breakneck speed and approvingly. (Actually, Terry had a Reuben sandwich which he praised as highly). We dined darned well in Chicago (Shuna and Charlie pretty much relentlessly) and even survived The Battle of The Bill at Shaw\u2019s Crabhouse. Charlie, I think, emerged the lightest of all of pocket having splashed out on a couple of nice bottles of wine, and after a slightly blanched twenty minutes of realization at what we\u2019d all spent, everyone bounced back pretty quickly and hurled themselves at the next spending spree with almost psychotic gusto. Such was the allure of everything Chicago.<\/p>\n