I confess. It wasn't a Seattle Shakespeare production that brought me into the fold. First, it was ushering at ACT in the summer of 1972. The theatre (on the corner of Roy and Queen Anne Ave) was my first experience being in a room with live theatre. I had never been in an intimate setting with professional actors on stage. (Okay, I went to college with Meryl Streep, but that was before she was professional...) I was thrilled, frightened, awed, and drawn in. I got to see every single play twice. I noticed details. I breathed the same air. I heard the company talking to one another before and after the show. I could clock the transformation each actor made and unmade before my very eyes.
I'm not a Shakespeare scholar. I wasn't an English major. But the Seattle Shakespeare productions have held me tight, bringing their magic to my mathematical and unschooled heart. They make sense. The language begins to flow and I understand what's happening and how people are feeling without the burden of having to translate. I am swept, delivered, elated, and smashed.
I invite my friends and family, very few of whom are English majors and Shakespeare scholars, to join me in attending these stunning performances, and to support and spread such engaging work. It is an enterprise worth sharing.