Will Wilhelm finds the queerness in Shakespeare

This week I am thrilled to showcase Will Wilhelm (they/them), Chicago theatre artist who has become a major inspiration for me since I met them and invited them to speak in Queering Shakespeare, a virtual acting workshop that I created and led through Loyola University Chicago earlier this year. 

Wilhelm graduated from Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre. They were the first openly non-binary company member at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, playing genderqueer characters in As You Like It, Macbeth, and Oklahoma!. Recently, Wilhelm completed the first draft of their solo play, Gender Play. 

Gender Play is a solo exploration of the queer roots and themes that permeate Shakespeare's works.

Before the start of the pandemic, Wilhelm had started working with their longtime friend and artistic collaborator, Erin Murray (she/her) on developing Gender Play. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, Will and Erin decided that it was the perfect time to start developing the play in a virtual format, which is what brought them to Teacakes and Tarot. 

Teacakes & Tarot is being presented through Island Shakespeare Festival's "Shakespeare Playground." The series is currently in its second season. 

In season one, a guest was invited to chat with Wilhelm live on Zoom, then they would give the guest a specialized tarot card reading, pulling one card from the major arcana and one of Shakespeare’s sonnets. Following the reading, Wilhelm would share a few pages of Gender Play with the audience. 

“It’s impossible to imitate the liveness of theatre in the digital space," Wilhelm said. However, they feel like the unpredictable nature of what tarot card will be pulled and what Shakespearean sonnet will be pulled creates a thrill similar to that of live theatre. 

Teacakes & Tarot promo. Photo from gender-play.com.

Between seasons one and two, Wilhelm finished their first draft of Gender Play and they were no longer seeking the development space was the first season of Teacakes & Tarot. However, Wilhelm said, “the producer of Island Shakespeare Festival was very keen on it continuing.” For the second season, the series has taken on a life of its own. 

“We decided that we could very much keep doing this. This is a very scalable thing. I know so many incredible people and people that I just admire that I’ve been inviting into the loop,” Wilhelm said.

Wilhelm expressed that in season two there is more of a focus on their conversations with their guests. They feel like it allows for more time to go deeper and ask more complex questions about art, Shakespeare, and queerness. 

As so many of the theatre companies and artists I have covered on my blog, Will Wilhelm saw a gap in queer representation and conversation surrounding Shakespeare and found a way to fill it. Through Teacakes & Tarot, Gender Play, and all of Wilhelm's performances and projects, they are bringing themself to the art in a way that so many performers struggle to do.