Arts Alive! podcast: Actor Giles Davies

“If music be the food of love, play on.”

The opening line of Twelfth Night, spoken by the lovesick Duke Orsino of Illyria, is one of the most famous of Shakespeare’s many contributions to contemporary language.

Actor Giles Davies, who’s playing Orsino in the current Jobsite Theater production of Twelfth Night, often speaks the Bard’s most iconic lines in Tampa-based Jobsite productions. Think of it: He’s played the title characters in Hamlet and MacBeth, Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Iago in Othello and Caliban in The Tempest.

The company includes a Shakespeare play in every season, and even if Davies isn’t part of the cast, he’s a text and dialogue coach, or assistant director (see Henry V, Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It).

That’s because the Hong Kong-born, midwestern US-raised and trained thespian worked for many years with the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company. He’s taught Shakespeare. He’s done pretty much all the plays. He knows his stuff.

Our guest today on the Arts Alive! podcast, Davies discuses all things Shakespeare, and his lengthy career with Jobsite, where he’s an indispensable part of one of the bay area’s most versatile ensembles. In the last two years alone, he’s played Count Dracula, Dr. Viktor Frankenstein and the top half of that dysfunctional duo Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Along with a couple of Will Shakespeare specials.

Click on the arrow to listen to the interview.