Gregory Linington, Actor

Gregory Linington is an actor at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Interview Excerpts

ON SHAKESPEARE AND MUSIC

GREGORY LININGTON: I think that looking for generalities—then you go back. It’s like hearing a song. We were talking about this when we were doing a workshop with some hip hop artists and saying that if I really like the hook of a song, I’m going to listen to that song again. And I’m talking about a rap song. So, okay, so that—that hook got me. So it’s a—you know, it’s a great little riff of a melody. God, that’s really, really sweet the way that she sang that thing so I’ll go back and listen to it.

Then if I really like that, go back and listen to it, what’s the rapper singing about? What’s the name of the song? What’s the rapper singing about? And if I’m really crazy about it I’ll Google the lyrics; I’ll try to find the lyrics, and I’ll read along with the song.

When you’re listening to rap the first time, you’re not getting every single word. You’re not—you’re getting that—you’re getting the voice, you’re getting the hook, and maybe that’s enough to bring you back. Maybe that’s enough to bring you back to the song. You hope that’s right as an artist is that it’s something that’s going to bring people back.

The exact same thing with Shakespeare. So you listen to it—oh, there was that one phrase. What was that phrase? What was that phrase? And that’s going to force you to go back, pick up your damn copy of Othello and find where that phrase was in the course of the play, and as a result of that maybe you’ll look at the entire speech, maybe you’ll look at the entire play.

But if you don’t hear the hook the first time—you know, it’s our responsibility to perhaps give that to you, but it’s also, as I say, it’s your responsibility to lean in and listen for—listen to the music, you know.

ON HEARING THE PLAY

GREGORY LININGTON: Well, people always say that they have a hard time hearing at the beginning of the play. Couldn’t hear it at the beginning of the play. And then everybody got louder. And I always think that that’s a fascinating response to it. The ear really has to tune in to that—to that language. And it—and it takes—it takes a long—it takes, in some cases, a long time. Hopefully by the end of the first scene of the play you’ve—you’ve hooked them in.

God, I hope it’s not—I really hope that it’s just not out of respect or politeness that people are being quiet and attentive out there. I really hope that at some point during the course of the play they hear, see, recognize, smell something that feels familiar to them, that they understand and—and recognize as something that is not four hundred years old but is actually—is actually happening to them in their lives right now.

And if you don’t have that connection with a Shakespeare play, I think that—I think that it is kind of old and boring and—and stodgy. If you—if you can’t hear it in that way.