Charles M. Howell IV as Pedant

My son Charlie’s second season as an actor at the Theatricum Botanicum in Los Angeles has begun.  Again this year, he has parts in two plays.  He is reprising his role as Starveling in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and is playing Pendant in The Taming of the Shrew.

The Theatricum Botanicum is an outdoor theater in Topanga Canyon.  The setting is woodsy and somewhat hilly, the main stage (there are at least two) is rustic looking and the action frequently spills over into the nearby trees.  As an audience member last year I felt (during Midsummer, especially) as though the play was happening all around me.

However, the most overwhelming aspect of seeing my own flesh and blood on stage was in his cameo role as a wheelchair-bound Viet Nam vet in Measure for Measure.  Even though I knew what to expect – how he would be dressed, where he would appear, what he would do – I was not prepared for my own reaction.  It was as though I was seeing someone I had known long ago, ‘back in the day’ – someone I vaguely remembered but whose name I couldn’t call to mind.

It was a powerful experience and I came away with more than a mother’s pride in the accomplishments of a son.  I had experienced in a truly visceral way that this man I’ve known since babyhood is truly a fine actor.  I’m happy to say that the reviews I’ve read agreed with me; it’s not just a mother’s fantasy.

So it is with some regret that I realize we probably will not be able to make the trip south to see Charlie in performance again this summer.  I would especially like to see him as Pedant.  In Shrew, it is Pedant who impersonates Vincentio, assuming a noble identity and securing the promise of marriage with Bianca (Katherine’s sister) from her father.

The use of disguise is a frequent motif in Shakespeare’s plays, allowing characters to temporarily transgress barriers in social positions and class.  But the question, “Do clothes make the man?” is usually answered in the affirmative for a short time only.  As in The Taming of the Shrew, society involves a web of antecedents that are always able to uncover one’s true nature, no matter how differently one wishes to portray oneself.

The actor’s challenge, of course, is to make that fundamental principal apparent.  I would love to see Charlie playing Pedant pretending to be Vincentio.  Based on what I saw of his abilities last year, I imagine he will be totally convincing.  Break a leg, Charlie!