As a boy in rural Saratoga, Wyoming Chuck grew up with music, hunting, literature, 4-H, snowplows, sports, and one of the best hot springs in the world. All around town is a famous picture of his great-grandfather Charles Merritt Wilcox’s stagecoach, pulled by six white horses. Chuck’s grandparents had a movie theater, but he experienced his first live theatre production when he went to college—on a tuba scholarship!
Their second Developmental Theatre was called The Overland Stage Company and used a stylized drawing of the stagecoach as a logo.
Chuck’s interests in Shakespeare’s London, Theater, and Plays began while he was in undergraduate school at the University of Wyoming. He appeared in Macbeth and As You Like It for UW and as Hamlet for the First Person Coffee House, with The Poor Yoric Players. He also performed major roles in Little Foxes and Long Day’s Journey Into Night.
Chuck earned a degree in speech, acquiring a broad background in that discipline with forays into debate, classical rhetoric, the oral interpretation of literature, history, and theatre. That breadth of focus introduced him to skills he used in a variety of intellectual and practical ways throughout his life.
Colorado Shakespeare Festival
In 1971 Chuck had the good fortune to begin a connection with The Colorado Shakespeare Festival (CSF) and The University of Colorado at Boulder (C.U.). This happy association continued. He earned a Master’s Degree at CU (Thesis: Firearms for the Theatre). Chuck then continued as an actor, director, and fight choreographer for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival throughout most of his stage acting career.
Impersonation of Will Shakespeare
Chuck experienced a brain stem stroke in 1983, which left him with physical weakness on his right side. When he realized, however, this ‘speed-bump’ made the theater more interesting for him, he found new and worthy ways to pursue his vocation. One of those ways was an impersonation of William Shakespeare. He performed as Will Shakespeare for almost forty years. With C.U. Will has been on the green before CSF plays, talking with playgoers having picnics. After C.U. closed the Colorado Caravan experience, he continued to support the educational wing of the CSF, e.g. in Will Power.
Privately he was already owner, director and actor for the Overland Stage Company, (OSC) which replicated the Colorado Caravan experience and also toured to Wyoming. While alternately working with CSF during the summer months, and taking OSC on tour for the rest of the year, he acted, directed, and wrote (often with Lola, his wife) some 35 plays for children and adults.
Throughout those years, he developed a set of impersonations that reflect his varied interests. Chuck’s experiences growing up in rural America, being a martial artist and a black powder arms enthusiast also contributed special knowledge to many of his impersonations and interests.
St. Mary’s Academy
Chuck’s experiences in theatre, in his role as Shakespeare, and in the classroom were of particular interest to St. Mary’s Academy in Denver, CO. He became a teacher there in 1995, teaching grades one through eight every day. The association was a happy one for eleven years. He had an opportunity to further refine classroom work while teaching Speech, Debate, and Oral Interpretation as well as Drama. Chuck continued his external impersonation work throughout this period of time.
The result of all the activity was the development of a service to the community, which the University of Colorado recognized by awarding Chuck a medal for outstanding accomplishment and service in the year 2000.
In 2011 grateful visitors to ‘Will on the Green’ in front of Hellems contributed to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London in his name. Now Will (as he styled his signature for autographs) and Chuck have signatures on a brass plate on a retaining wall at that theatre with other theatre notables. In the Globe seasons of 2013, 2017, 2019 Chuck was able to view it. His gratitude knew no bounds.
Theatre Resume
Chuck’s extensive history of theatre work is listed below. Included categories are: acting roles, fight choreography and directing, as well as various additional experiences. Lists are organized alphabetically by name of the play.
Theatre Roles
All’s Well That End’s Well (Shakespeare), Colorado Shakespeare Festival
1981 – Performed role: “King of France”
As You Like It (Shakespeare), University of Wyoming Main Stage
1967 – Performed role: “Jaques”
Antony and Cleopatra (Shakespeare), Colorado Shakespeare Festival
1972 – Performed role: “Agrippa”
1994 – Performed role: “Lepidus”
Antigone (Shakespeare), Colorado Shakespeare Festival
19?? – Performed role: “Creon”
Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare), Colorado Shakespeare Festival
1976 – Performed role: “Antipholus of Syracuse”
Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare), University of Colorado Main Stage
1999 – Performed role: “Duke Solinus”
Hamlet (Shakespeare), Poor Yoric Players
1967 – Performed role: “Hamlet”
Hamlet (Shakespeare), Colorado Shakespeare Festival
1980 – Performed role: “The Player King”
Hamlet (Shakespeare), Will Power
???? – Performed role: “Gravedigger”
Julius Caesar (Shakespeare), Colorado Shakespeare Festival
1981 – Performed role: “Brutus”
King Henry IV, Pt. 1 (Shakespeare), Colorado Shakespeare Festival
1978 – Performed role: “Black Douglas”
King Henry IV, Pt. 2 (Shakespeare), Colorado Shakespeare Festival
1979 – Performed role: “Lord Chief Justice”
1999 – Performed role: “Justice Silence”
King Henry V (Shakespeare), Colorado Shakespeare Festival
1980 – Performed role: “Fluellen”
1992 – Performed role: “Earl of Westmoreland”
King Henry VIII (Shakespeare), Colorado Shakespeare Festival
1971 – Performed roles: “Sir Thomas More” & “Surveyor”
King John (Shakespeare), Colorado Shakespeare Festival
1976 – Performed role: “Count Melune”
King Lear (Shakespeare), Colorado Shakespeare Festival
1971 – Performed role: “Kent”
King Richard II (Shakespeare), Colorado Shakespeare Festival
1998 – Performed role: “John of Gaunt”
King Richard III (Shakespeare), Overland Stage Company
1981 – Performed role: “Richard”
Love’s Labors Lost (Shakespeare), Colorado Shakespeare Festival
1971 – Performed role: “Servant”
Macbeth (Shakespeare), University of Wyoming Main Stage
196? – Performed role: “Macduff”
Macbeth (Shakespeare), Colorado Shakespeare Festival
1987 – Performed roles: “Seyton” & “Porter”
Measure for Measure (Shakespeare), Colorado Shakespeare Festival
2010 – Performed role: “Barnardine”
2015 – Hilo (HAWAI’I) Community Players
Merry Wives of Windsor (Shakespeare), Colorado Shakespeare Festival
2003 – Performed role: “Gremio”
Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare), Colorado Shakespeare Festival
1979 – Performed role: “Bottom”
Queen Margaret, Colorado Shakespeare Festival
2001 – Performed role: “Earl of Warwick”
Twelfth Night (Shakespeare), Colorado Shakespeare Festival
1978 – Performed role: “Sir Toby Belch”
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Colorado Shakespeare Festival
1995 – Performed role: “Polonius”
Servant of Two Masters (by Goldoni), Colorado Shakespeare Festival
1975 – Performed role: “Briguella”
Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare), Colorado Shakespeare Festival
197? – Performed role: “Petrucio”
2003 – Performed role: “Gremio”
The Tempest (Shakespeare), Colorado Shakespeare Festival
1976 – Performed role: “Caliban”
1987 – Performed role: “Gonzalo”
2000 – Performed role: “Alonzo”
The Winter’s Tale (Shakespeare), Colorado Shakespeare Festival
1972 – Performed role: “Old Shepherd”
Troilus And Cressida (Shakespeare), Colorado Shakespeare Festival
1997 – Performed role: “General Nestor”
Volpone (by Ben Johnson), Colorado Shakespeare Festival
1972 – Performed role: “Sergeant”
Fight Choreography, Directing, Etc.
Hamlet (Shakespeare), Young People’s Shakespeare
1980 – Director
Hamlet (Shakespeare), Colorado Shakespeare Festival
1980 – Stage Fight Choreographer
King Henry IV, Pt. 1 (Shakespeare), Colorado Shakespeare Festival
1978 – Stage Fight Choreographer
King Henry V (Shakespeare), Colorado Shakespeare Festival
Stage Fight Choreographer
King John (Shakespeare), Colorado Shakespeare Festival
1976 – Stage Fight Choreographer
King Lear (Shakespeare), Upstart Crow
200? – Stage Fight Choreographer
Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare), Colorado Shakespeare Festival
1992 – Stage Weapons Choreographer
Timon of Athens (Shakespeare), Colorado Shakespeare Festival
2010 – Dramaturge
Two Noble Kinsmen (Shakespeare), Upstart Crow
2010 – Stage Fight Choreographer
Additional Experience With Various Theaters and Venues
Gem City Opera House (two shows; acting)
The Poor Yorick Players (three shows, acting and directing)
Jackson Hole Opera House (two shows; directing and acting)
Cheyenne Little Theater (directing two seasons)
Stage Door Theater (one show; directing and acting)
The Mercury Café (two shows; acting)
Stage Three (directed one show)
St. Mary’s Academy (directed five shows & acted in one)
Colorado Caravan (six seasons)
Overland Stage Company (thirty-one seasons)
University of Wyoming Main Stage (six major shows; acting)
UW Radio Drama (eight scripts & composed music)
University of Colorado, Theater 300 (two shows, acting)
CU Main Stage (seven major shows; acting and directing)
Denver Botanic Gardens (2018 to present) – Meeting Will at the end of the Shakespeare’s Plants Tour.
Plays Introduced as Will Shakespeare (for CSF)
All’s Well That End’s Well (1992, 2007)
Around the World in 80 Days (2007)
As You Like It (1994, 2001, 2006)
Antony and Cleopatra (1994, 2004)
Comedy of Errors (1991, 1999, 2004, 2011)
Coriolanus (1995)
Cymbeline (2003)
Earnest, by Oscar Wilde (1991)
Hamlet (1995, 2003, 2009)
Julius Caesar (1991, 2000, 2007)
King Henry IV, Pt. 1 & 2 (1999)
King Henry V (1992, 2000)
King Henry VI, Pt. 1, 2 & 3 (2001)
King Henry VIII (2008)
King Lear (1993, 2001, 2010)
King Richard II (1998)
King Richard III (1991, 2002)
Love’s Labors Lost (1998, 2008)
Macbeth (1987, 1994, 2002, 2008)
Measure for Measure (1998, 2010)
Merry Wives of Windsor (1993, 1999)
Midsummer Night’s Dream (1996, 2002, 2007)
Much Ado About Nothing (1997, 2003, 2009)
Othello (1996, 2005)
Our Town (2010)
Pericles (1993)
Twelfth Night (1994, 2000, 2005)
Real Inspector General (The) by Gogol (2011)
Romeo and Juliet (1992, 1997, 2004, 2011)
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1995)
Servant of Two Masters, by Goldini (2000)
Shakespeare in Briefs (2002)
Taming of the Shrew (1998, 2010)
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (2009)
The Fantastics (2010)
The Merchant of Venice (1996, 2006)
The Miser (1996)
The Rivals, by Sheridan (1992)
The Tempest (1993, 2000, 2006)
The Winter’s Tale (1992, 2005)
Three Musketeers, By Dumas (2008)
Troilus And Cressida (1997 – as Lee Curry)
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee (2009 – as Lee Curry)
Two Gentlemen of Verona (1994, 2001, 2009)
Unexpected Shaxpere! (2005, 2006)
Would Be Gentleman, by Molier (1997)
Woody Guthrie’s American Song (2008)