Yesterday’s Independence Day celebration party ended our first week of the program and also Dr. Tiffany Stern’s work with our group. A preiminent scholar in theater history at Oxford University with several important publications that have shaped how we understand the original practices on Shakespeare’s stage and particularly how theater is done at the Blackfriars theater here in Staunton, it was amazing to have had the opportunity to work with such an amazingly smart and important thinker. What we noticed just as much, though, as her scholarship, was how friendly and truly compassionate she was with all of the participants in the program. I feel as though I learned and grew as much in her three morning lectures as I could have in an entire semester. And I certainly hope to have the opportunity to see more of her work in the future.
