While in London, we visit various sites that help us understand Shakespeare, his time and his plays: museums, archives, libraries, theatres, Early Modern playhouse sites, excavations sites and much more.

The National Archives allow us to get our hands on original manuscripts in Secretary Hand. These documents exist only once and are of outstanding value for understanding how playhouses and the acting trade worked in the Early Modern period.

Iris Theatre and Principal Theatre offer a wonderful way to get your hands onto the plays yourselves. Try out a scene--how does an actor or a director approach the text? How does the text direct itself by hidden clues and stage directions? Why is Shakespeare still so relevant on today's stage?

Pamela Schermann, an acclaimed opera and Shakespeare director, leads workshops for us that are designed to understand the play more deeply.

Let's not forget the main playhouse of the Early Modern period: The Globe. Bustling back then, bustling today. And why where playhouses built outside the city walls?

The Rose, the Globe's rival. If Sir Ian Mckellen and his friends had not thrown themselves in front of the bulldozers, who knows--we might be sorely missing this wonderful excavation site. And how about experiencing a play there?