Santa Cruz Shakespeare: Lessons in Brief
This thing we do to ourselves. This these are my people now. This goodbye for now or always. It's just love. It's just community-building. It's just coming together and breaking apart; worlds always break apart. We are an acceleration, not an exception, us theatre folk. Theatre is just making meaning out of the space between two people. You have not chosen an art form that is inherently cruel, unless you think that's how the world is. Vow now that you'll never let any experience harden you beyond hurting. This is supposed to hurt.
The best idea doesn't need to come from you.
Trust-building is a skill set; it is not alchemy.
From silly Ellen of The Winter's Tale:
Age can matter a lot and it can also matter little. Never assume you know better than someone because you've inhabited the planet for a few years longer than they have. They might be smarter - wiser - than you. Open. Learn.
From Dorcas:
You could rock a pixie cut if you so chose. Also, the sex is probably not worth the trouble.
From the Queen:
Do what needs to be done.
From Countryman #1:
I got nothin'. (And sometimes there's nothing, and it doesn't have to matter. Relax).
From the Handmaiden:
Everything is made more fun with homoerotic undertones. Find the love.
From Jailer's Daughter:
No person, place, or thing needs your love beyond love (and beyond reason or wit or safety). Love is enough. Give what you can give. If you destroy yourself in the process of giving, you'll turn tragic (and don't you love the romances best?).
From Luciana:
Familial duty might be the closest modern equivalent to honor nowadays. Yes, there are people who would betray themselves to defend their kin. Give them grace.
People come together in spite of absurd and impossible odds. It is a collective dream, this triumph of luck or fate or Providence. Every time you tell a together-in-the-end tale, you'll understand the dream better. Incomplete understanding isn't failure. Beginnings are essential and sweet and can be tied up in bows, too.