For the first time in the program's vaunted 17-year history, the undergraduates are sharing their insights and experiences in London and Stratford-upon-Avon with the general public through UCLA's new Bruins in Bardland blog.

From being a groundling in the audience of the famous Globe Theatre to clinking steins with the Royal Shakespeare Company at the players' favored pub, the Dirty Duck, the students' experiences will provide readers with an insider's tour of Shakespeare's England.

"It's so inspiring to see the students' reaction to what may well be the finest Shakespeare productions in the world," said Jonathan Post, the UCLA English professor who launched the program in 1993. "Many of them have never seen live Shakespeare, and because students are able to use financial aid to take these classes, you'll get the perspective of young people who might never otherwise go to England."

This year, the students will study five classic Shakespeare plays with Post, an authority on 17th-century lyric poetry, including the works of Shakespeare, and A.R. Braunmuller, a UCLA distinguished professor of English and one of the world's top Shakespeare experts.

Students also will attend live productions of those plays, featuring notable British stage actors and movie stars, including famed Shakespearean actor Simon Russell Beale and film stars Jude Law and Ethan Hawke.

"The students are always astounded by how different it is to see the plays than to read them," said Braunmuller, who serves as the associate general editor of the New Cambridge Shakespeare and co-general editor of the New Pelican Shakespeare.

The students will see "The Winter's Tale" and "As You Like It" in London before moving to Stratford, where they will watch and compare different interpretations of those same plays. They'll also catch "Julius Caesar" before returning to London to enjoy "Romeo and Juliet" and "Hamlet," featuring Law in the title role.

Talk about a midsummer night's dream!

To blog or not to blog is the question, and nearly half of the 70 undergraduates participating in the UCLA Summer Shakespeare Program in Stratford and London have indicated their desire to post regularly on their experiences. Updates are expected be filed daily through Wednesday, Aug. 26, when the four-week program concludes.

"Whenever I read a good piece of literature or spend time in a new place I always have moments of epiphany about human nature and my place in the world," said Nikki Jagerman, 20, a Bruins in Bardland blogger and English major going into her fourth year at UCLA. "Then I leave that place or finish that book and become distracted by my normal routine. I feel that by blogging my experience, I will not only be able to talk about what I learned but also remind myself of the lessons I'd learned and the people and characters I'd met along the way."

Visit Bruins in Bardland at today.ucla.edu/portal/ut/bards-blog.aspx.

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