The Wellesley Historical Society and retired Wellesley High School English Department legend Jeanie Goddard on Sept. 13, 2pm invite you to a virtual tea event via Zoom. The event, in partnership with Wellesley Theatre Project, will celebrate William Shakespeare’s 456th birthday. Jeanie Goddard, former WHS teacher and forever tea maven, cannot wait to share stories of teaching Shakespeare to the students of Wellesley High School. She will regale you with tales of how Shakespeare became part of her students’ literary, social, and even athletic lives. For example, hear how words from Hamlet’s second soliloquy cheered on the football team to win several Super Bowls.
Tickets to Tea with Jeanie are $15 and are available at this link.
Wellesley Theatre Project will perform scenes from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and much literary conversation and good cheer will ensue.
Each person must be prepared to stand and deliver at least one line from Shakespeare. Fret not; suggested lines will be made available for those whose Shakespeare books have been relegated to the dustbin of history.
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About the woman, the myth, the legend— Jeanie Goddard:
Jeanie Goddard rejected teabags at an early age, so smitten was she by the glorious flavor of loose tea. Every major decision that she and her husband Brooks, also an ardent tea drinker, made took place over a cup of tea—hers with lemon and his with milk and sugar.
As an English teacher at Wellesley High School for most of her adult life, she made it her mission to share her passion for tea with her students and persuade them that tea was a force for good. During her speech delivered to WHS’s 2001 graduating class, Goddard suggested that if you drank tea, not only would you never want, but you also would never be picked up by the Wellesley Police. So sure was she that this advice could be life changing, that she taped a little packet of Halmari Assam tea under every graduate’s seat to take home and share a pot with family and friends. She is hoping that those students embarked on a life of tea and will always find a cup both invigorating and comforting.
From taking tea at The Dorchester Hotel in London, to haunting Fortnum and Mason, touring tea plantations in Sri Lanka, and visiting the world’s only Tea Institute based in Jorhat, India, Jeanie and Brooks have kept tea at the center of their travels.