So shall I live, supposing thou art true,
Like a deceived husband; so love’s face
May still seem love to me, though altered new;
Thy looks with me, thy heart in other place:
For there can live no hatred in thine eye,
Therefore in that I cannot know thy change.
In many’s looks, the false heart’s history
Is writ in moods, and frowns, and wrinkles strange.
But heaven in thy creation did decree
That in thy face sweet love should ever dwell;
Whate’er thy thoughts, or thy heart’s workings be,
Thy looks should nothing thence, but sweetness tell.
How like Eve’s apple doth thy beauty grow,
If thy sweet virtue answer not thy show!

Hille Auvinen is a 2021 graduate of the Acting and Contemporary Theatre course at East 15 Acting School. She is a proud European – a Finn, born and raised in Belgium; a polyglot; a lover of cultures, people and art. Hille is a passionate theatre-maker. Her expertise, both as performer and director, lies in movement, clown work, choral singing and puppetry. However, she also feels alive both in front of and behind the camera, and is forever obsessed about experimenting with film.

Hille Auvinen, performer. Aale Tynni, translator.

Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonness;
Some say thy grace is youth and gentle sport;
Both grace and faults are lov’d of more and less:
Thou mak’st faults graces that to thee resort.
As on the finger of a throned queen
The basest jewel will be well esteem’d,
So are those errors that in thee are seen
To truths translated, and for true things deem’d.
How many lambs might the stern wolf betray,
If like a lamb he could his looks translate!
How many gazers mightst thou lead away,
If thou wouldst use the strength of all thy state!
But do not so, I love thee in such sort,
As thou being mine, mine is thy good report.

Búi Dam is a director, actor and musician from the Faroe islands. He started out a jazz guitarist, studying with the great american saxophonist John Purcell and then began writing songs and performing as a singer, founding the group Budam, releasing two studio albums, Stories of Devils, Angles, Lovers and Murderers (2007) and MAN (2011) and touring extensively in Europe. In 2012  he applied for the directing course at the Danish National School for Performing Arts and was accepted. He´s the co-founder of Det Ferosche Compagnie (DFC), he´s collaborated with feminist theatre group Gut//Productions and is currently working as a filmmaker on his first feature film Tisander and a TV series for children about death. Filmed and edited by Rógvi Rasmussen

Búi Dam, performer. Hans Tórgarð, translator.

O! never say that I was false of heart,
Though absence seemed my flame to qualify,
As easy might I from my self depart
As from my soul which in thy breast doth lie:
That is my home of love: if I have ranged,
Like him that travels, I return again;
Just to the time, not with the time exchanged,
So that myself bring water for my stain.
Never believe though in my nature reigned,
All frailties that besiege all kinds of blood,
That it could so preposterously be stained,
To leave for nothing all thy sum of good;
For nothing this wide universe I call,
Save thou, my rose, in it thou art my all.

I have played in musicals, dramatic characters, in TV series and films, gaining 8 nominations for “ Best actress of the year” and “ Supporting actress of the year “. Already for the 6^th year I am playing my mono spectacle “ Molly says yes” based on the 18^th chapter of James Joyce’s “Ulysses”. I’ve been an actress in the National theatre of Latvia since 2007. Teacher of acting for opera students in Latvian Academy of Music since 2019. BA in Arts Latvian Academy of Culture, 2005. MA in Stage Directing, Latvian Academy of Culture, 2018. Video: Artūrs Dombrovskis. Montage: Linda Ģībiete.

Marija Bērziņa, performer. Juris Birzvalks, translator.

Alas! ’tis true, I have gone here and there,
And made my self a motley to the view,
Gored mine own thoughts, sold cheap what is most dear,
Made old offences of affections new;
Most true it is, that I have looked on truth
Askance and strangely; but, by all above,
These blenches gave my heart another youth,
And worse essays proved thee my best of love.
Now all is done, have what shall have no end:
Mine appetite I never more will grind
On newer proof, to try an older friend,
A god in love, to whom I am confined.
Then give me welcome, next my heaven the best,
Even to thy pure and most most loving breast.

George Jack is an American teacher, actor, director, and playwright, based in Raleigh, North Carolina.  He has performed in over 300 plays and directed over 50 productions.  His work in plays by Shakespeare includes productions of HAMLET, HENRY IV Part I, KING LEAR, RICHARD III, and THE TEMPEST.  In August 2021, he will be playing the Old Shepherd in Sweet Tea Shakespeare’s production of THE WINTER’S TALE.  He has worked with many theatre companies, including Burning Coal Theatre Company, Honest Pint Theatre, and the Virginia Shakespeare Festival.  Each year, George takes part in FAIREST CREATURES, a local reading of all of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, organized by Kurt Benrud (where George reads different sonnets in English and in Latin).  George is an Associate Professor of Humanities at Saint Augustine’s University, where he has worked for the past twenty-one years.  He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre and Speech from the College of William and Mary and his Master of Fine Arts degree in Performance from the University of Louisville.  He has finished everything except his dissertation for a Ph.D. in Theatre History, Literature, and Criticism from Indiana University, which he intends to complete someday, but he has been saying that for a very long time.  He traces his love of theatre back to high school, where his first theatre teacher, Margaret Trask, was also his Latin teacher!  

George Jack, performer and translator.

Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind;
And that which governs me to go about
Doth part his function and is partly blind,
Seems seeing, but effectually is out;
For it no form delivers to the heart
Of bird, of flower, or shape which it doth latch:
Of his quick objects hath the mind no part,
Nor his own vision holds what it doth catch;
For if it see the rud’st or gentlest sight,
The most sweet favour or deformed’st creature,
The mountain or the sea, the day or night,
The crow, or dove, it shapes them to your feature.
Incapable of more, replete with you,
My most true mind thus maketh mine eye untrue.

Yiming Wang is a theatre director and writer originally from China, now at RADA&Birkbeck.

Yiming Wang, performer and translator.

What potions have I drunk of Siren tears,
Distilled from limbecks foul as hell within,
Applying fears to hopes, and hopes to fears,
Still losing when I saw myself to win!
What wretched errors hath my heart committed,
Whilst it hath thought itself so blessed never!
How have mine eyes out of their spheres been fitted,
In the distraction of this madding fever!
O benefit of ill! now I find true
That better is by evil still made better;
And ruined love, when it is built anew,
Grows fairer than at first, more strong, far greater.
So I return rebuked to my content,
And gain by ills thrice more than I have spent.

Melissa Dano is a multidisciplinary Lebanese artist. She is a singer, actor, performance and theatre-maker, vocal coach, and educator. She studied music education, voice, theatre, and she recently obtained her Master’s degree in Performance from the Leeds Beckett University in the UK. Melissa taught and directed several workshops in Vocal expression and theatre in Lebanon and she trained with professionals from the UK, USA, Sweden, France, Italy, and Lebanon. Her extensive background allows her to be a chameleon within the performing arts. Melissa is passionate about the role of performance in social change. A big thank you to everyone who helped with the creation of this film. Oud music: Tarek Charbel Studio recording: Charbel Bark Video: Beatrice Khairallah

Melissa Dano, performer and translator. Hanna Yazbeck, translator.