Hill Country towns along the Guadalupe River have now had nearly a year to recover from last July's devastating floods. In Kerrville, the return of Shakespeare in the Park offered one sign of how the community is healing.
Outside the Kathleen C. Cailloux City Center for the Performing Arts, people TPR spoke with described a community that is healing, even if the recovery is far from complete.
San Antonio's Stephen Hovsapien is optimistic, and this wasn't his first Shakespeare in the Park experience.
“We were fortunate enough to catch The Tempest last year, right before the flood, and it was, as always, a beautiful experience, and a lot of local actors and talent, seeing them bring Shakespeare to life was fantastic,” Hovsapien said.
Hovsapien said Kerrville's artistic community has remained a source of strength.
“We do have some friends that are Kerrville residents and artists up here, actors, writers, and so we were very aware of how it affected them, not just physically, you know, but emotionally. And recovering as a community,” he said.
Jeffrey Brown is producing this year's show and has a long history with Shakespeare in the Park.
“This is actually our 15th year of doing Shakespeare in the Park. We started in 2012 at basically the request of the city to add something new and different to the park scene, and we started with a little A Midsummer Night's Dream,” Brown said. “And now 15 years later we are back, and we're doing Midsummer again.”
Brown said the event gives people a chance to experience Shakespeare in a more casual setting.
“The impetus behind Shakespeare in the Park is that it gets people out to see Shakespeare who might otherwise not, and we've been very successful at that too,” Brown said.
Kerrville resident Aden Hosbock said communities along the Guadalupe received significant support after the floods drew national attention.
“We are fortunate enough that there was a lot of attention on Kerrville, you know, Hunt, Ingram, you know, the towns kind of down the Guadalupe, and I really feel like we got a lot of support on that front,” Hosbock said.
David Lasaldi drove from Boerne with his son to support a family member in the cast.
“Because my sister-in-law is in the play, so we'll come to see and support her,” he said.
“It's been from really bad situation to really good situation,” Lasaldi said. “So, I like the way the community gathered together after the floods, and so that was amazing to see.”
For Kerrville, the return of Shakespeare in the Park is a reminder that all the world's a stage — and that the community's next act is still unfolding.
