Airy Words and Austin Nights: My Journey with Austin Shakespeare
Despite the tragic outcome of the young lovers, Romeo and Juliet, no spectator walks away from this play with the conviction that it would be better to love moderately. Everyone knows the lovers are doomed, but some part of us still longs to experience that kind of intense love at least once in a lifetime.
On my YouTube channel, Troubadour Channel, I aim to elevate lives through art and literature. Acting on stage had never occurred to me until I moved to Austin and met Ann Ciccolella of Austin Shakespeare. My training is in writing and producing, and I’ve always considered myself a behind-the-scenes person. However, in my stage debut I fell in love with bringing words to life.
As my character, Prince Escalus, is lambasting the Montagues and Capulets for their reckless fighting in the streets of Fair Verona, he says the phrase “bred of an airy word.” What in this play is not bred of an airy word? What in life is not bred of airy words? Words lead to the feud between the two families, and the love between the two lovers and the devastating sequence of deaths that culminate in the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. Words can lift us. They can bring us into new realms. Words form treaties between countries, agreements between friends, and connections between long lost acquaintances on social media. Returning to the words of Shakespeare’s great tragedy reminds us what makes us human. Love sometimes dies, but it is worth it. Friendships fade but gather ye friends while ye may. Youth perishes and should be cherished. Careers crumble; yet with the right airy word, we are back in business.
Nothing elevates language in theater without the human beings traipsing along the stage lightly moving in and out of our hearts and minds like those airy words written hundreds of years ago. As a new actor, the vision of passion spewing from every pore of every cast and crew member is indelibly etched in my heart.
Living Shakespeare’s words at The Curtain Theatre, a replica of The Bard’s own theater, brought his words to life like nothing else. When I first stomped onstage furiously yelling to those “Rebellious Subjects” I truly felt like a prince come down from on high to smite the insolent air from their bodies. Whether the audience was conscious of the effect or not, The Curtain Theatre brought out the heaven and earth themes in a way that no other stage could. As we watch this story of star-crossed lovers beneath the Texas night sky, those airy words float down among us to play at our feet. This is the splendor of making the trek down the narrow lane into the world of The Curtain Theatre and Austin Shakespeare.
As Romeo says upon first seeing Juliet, “Have I loved till now?” So I ask myself: have I truly loved literature till now?