"Touch Shakespeare for Me." Emily Dickinson

Recently, Bradford and I were walking the streets of Pittsburgh, when I was startled by a very familiar face. It was Will, Will Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon, sitting in front of Carnegie Museum thinking. Why was he there? Was he thinking of Hamlet's, "to be or not to be" dilemma? We stood and gazed at this imposing figure with awe in our hearts. We know him. What an honor to make him live and speak in the Laurel Mountains, and what an awesome responsibility to him and to our audience to do it right.

We strolled across the street and wandered into Heinz Chapel. The stain glass windows preached the virtues of the soul -tolerance, courage, temperance, and truth.

As the sun illuminated the west windows, there he was again. William Shakespeare as a depiction of truth, surrounded by characters from The Tempest; Ariel, Caliban, Prospero who whispered "we are such stuff as dreams are made of". I touched the glass softly and let the deep ruby light fall on my hand. Shakespeare was touching me again in this sacred Globe.

Walking toward the Cathedral of Learning, I remembered the Pittsburgh Shakespeare Festival which is now no more. Brad and I opened the familiar doors to the theatre. There he was again, Billy, in stained glass. Within one block, Shakespeare was memorialized in glass, bronze, and marble. The city knows the value of such wisdom, but the festival is no longer breathing Billy breath.

Band of Brothers is "speaking the speech" here in our Johnstown, while our city gasps for cultural breath. The arts keep us human, making us feel more valuable than the world wants us remember. While our wooden Shakespeare totem stands in the forest through all four seasons, his voice travels through actors and audience year round. Shakespeare's wisdom is for all times and all worlds. "Tis the cause."

Thank you to the many iambic heartbeats that have brought us to the Bard. The Band of Brothers invites you to join us in membership, Britain, Canada, Washington, D.C., summers in the park, workshops with children and adults, Novembers with Picasso, Decembers with Jacob Marley and Naughty Reindeer, Abridged Shakespeares and Histories of the World: and in all the quiet times you recall our words touching Shakespeare.

Laura Gordon
Artistic Director