A wonderful article in today's The Boston Globe about a young man from Roxbury who is finding himself through Shakespeare. 

Here, in a photo by The Globe, is Antonio Stroud who auditioned for the role of Othello in 2011, got the part and worked with the Actors’ Shakespeare Project in his high school, Boston Day and Evening Academy, to get to the point where he could say  ‘Yo! I love this!’ ” This year, he's on to Henry V.

In Shakespeare, Stroud said, he found an answer to the pressures young men like him face, and the power within himself to overcome them. According to his director, he understands the notion that "great men in difficult circumstances must chart their own courses. Macbeth chose evil. But Henry V, the young king of England, grew from his wayward youth to a king who led an invasion of France against impossible odds."

How many times have we heard this? "Stroud is a child of the projects in Roxbury, his mother on welfare, his father long gone."  These are the people who so many of us teach, those of us who love Shakespeare and realize his ability to draw the best out of those who feel helpless or useless or frightened or angry– those who struggle to overcome obstacles like Rose did, the woman I cast as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. She had HIV and her life spiraled out of control into drugs and crime.  "Thank you for giving me a chance to be someone else," she said after our performance, "if only for one night."

Stealing cars and hustling were part of Stroud's world. He was familiar with guns and drugs.  And he didn't get Othello at first.  He had to read it over and over. But eventually he understood that like himself, here was a "flawed" man who he identified with.  As reported by Meghan Irons, he says "I am human. I make mistakes. I am misunderstood.’’

The women I taught needed too to open their hearts, to forgive themselves and come to grips with their lives. With theatre, we get to walk around in the shoes of another.  Just this year, my students at the community college–non-actors all– acted out a scene from Miguel Pinero's haunting play, Short Eyes, about a pedophile who is murdered by other prisoners behind bars.  They bravely acted out the murder scene and each one had to confront his or her desire to kill the man who hurt children. Murderers, we forgive, they believed when they first began reading the play — but not pedophiles.  However, once they felt what it was like to be in that scene or watch it from the sidelines, their perspectives were changed. They realized that every person has a story and a man or woman is more than their crimes.

Theatre opens up our hearts and our minds and gives us a chance to live and learn from a life unlike our own. I hope Anthony will keep finding himself in Shakespeare and keep believing that his destiny is not written in the stars.
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My LTE about this young man was published this week in The Globe.