Chapter 20: The Real Orlando

"Did you study Shakespeare, then?" I ask Orlando, longing to hear more.

"I took a couple courses about his work back during film school," he says. "But most of my love for him comes from my father. He's a huge theater buff. He was taking me to see plays by Shakespeare and Beckett and some of the other greats by the time I was seven years old." His mouth curls up slightly. "He did it with all of us kids, but it really stuck with me. And Dante - a little anyway. We still go to the theater together a few times a year - my father really likes all the high-brow stuff. Sometimes he even convinces my mother to come along."

I grin. His answer has brought up a dozen more questions, but before I get the chance to utter them, he speaks again.

"What about you, then?" he asks. "If you don't want to act, then what do you want to do? What did you study?"