SHAKESPEARE WAS RIGHT

Life really begins
only after the big insight:
there is an audience,
an audience of one,
me, myself and I.
Before that we think the play is for others.
Drama, costume, the teen years, school,
parties, the twenties, thirties, forties for some,
on stage with friends, jobs, relationships, play,
“the play’s the thing” …
that catches the conscience….
And then there are those times back stage –

all those second thoughts,
sometimes tears, sometimes fears:
“Did I say the wrong thing?”
“How did I do tonight?”
“Where am I?"

"What happened?"
“What’s next?"

"Is there a God?"
“Uh oh!”
That play ends.
That curtain closes. Then the real drama
begins on the inner stage of the inner me.
Isn’t that what Shakespeare was all about?
The show must go on.
Open the curtains.
Step out onto the stage,
Play your parts. Say your lines.
Hear the cues. Be ready

for the big questions.

Self. Others. God.

Comedy. Tragedy.

"To be or not to be?"

"Sweet are the uses of adversity, ...

Sermons in stones, and good in everything."
As You Like It.

"I will tell you my drift."

Much Ado About Nothing.

Real acting:
the rest of my life has just begun.

"The web of our life is of a mingled yarn,

good and ill together."

All's Well That Ends Well.

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2010

Drawing on top - The Droeshout Engraving - 1623. This was the first published portrait of Shakespeare [1564-1616]. It was an engraving commissioned by his friends and fellow actors.