Time Traveling Through Renaissance

May 3, 1597

Dear Mom,

Spain is alright, but I am ready to come home for a while. Even though I am homesick, I am still having some fun. This week Gilad and I were able to se a play by Lope de Vega and it was a masterpiece. We saw The Life and Death of King Bamba. One of his hundreds of plays! It was really interesting because it was an insight on the ruling of a peasant king set here. I don't think that it was very accurate; the woman next to me kept talking about how the real history was so different. I think he did that on purpose to make the point about how other points of view are important, and aristocratic power isn't always best. We sat on the second balcony so it was a little difficult to see and the weather wasn't great, but the acting was very inspiring. I think I want to start up those acting classes again. In my last one we studied Lope de Vega a little. I am impressed with the massive amounts of plays he is writing. It doesn't surprise me that he was coming up with verses before he could even use a pen and he wrote his first play when he was twelve! I also heard he just got married to a wealthy butcher. Well I have to start packing; I will see you later this week!

Love,

Paige

July 1, 1613

Dear Gilad,

You will never believe the week that I have had! We went to see a play by William Shakespeare on the twenty-ninth and almost died! It was Henry III at the Shakespeare Globe Theatre. The day started beautifully when we were walking along the River Thames. We saw one of the actors walking around in their costume! They do that here, but are criticized for dressing like they are more wealthy then they actually are. We crossed over to Southwark, which was a little scary (it is a bit dirty), and then we went to the playhouse. It was absolutely magnificent! The stage was quite large; they told us it was 44 feet wide and 26 feet long. There were three stories of balconies. There were very wealthy people who sat in the central balcony. We could have entered for one penny, but decided to pay for the circular gallery for two pennies. It was really hard to hear, I felt like the actors were yelling! There was very little setting, but plenty of action.

The craziest thing happened in the middle of the play, a canon was shot and the roof caught on fire! It was like a stampede when Kaci and I started to run for the exit. They said it could be filled to three thousand people, and I don't think I saw one open seat. I can't even believe that not a single person was killed. I thought it was going to be me! I was disappointed about not being able to see the whole play, but this trip will only get better. Last time I was here in London I saw As You Like It and was looking forward to seeing