At Shenandoah in Virginia Benjy and I did a class in a chapel. Beautiful stained glass windows. I borrowed a ball from one of the students and we threw it around and thankfully everything was fine with the windows. Then I did some work with them all of on sonnets they had learned. There are some cracking sonnets – I get a lot of use out of them. Marriage of True Minds, the wedding sonnet. Compare. Nothing like the sun. They come up a lot with corporate gigs. They’re short and accessible and familiar to some.
We left the class slightly earlier than intended because someone was coming in to do a recital. Kayleen and Paul. We met them briefly in the corridor outside while they turned the room around and we immediately found a shared geek. They’re into their early music, she sings to lute, he composes. They are both into original pronunciation. And they just moved to Winedale, Texas.
Being back here in Austin is emotional, because James is no longer with us. James Loehlin helped create the Winedale Theatre Barn. If you know me well you’ve seen me wearing the T-shirt with William Shakespeare wearing a stetson. Winedale pleases me well. James was a wonderful enabler, but he inspired so many that it will roll and roll into the future.
Kayleen and Paul just moved to the area from South Carolina. They have three kids. They’ve found some space but they didn’t know about the Winedale Shakespeare connection. They are extremely good people. Grounded, earnest and sincere in a way that it is rare to find in UK artists. It’s an American thing, generally. We struggle most of all with earnest. Nobody can be as earnest as Americans apart perhaps from the Germans.
I took their number, they arranged childcare, I arranged free tickets, and tonight they came and sat in the front row, having their first date in three years.
This sort of thing is the beginning of a friendship, it feels. Opportunity, serendipity, alignment. I like these people and they like the work. They stayed for the Q&A after the show, then spoke with all the cast who all liked them, and I’m so happy we took the time to exchange contact details. We are all trying to make beautiful things together. But we need to have things like roofs and sandwiches. It’s good to stick together, to look out for each other, to share joy while we work out how to pay the bills.
I’m back at the hotel post show. We are back at an end on stage not a thrust. And we are still happy on the road with each other. I’ll miss this one when it’s over. One London show. 1st March. The Cockpit Theatre. It always sells out as those that know, know. It’s a great way to encounter a Shakespeare play. And As You Like It is still one of my favourites, despite the fact I know it so much deeper now.
AlBarclay 