Location: Globe Theatre

“Why hast thou that goosed look?” That’s what I asked the greeter robot, striding purposelessly and getting nowhere, in front of Second Life’s impressive recreation of the Globe Theatre.  Thanks to a tip from Beeble Baxter, I went by to get a look at the bard’s virtual digs.

I’m good enough with Elizabethan English to fake my way around a Ren Faire, even when I’m half-drunk.  So I was looking forward to causing some trouble at the Globe, getting into a virtual brawl in a tavern and being able to shout things like “Out, vile jelly!” or “Bind fast his corky arms!” or even “What, you egg!  Young fry of treachery!” as I was given the heave-ho out the door by some burly jackanapes.

Alas, it was not to be. Other than the robot-usher and a bunch of green dots on my map, indicating a large number of avatars nearby, the SLliterary region seemed empty.  I never found this phantom-crowd, though I did buy some pants, a waistcoat, and a cool top-hat that will be great for my next trip to Caledon’s countless areas.

The Globe’s season includes a production of Hamlet.  This type of virtual performance provides me with another educational use for SL that I’d not imagined before how students of Shakespeare, from all over the globe (the planet, not the theater) could collaborate on productions, stagecraft, and re-interpretations of Shakespeare.  Such builds provide the answer to some morally and/or pedagogically conservative educators who have begun to attack SL (as I read recently in School Library Journal).  More such obviously educational builds blunt the critique that SL is only about adult activity.

We can now fulfill Hamlet’s belief that “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

SL’s Globe is just such a starting place.  And if the Globe was dark when I visited, there are other wholesome places to go and fun to be had…like playing bass with the band on stage at HippiePay! All of the fake world’s a stage…

Be sure to check the “In a Strange Land” Archive for old posts

Hie thee hence, thou whey-faced sheep! We’ll have none of thine ilk on Ye Royale Stage!

Personally, I’d rather hang out doing steampunk. (Although the laws of physics prevent that stuff from working in the real world, it would be fun to play with over there…) But what else would you expect of an engineer?...

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