Will came to London looking for the type of stardom he couldn’t achieve in Stratford. He didn’t want to make gloves for the rest of his life, nor did he want to have the scope of his writing limited to his wife and various loved ones, so he took a sizable risk by moving to the big city. There was no guarantee that he could find any open positions in London, given that the market for young playwrights in a city that’s only beginning to embrace theater is small, but Shakespeare eventually stumbled upon the struggling Globe Theater and found himself installed as their new in-house playwright. Yet despite the surge in luck, there’s still a lot of work to be done.
On tonight’s episode of Will, Shakespeare has an epiphany that could prove bountiful for the Globe if executed properly. However, he cannot bring about this change himself; he has to have Alice to help. The two are on better terms after he brought Kemp back into the fold and made the kind gesture toward Baxter’s widow, so she’s more open to linking arms with him than she would have been prior. Particularly since Alice has a vision of how she wants the theater to be ran and the type of company she wants it to eventually become. She knows how talented Shakespeare is and how, despite some early misgivings, he’s a good enough person to put her trust in, so she has no problem trying new things in order to get her desired results. But it’s one thing to appeal to someone like Alice, who is open to the change necessary to survive in the world of theater; it’s a whole other ordeal to persuade someone like James, which Will will have to do if he hopes to turn the Globe into something special.
Elsewhere on Will, a charismatic fugitive from Will’s past in Stratford turns up to give him a dangerous obligation.
Will airs tonight at 9:00 on TNT.
With Kemp now fully committed to the Globe, how will Shakespeare begin building the theater’s reputation up? Could Henslowe plot revenge on the Burbages for luring Kemp back to their company? What kind of obligation will this mysterious fugitive place upon the shoulders of the Globe’s newest playwright?
