“I came out of this really small town. I saw one professional play… I saw one professional arts program… in six years of being a teenager. Seattle Repertory Theatre was touring the Western States, and they came into Wenatchee. Then they bussed us in from all over North Central Washington to see the play. And that was the only performance. . . and I still, decades later, I still remember walking into the Wenatchee gym, they didn’t have a theatre at that time, and seeing that show. And so that for me is probably where my love of theater starts.
Shakespeare… I did not see a production of Shakespeare until I was, I think, 20. But I know where I first fell in love, in a really small town, back before we had internet and before we had video games, et cetera. I haunted our public library, and basically read through the public library. And I remember very clearly finding Charles and Mary Lamb’s Stories of Shakespeare. I was in seventh grade and I read that multiple times, and what captured me–because of course so many people are captured by the language, but the language doesn’t come across in those stories–what comes across in those stories are the plot and the characters. And I fell in love with the plots and characters.” #IAmSeattleCenter #SSC #Shakespeare #firstlove
JOHN BRADSHAW, Managing Director, Seattle Shakespeare Company.
John has managed Seattle Shakespeare Company for over 10 years, while also becoming a beloved figure and expert in the Seattle theater community-at-large. His personal story of discovering theater speaks to his company’s mission of bringing classical theater to the masses in creative and accessible ways.
