Jenny in London


Kia ora e hoa ma, spring greetings. It seems we have had a very mild winter- mind you I missed the worst part by going to London and experiencing their heat wave in July!

Yes I have been very fortunate to have been invited to accompany my grandson, Corwin Newall aged 18, and another 23 young New Zealanders who were selected from the Sheila Winh Young Shakespeare national competitions, to go to Shakespeare’s London Globe Theatre! WOW.


Yes I saw the fabulous embroidered curtains made by New Zealanders – they are in the museum. We stayed at a student hostel close by the Globe with 700 others from all over Europe, in London to enjoy various educational opportunities- fabulous queueing for meals with a cacophony of different languages and very excited students!
I was able to join in all the workshops with top tutors, go on all the backstage tours and attend 6 Shakespearian productions by professional actors- Henry V111, Henry 1V parts 1 and 2, A Winter’s Tale, Measure for Measure (on the village green at Stratford- upon- Avon) and of course Macbeth which our students performed. Because the Globe is so busy our NZ adaptation of Macbeth was performed on the hallowed stage from 11pm and we got home at 1am! A dedicated group of family members and friends came to support the students and were very impressed.

Corwin as the composer in the group not only stood up above the stage and played the music he had composed but he also was acting! Very proud Granny was there to take it all in! I got to see 4 other stage productions as well as tourist, not get lost on the tubes and meet the 4 people NZers I know in London! I have decided I have got stamina!









I took photos of recycling bins as I travelled- some quite distinctive ones.
The thing which struck me was the amount of rubbish on the streets in London. People just seemed to think it was their right to drop wrappings, food, coffee cups, plastic bottles, glass bottles etc as they walked along. When I returned to Auckland I was struck by how clean our streets are here!

Rangimarie,
Jenny Campbell