If you had to choose, what period of your life would you say had the biggest influence on who you are today? This question arises as we read through the stories of this issue of Prologue.

Longtime OSF actor/dramaturg and self-professed gadfly Barry Kraft, in his article “Antony: The Passionate Man Who Lost Himself,” posits that the Mark Antony we have seen in Julius Caesar is a great general ruled by reason and prudence. But in Antony and Cleopatra, his path to greatness is destroyed by what becomes the defining chapter of his life—his passion for the incomparably alluring queen of Egypt.

In Long Day’s Journey into Night, James Tyrone (like his real-life counterpart James O’Neill, father of playwright Eugene O’Neill) is ruled by a terror of having no money, which harks back to his childhood of extreme poverty. Those harrowing days of being a dirt-poor Irish immigrant never let him go, and his family suffers deeply because of it.

Of course, it’s easy to identify the defining moment for Edmond Dantès in The Count of Monte Cristo—wouldn’t all of us be forever haunted by being falsely imprisoned for 18 years?

While Shakespeare doesn’t give us a backstory for the character of Don John in Much Ado about Nothing, actor Regan Linton shares her compelling ideas about what shaped this infamous Shakespeare villain.

Finally, in The Happiest Song Plays Last, cousins Yaz and Elliot (first introduced to OSF audiences in last year’s Water by the Spoonful) are united by blood but profoundly affected by life-changing experiences while on opposite sides of the globe. Elliot’s time in Iraq, particularly one violent episode, haunts him, while Yaz finds a new mission in tending to her struggling community.

Have the experiences that will ultimately define us occurred in our lives yet? Of course, we can’t know for sure. But this season’s characters give us pause for reflection on the struggle to unify the various parts that make up our whole selves.

 U.S. Bank, proud sponsor of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival since 1978