Our first day in London, we went and saw “Dancing at Lughnasa”, a memory play set in Ireland, at the National Theatre. Here I am showing off my ticket!

Author: Alyse Mandelblatt | Majors: Communication and Mathematics | Semester: Summer 2023

Hi! My name is Alyse Mandelblatt. I had the privilege of spending four weeks of my summer in England with fifteen other University of Arkansas students and two amazing faculty members, Shawn Irish and Susan Marren. While I am a double major in Communication and Mathematics, I decided to study abroad in a theatre/English program aptly named, Theatre in London.

This program was a great opportunity for me to take advantage of classes outside of my major. I came into college with most of my core classes done and have only taken classes that go towards my major even in my first year of college. It was also a great opportunity to get honors hours as I was able to take both classes as Honors Colloquium. Before we left, we spent a week discussing Shakespeare and the play we would see at the National Theatre, Dancing at Lughnasa. We studied A Midsummer’s Nights Dream, The Comedy of Errors, and As You Like It, all of which we then got to see in person during our time abroad. To get us in the right mindset for 11 plays in four weeks, we discussed themes, character motivations, potential staging, and the background of the plays.

Once we got to London, we spent our days getting immersed in the culture and our nights observing British theatre. As I just mentioned, we saw 11 plays as a group, but we were also encouraged to see more on our own to have more experiences to compare and contrast. My unexpected favorite that I went and saw with a handful of my peers is The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: The Musical. The play was preformed in a small theatre and all of the music came from the actors playing instruments on stage. It was such an interesting experience to see a high quality musical in a paired down space like that. Southwark Playhouse used every inch of there stage to make the performance lively and engaging. There was a trap door under the stage that was utilized as a sandbox, the ocean, and luggage storage throughout the show. It was such a lesson in being creative to make the most of what you have, a lesson which does not just apply to set design.

I spent most of my time in and around London. As a group we went out to Bath, which was a Roman settlement two thousand years ago, hit Oxford for a day, and spent the weekend in Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare. During our off weekend, I opted to stay in London. Although, on Saturday, I went to Cambridge with a classmate. Between Oxford and Cambridge, I got to compare college towns in the UK to college towns in the US.

There was a tube stop just across the street from my accommodations so that I could see the city. I was surprised with how easy it was to navigate the underground and was quickly able to go anywhere I wanted in the city. I also hit my step goal walking around the city everyday! I loved walking from Westminster along the south bank of the Thames to go to Borough Market. On this walk, I would pass the London Eye, the National Theatre, and Shakespeare’s Globe. Speaking of Borough Market, there are so many opportunities to try new food across London in the variety of markets. I tried the viral chocolate pot strawberries, a fried chicken bao bun, and a deconstructed apple cobbler to name a few.

Another small thing I got to incorporate into my day to day was going to a local coffee shop with my roommate. It was a short walk from where we were staying and had the smoothest salted caramel latte that brought a smile to my face in the mornings.

For any student who wants to experience London, this is an amazing program. I loved exploring London in early June. I wish I had known how easy and relatively inexpensive train tickets are to stay in England but get out of London. I loved seeing history all around me and felt so privileged to be undergoing this trip with other students. It was also nice to get to step outside my major and think about things in a new way while I was across the pond. Whether you go to London or anywhere else in the world, you will have an amazing experience, and I am so lucky the Honors College made it happen for me.