Today... Albeit Not in Pictures!

Hi, all! A little advanced warning that the whole 70-person Bread Loaf crew leaves at 3:30 PM to ride on charter buses to Stratford, birthplace of William Shakespeare, to see "A Midsummer Night's Dream" performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). Later in the Bread Loaf session, the actor who plays Bottom in the production joins us here in Oxford for a talk and dinner. On Thursday, I go with Bread Loaf's "Page to Stage" class (you can enter your name in a lottery to buy any extra tickets the class has for performances) to see "Midsummer" at the Globe, in London. It'll be interesting to compare two performances of the same play in the same week.

Tonight, instead of our usual dinner in the dining hall here at Lincoln College, each of us gets 14 pounds (equivalent of about $28) for dinner anywhere we like in Stratford before the performance. The house believed to be Shakespeare's birthplace (1564) is also right in town, so I'll have time to see at least the exterior of that before the play. This afternoon, before I go, I'm taking a break from Bread Loaf reading (got a lot done on my "Moby Dick" paper this morning in the library) and reading instead the book about Shakespeare that Ed gave me as a going-away present. Should be a nice preview to my evening! Thanks, Ed!

We'll arrive home quite late after the play, so please consider this today's update and expect more details (including photos!) of Stratford in tomorrow's regular post. Have a great day and week!