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Highlights of LIT 367 / HON 270 [ENGL 670]: British Theatre (taught in the UK in Winter Term 2017) by Dr. Felicia Jean Steele [steele@tcnj.edu] and Prof. Diane Vanner Steinberg [dsteinbe@tcnj.edu] of the Dept of English at The College of New Jersey

Wednesday, 28 December 2016 -- arrive in UK by that evening, either on the group flight to be arranged or on your own flight. Our group flight leaves EWR (Newark International) on 27 Dec at 9:20 pm on Virgin Atlantic flight 2 direct nonstop to Heathrow landing the following morning at 9:10 am. We will be met at the airport by a CEPA employee -- Greer Dewdney -- and a bus that will take us to our hotel. Check into our London lodging for 11 nights at the Mentone Hotel on 54-56 Cartwright Gardens in Bloomsbury -- a very central location. Full English or vegetarian breakfast included in lodging rate. On Sunday, 8 January, we’ll head to Stratford-Upon-Avon via motorcoach for 5 nights there at the Mercure Shakespeare Hotel on Chapel Street. On Friday, 13 January, we will return to London and stay at the London Lodge on 134-136 Lexham Gardens in Kensington for 4 additional nights. On Tuesday, 17 January, we will return to Heathrow via motorcoach and fly back to the US. Our group return is flight 195 on Delta leaving Heathrow at 12:25 pm and landing in PHILLY at 4:10 pm (same day). All London lodging is on the Piccadilly tube line (a direct line to Heathrow Airport).    

In New Jersey meetings

  • Su 27 November 2016 -- mandatory travel logistics meeting from 7:30-8:30 pm (Bliss Hall Annex 229, not far from the visitor parking in lot 3 by Loser Hall). Parents are welcome at this meeting. We’ll look over packing list, itinerary, tips, the syllabus, and other details. You will have a chance to meet one another and learn your roommate’s name.
  • M 12 December 2016 -- We will hold our first class meeting at 9:00 am to no later than 12 noon in Bliss Hall annex 153. This is the only class meeting at which we will have easy access to AV equipment to show you some of the sorts of theatres we will be exploring. You will bring your blank journals. Have read Much Ado About Nothing (or have carefully watched a production and read along with the actors). Reading quiz on Much Ado About Nothing. Intro to history of theatre in the UK. Pre-production discussion of Loves Labours Lost  and Much Ado.

Class Meetings

  • Sunday 27 Nov 2016 from 7:30 - 8:30 pm in Bliss Hall Annex 229 / logistics and travel; parents welcome
  • Monday 12 Dec 2016 from 9:00 am - 12 noon in a Bliss Annex classroom 153 / theatrical space in the UK; history of drama in the UK; Reading Quiz Much Ado About Nothing; pre-production discussion of Loves Labours Lost  and Much Ado About Nothing.
  • Wednesday 28 Dec 2016 -- time depends on arrival at Heathrow (probably about 11:30 am) -- we will meet in the lounge at the Mentone Hotel for a brief orientation, a chance to pick up transit passes and maps, and a Reading Quiz on Loves Labours Lost and This House.
  • Sunday 1 Jan from 6:45-8:15 pm in the breakfast room at the Mentone Hotel / post-production discussion of Loves Labours Lost and Much Ado About Nothing; pre-production discussion of This House.
  • Tuesday 3 Jan from 7:30-9:00 pm in the breakfast room at the Mentone Hotel / post-production discussion on This House and pre-production discussion on The Little Match Girl and Other Happier Tales; Reading Quiz on "Little Match Girl" and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime and The Rover.
  • Thursday 5 Jan from 9:30-11:30 am in the lounge at the Mentone Hotel / post-production discussion of The Little Match Girl and Other Happier Tales and pre-production discussion of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime and of The Rover. 
  • Monday 9 Jan from 4:00 - 6:00 pm at the Shakespeare Hotel conference room / post-production discussion of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime and pre-production discussion of Two Noble Kinsmen; Reading Quiz Two Noble Kinsmen and The Tempest.
  • Wednesday 11 Jan from 4:00 - 6:00 pm at the Shakespeare Hotel conference room /  post-production discussion of The Rover and Two Noble Kinsmen and pre-production discussion of The Tempest.
  • Sunday 15 Jan -- 4:00-6:00 pm in the Breakfast Room at the London Lodge -- we'll have about 2 hours for folks to present their final projects informally and to give helpful advice to one another.

 Tentative Day by Day OVERSEAS Schedule

  • T 27 Dec -- leave on overnight flight to Heathrow.
  • W 28 Dec -- arrive in London; check into the Mentone Hotel for 11 nights in twin rooms with full breakfasts each morning; receive transportation passes and maps; students travelling with the group will be met at Heathrow by a CEPA guide -- Greer Dewdney -- and taken by motorcoach to the Mentone Hotel; orientation session and Reading quiz on Loves Labours Lost and This House. Walk around to ward off jet lag: consider visiting the Charles Dickens Museum or platform 93/4 at Kings Cross (free) or the London Canal Museum (free) or the Foundling Museum or the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology -(free) - all are walking distance. See me for other ideas. Meet in lobby at 5:15 pm for our 6:00 pm Welcome to London Group Dinner at a British Pub, the Hereford Arms in South Kensington.
  • R 29 Dec -- full breakfast; meet in lounge at 9:15 for 10:15 am boat tour on Thames River from Westminster Pier to Greenwich; chance to walk around Greenwich and drop in at the Old Royal Naval College or the Royal Observatory and the Maritime Museum and the Queen's House (all free of charge); return to central London with the group by meeting in the lobby of the Maritime Museum at 4:10 pm; unscheduled evening. Faculty are eating at the Antalya Restaurant link at 103-105 Southampton Row, London WC1B 4HH. All are welcome. There are other eateries near Russell Square.
  • F 30 Dec -- full breakfast; meet at 9:15 am in the lounge; morning tour of the Museum of London with a Blue Badge guide; mid-afternoon self-guided tour (just join the next Beefeater's Tour) of Tower of London; your Royal Palaces ticket gives you 10% off all meals and souvenirs at the Tower. After or before the Tower, you may want to see the Bank of England, the Silver Vaults, or All-Hallows by the Tower (an 8th C church and one of the few London buildings not destroyed by the 17th C Great Fire). 7:30 pm performance of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of William Shakespeare’s Loves Labours Lost at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in the West End. This production is part of the centennial of the Great War.
  • Sa 31 Dec -- full breakfast; meet at 9:15 am in the lounge; 10:00 self-guided tour of the Victoria and Albert Museum of Childhood; we'll have time in the East End to see the Museum of the London Docklands; 7:30 pm performance of Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing [Loves Labours Won] at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in the West End. This production is in repertory with Loves Labours Lost. 
  • Su 1 Jan -- full breakfast; unscheduled morning to sleep in, attend church services, or visit the Tate Galleries (not every museum is open on New Year’s Day); 2:00 pm visit to the Imperial War Museum; 6:45-8:15 pm class meeting -- post-production discussion of Loves Labours Lost and Much Ado About Nothing; pre-production discussion of This House. Unscheduled evening: Episode 1 of Season 4 of Sherlock is debuting tonight at 8:30 pm on BBC 1.
  • M 2 Jan -- full breakfast; meet at 9:30 in the lounge; 10:15 Globe Theatre Tour and Costume Demonstration; 1:00 Group Lunch George Inn in Southwark (the George Inn is the only galleried 18th C inn remaining in London, and it is steps away from the no longer standing Tabard Inn of Chaucer’s poetry; unscheduled afternoon; evening performance of James Graham’s This House at the Garrick Theatre at 2 Charing Cross Road. While you are in Southwark, you may want to check out the Borough Market; you may also want to visit the Tate Modern and go to its top floor viewing area to see the city of London across the river (the Tate Modern is by the Globe and the pedestrian millennial bridge. You will also be near the London Eye.
  • T 3 Jan -- full breakfast; meet in the lounge at 9:00 am; visit Hampton Court Palace via tube and train from Euston Station; self-guided tour with costumed interpreters. Hampton Court was one of Henry’s VIII’s and George III’s favorite palaces, so it is literally half Tudor and half Georgian architecture; we’ll travel down together as a group on the train, but you will be able to select your own train (~ one train per hour) to return to central London; 7:30-9:00 pm class meeting -- post-production discussion on This House and pre-production discussion on The Little Match Girl and Other Happier Tales; Reading Quiz on "Little Match Girl" and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime and The Rover. Your Royal Palaces ticket gives you 10% off all meals and souvenirs. Hampton Court is about an hour and a quarter south of London, and is also on the banks of the Thames River.
  • W 4 Jan -- full breakfast; meet in lounge at 9:30 am; 10:00 Shakespeare Haunts of London Tour; Southwark Cathedral and the Shakespeare and Chaucer windows; 12:30 Group lunch Middle Temple medieval banqueting hall; 3:00 British Library Tour; evening performance of Joel Horwood’s adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Match Girl and Other Happier Tales at the Sam Wanamaker Theatre at the Globe Theatre complex.
  • R 5 Jan -- full breakfast; 9:30-11:30 am class meeting in the lounge -- post-production discussion of The Little Match Girl and Other Happier Tales and pre-production discussion of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime and of The Rover.  unscheduled evening. ~2:00 pm Blue Badge guided tour of St. Paul’s Cathedral
  • F 6 Jan -- full breakfast; meet in lounge at 9:35; 10:00 British Museum Treasures Gallery Tour with Blue Badge guide; unscheduled afternoon and evening to stay on at the British Museum (they open late on Fridays). Foodies may want to eat in the Great Court Restaurant (unhappily not inexpensive) with its locally sourced specials. The British Museum is simply amazing.
  • Sa 7 Jan -- full breakfast; unscheduled morning; meet in lounge at 11:30 am to leave for Westminster; 2:00 - 3:30 pm guided tour of the Houses of Parliament; evening performance of a dramatic adaptation of Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime at the Gielgud Theatre in the West End.

  • Su 8 Jan -- full breakfast; leave Mentone Hotel after early breakfast; motorcoach to Oxford for 10:00 am guided tour of the colleges; motorcoach will leave Oxford at 1:00 pm to take us on to Stratford-upon-Avon, where we check in to the Mercure Shakespeare Hotel for 5 nights. The hotel serves a full English or vegetarian breakfast. Literally everything we’ll see in Stratford is walking distance, and many of the Shakespeare sites are steps away from our hotel and one another; 6:30 Welcome to Stratford Group Dinner.
  • M 9 Jan -- full breakfast; 10:00 am visit to The Play’s the Thing Exhibit at the RSC; hand out 4 Houses Shakespeare tickets; 1:00: Behind the Scenes Tour of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre; 4:00-6:00 pm class meeting -- post-production discussion of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime and pre-production discussion of Two Noble Kinsmen; Reading Quiz Two Noble Kinsmen and The Tempest. 7:30 pm performance of Aphra Behn’s The Rover at the Swan Theatre.
  • T 10 Jan -- full breakfast; stroll together to Anne Hathaway’s Cottage (about one mile): Anne Hathaway was William Shakespeare's wife, and her family farm remained in her family for 13 generations from ~1463 until 1892; 2:00 pm tour of the newly-renovated and opened to the public Guildhall and Shakespeare’s Schoolroom (for the 400th anniversary); 7:30 pm William Shakespeare and John Fletcher’s Two Noble Kinsmen at the Swan Theatre.
  • W 11 Jan -- full breakfast; 10:00 am workshop with the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Clore Learning Center on gender and Much Ado; 1:30 pm meet at the Birthplace for Group Tour; if there is time, visit any of the Shakespeare Houses not yet toured: Hall’s Croft; Nash House and New Place or Holy Trinity Church (Shakespeare’s Tomb); 4:00 - 6:00 pm class meeting -- post-production discussion of The Rover and Two Noble Kinsmen and pre-production discussion of The Tempest. 
  • R 12 Jan -- full breakfast; 10:00 am workshop with the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Clore Learning Center on postcolonialism and The Rover; if there is time, visit any of the Shakespeare Houses not yet toured: Hall’s Croft; Nash House and New Place or Holy Trinity Church (Shakespeare’s Tomb); 7:15 pm William Shakespeare’s The Tempest at the main RSC theatre.
  • F 13 Jan -- full breakfast; leave Stratford-upon-Avon to return to London and stay at the London Lodge in Kensington for 4 nights. The motorcoach will stop at the Harry Potter Studios for a Tour. The London Lodge hotel is a bit west of the city, near Kensington Park, and serves a generous continental breakfast; unscheduled evening.
  • Sa 14 Jan -- breakfast; 10:00 Westminster Abbey Blue Badge Guided Tour; ~ 12:30 pm: self-guided tour of Kensington Palace and its exhibits; 2:00 pm Group High Tea at The Orangery at Kensington Palace. Your Royal Palaces ticket gives you 10% off all meals and souvenirs. Unscheduled evening.
  • Su 15 Jan -- breakfast; meet at 9:30 for a 10:00 am entry to Victoria and Albert Museum and the highlights of its theatre collections. You will be next door to the Museum of Natural History if you want to see it after lunch. I recommend lunch in the tea room at the V & A -- the first museum cafe in the world, and retaining its Victorian decor (inexpensive). 4:00-6:00 pm class meeting for a post-production discussion of The Tempest at a V & A classroom and a chance to talk about final projects.
  • M 16 Jan -- breakfast; group trip to Windsor Castle -- Walk out of the hotel by 9:55 am; leave on 10:19 am GREEN bus 702 from Kensington High Street for 11:31 am arrival in Windsor; leave Windsor by 3:44 pm to return for Dinner. Farewell Group Dinner, at The Hansom Cab at 6:00 pm
  • T 17 Jan -- breakfast; leave by motorcoach to Heathrow airport and our group flight back to the USA. Our group flight is Delta flight 4015 leaving LHR (Heathrow) at 12:25 pm and landing at PHL (Philly) at 4:11 pm -- still on the 17th of January. It is again a direct nonstop flight and again includes dinner and one free checked bag and two free carry on bags (one of which must be small enough to fit under the seat in front of you).

We will have unscheduled time in London, and students may visit many sites on their own. Your transit pass gives you unlimited travel in zones 1 and 2 (the central London area) during both sections of our London stay.

We’ll have some unscheduled time in Stratford-Upon-Avon, students will have time to see:

In London, we will tour these sights as a group:

In Stratford-Upon-Avon, we’ll tour these sights as a group

En route to and from Stratford-Upon-Avon and London, we’ll make two tourist stops

  • In Leavesden, we’ll see the Harry Potter Studios. Admission to the Studios is included.
  • In Oxford, we’ll stop for a few hours and have a Blue Badge guided tour of some of the university’s landmarks, and time for lunch and book shopping.

We’ll have some special group dinners and lunches together included in the price.  I will prepare for you all a guide to some less pricey places to eat in London. Stratford-Upon-Avon’s  restaurants tend not to have online menus to which I can send you -- they are a little less up-to-date compared to London’s, but considerably less expensive.

  • Welcome to London Group Dinner at a British Pub (typical pub fare)
  • Group Lunch at The George Inn in Southwark (galleried coaching inn by site of Chaucer’s Tabard Inn)
  • Group Lunch at Middle Temple medieval banquet hall (amazing place and home to first performance of Twelfth Night)
  • Gastro-Pub Farewell Dinner in London at Down the Well (amazing gastro-pub)
  • “High Tea” (really an entire meal!) at Kensington Palace in the Orangery
  • Welcome Dinner in Stratford.

Roommate List

  1. Dr. Felicia Jean Steele and Prof. Diane Vanner Steinberg
  2. Brandi Brooks and Gracemarie Loretta
  3. Chelsea Cariota and Jackie Delaney
  4. Robert Fischer and Frederick Steinberg
  5. Austin Gibbs and Edward Guippone
  6. Rebecca Kaploun and Julia Pugliese
  7. Emily Maragni and Maria Printon
  8. Matthew Paulo and Tyler Sekundo
  9. Melanie Rebenski and Madellyn Stoner

Book list

  • Behn, Aphra. The Rover. Publisher: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama. 3rd edition, 2012. ISBN-13: 978-1408152119
  • Fletcher, John and William Shakespeare. The Two Noble Kinsmen. Publisher: Clarendon Press. 1st edition, 2010. ISBN-13: 978-0199537457 or any edition with helpful notes.
  • Graham, James. This House. Publisher: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama. Reprint edition, 2013. ISBN-13: 978-1472507020
  • Haddon, Mark and Stephen Simons. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime Publisher: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama. Reprint edition, 2012. ISBN-13: 978-1408173350 (or the novel if your prefer reading it to the dramatization)
  • The London Mapguide. Publisher: Penguin Books. 8th edition, 2013. ISBN-13: 978-0241967362
  • Shakespeare, William Loves Labours Lost. Publisher: Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare. 3rd edition, 1998. ISBN-13: 978-1904271109 or any edition with helpful notes
  • Shakespeare, William Much Ado about Nothing Publisher: Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare. 3rd edition, 2005. ISBN-13: 978-1903436837 or any edition with helpful notes
  • Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's. 2nd edition, 2009. ISBN-13 978-0312457525 or any edition with helpful notes
  • Streetwise London. Publisher: Streetwise Maps, Inc. 2016. ISBN-13 978-0935039276 -- suddenly out of print, so only if your local bookstore has it!
  • Wright, Tony. British Politics: A very Short Introduction. Publisher: Oxford UP, 5th edition, 2013. ISBN-13: 978-0199661107
  • Blank journal -- any size, any style
  • Critical essays and reviews in CANVAS, including "The Little Match Girl"

Course Summary:

Date Details Due