Former Bay Area Shakespeare Camper Tyler Aguallo joined us to share how Shakespeare Camp influenced his acting trajectory. . 

INTERVIEW

SF Shakes: How did your time at SF Shakes summer camps inform your experience of theater and of Shakespeare?

Aguallo: I was introduced to Shakespeare before I came to SF Shakes when I was 11. My mom enrolled me in SF Shakes because she saw I had an interest in Shakespeare.

I think the biggest thing for me, instead of having Shakespeare as this academic thing, going to SF Shakes transformed my perception of Shakespeare [from] an academic thing into an artistic thing. It was the first time where I was taking the language off of the page and putting it into performance, putting it into an ensemble project. It was the first time [Shakespeare] was put into a setting that allowed me to perform it in front of an audience, and that was a really big deal for me. 

As a kid, it was so important for me to be exposed to that level of artistic expression. I felt like something special was happening. I know that it wasn’t necessarily a normal thing to be a 10-years-old doing a full Shakespeare production, [but] it was really, really exciting to have this opportunity. My childhood was so shaped by SF Shakes in that first year and that’s why I just kept going.

SF Shakes: In your time between “aging out” of the summer camps and returning to SF Shakes as a professional actor, what did you learn about theater?

Aguallo: So, 2018 was the last year that I did SF Shakes and I was 17 at the time. After SF Shakes finished I went into my senior year of high school; I finished high school, I went through all of college, and a year after graduating, I’m here. So it’s been six, seven years since I aged out of SF Shakes.

The big thing for me was that SF Shakes gave me the foundation that I needed as an artist in order to go into college as someone who was majoring in theater. I don’t think I [would be] majoring in theater if it weren’t for SF Shakes. I was able to go into this college setting pursuing this craft. SF Shakes gave me such a great launch pad going into college. Then I was able to use all of the tools that I discovered from SF Shakes and sharpen and hone my skills.

Since I finished SF Shakes, I have been in two Shakespeare productions — “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “The Tempest”. And so even though I have been away from SF Shakes for six years, I have still kept Shakespeare as a really important and integral part of my work. 

I remember going to audition for this show and there was such an intense familiarity. There was such a strong sense of, “This is my home,” and I think I just haven’t been back home in seven years, but I’m back here now. There was a comfort to that. 

I think this show has come into my life at such a perfect time because it’s been six years of what feels like preparing for this opportunity.

SF Shakes: Returning to SF Shakes, what have you discovered, or rediscovered, through the organization?

Aguallo: Honestly, I haven’t really rediscovered anything. I remember going to SF Shakes for so long, and like I said earlier, it felt like my home. SF Shakes really raised me as a person, as an artist, as a human being, even as a young thinker. 

Coming back, it honestly just feels like I’m back at camp, in a weird way. We’re spending the entire day getting to discover and play in a sandbox and we are unapologetically willing to fail. We support each other so intensely and we have such a strong community here, and that is the exact reason why I fell in love with SF Shakes when I was younger. It doesn’t feel like I’m part of this company; it feels like I’m back at summer camp. In the best way possible! It’s that, but on a much bigger scale. There’s a much more intense magnifying glass on me this time, but I don’t feel the pressure. I just feel so safe. 

SF Shakes: What’s it been like transitioning from purely amateur theater to an academic setting and then into a professional setting?

Aguallo: I think the beautiful thing is that I fell in love with acting because it brought me so much joy. I remember the first time I stepped on stage as a kid, I was no good, but being up there, it’s like time stopped for me and no one else in the world mattered except for me and the people that were on stage with me. 

It was a profound feeling and I was just an eight-year-old having fun. It didn’t matter if it was at SF Shakes or back at college or jumping into the professional world. I think I’ll always be that kid who’s just having fun. The lights might get a little brighter. The audience might grow a little more. There might be more important people in the audience, but at the end of the day, that joy has not left me and I don’t think it ever will. I think if it does, then that’s how I know that I need to stop doing this. Maybe the workload has increased, but it doesn’t feel like work when you’re doing what you love. 

I do tend to be pretty hard on myself, but it’s only because I care so much and because I love the work so intensely. I wish I could tell you that there is this huge shift, but there really isn’t. I think every actor would agree that if you’re not up there having fun and if you’re not up there enjoying yourself, then why are you doing it? We’re working a little harder now that we’re adults, the pressure’s a little higher, we want to book stuff, but it’s only ever going to be from a place of love whether I was at SF Shakes as a camper or in college or even now. It’s that same joy and that same readiness and that same conviction. 

SF Shakes: In a previous conversation we had, you mentioned not quite “getting” Shakespeare when you were younger. What made you start to “get” Shakespeare?

Aguallo: I really didn’t “get” Shakespeare until I was in college. Even though I was doing Shakespeare my whole life, I only ever relished in the fluff of the language and how pretty it sounded. As a kid, all I would really live in was the joy of saying these magical words. It wasn’t until college when I was in a production of “Midsummer” and was playing Oberon and Theseus, and it was the first time where I had all this time and really sat down and said, “Maybe it’s not just about knowing what I’m saying.” 

The director of this show, Bill Peters, told me that the best Shakespeare is never about the emotions or the acting. It’s only ever about clarity. And your priority, when you’re on that stage delivering Shakespeare, it should not be about the acting or the emotions. It should only ever be, “Can I deliver this message to the audience in a way that is as clear as possible? And can the audience at the very least understand that I understand what I’m saying?” Maybe they can sit there and say, “Oh, I don’t really know what he’s saying, but he knows what he’s saying, so therefore, I can go along with you on this journey.” But the audience is so intelligent, and they know when you don’t know what you’re talking about. So, every moment — every single word, line, monologue, even every single moment of silence, every gesture — needs to be filled with commitment and with conviction. I think the biggest killer of Shakespeare is uncertainty from an actor, because the audience will smell that from a mile away. 

SF Shakes: What’s been your favorite part about working on “The Two Gentlemen of Verona” and getting to do that through SF Shakes?

Aguallo: The first thing that I love about working on this show is the group that I’m working with. This is, by far, the most incredible, most passionate, most loving group of people that I’ve gotten to work with. I feel so honored and grateful to be able to share the stage with such incredible artists. I feel like they give me so much and it is my duty to also give them as much as I can.

The second thing is that “The Two Gentlemen of Verona” has come into my life where I’m in a transitional point in my life, as a young actor, coming right out of college, not really knowing what I’m doing but kind of just seeing what happens and going wherever the wind takes me. I think that’s exactly what this show is about. It’s about young people who don’t really know what to do with their lives, but they’re gonna make a choice and they’re gonna make this decision with their full heart, even if they don’t know if it’s right or wrong

I feel like this show is so beautiful because it showcases everything beautiful but also everything ugly about being young and living a life full of love, sadness, euphoria, grief, betrayal, everything. When you’re young, you feel things to the nth degree. Things hit a little harder and that’s exactly what’s happening to the core four in this show. 

The last thing is that I get to be on the other side of the stage. I remember seeing Shakespeare and being so entranced by it and seeing the people on that stage as almost deities. The fact that I can be on the other end of that, that I can share that love with the next generation is all I could really ever ask for. I feel this intense obligation in a beautiful way, in a great way to share the love that I had when I first discovered Shakespeare with these audiences. It doesn’t matter how old you are. What matters is that you’ve never heard Shakespeare. Especially because I have the first line of the show, I feel like it’s my duty to share that love with the people who are being so generous with their time to come out here and watch us. I’m just so excited to be on the other end of that story.

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