Legally blind actor takes lead in Marin Shakespeare production

Professional actor Aidan O'Reilly can spend hours onstage, delivering long Shakespearean soliloquies without fear, but he gets a little worried about going up and down stairs.

'I've really only had one eye my whole life, and in that eye, I think I can see about 50 percent of what most people can, but I have no depth perception,' he said.

Designated legally blind, the result of retinal cancer in infancy, O'Reilly has built a busy career in theater despite his disability.

'I started acting when I was 6 or 7, and when you're young, you're really strong and very adaptable,' O'Reilly said. 'So now, if there is some special way I have of handling it, it's so natural that I don't remember what it is.'

The 30-year-old Santa Rosa actor is about to play a part that any performer would find daunting — the title role in Shakespeare's 'Richard III,' which opens in early September at the Marin Shakespeare Company in San Rafael.

'When I'm in the moment and concerned about Shakespeare, I kind of forget what might hold me back,' the actor said. 'Once I learn the set, I start to see things even though I can't see them, because my brain knows they're there.'

O'Reilly comes to the character of ambitious, tragic Richard — one of the most coveted roles in the theater world — throughly prepared. He received his bachelor's degree in classical acting studies from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London in 2007.

Then he toured for three years, from 2008 to 2011, with the American Shakespeare Center, based in Staunton, Va. He has appeared in more than 50 productions across the U.S. and Europe.

'The last 'Richard III' I was in, we had two days of rehearsal,' O'Reilly said. 'That was at the American Shakespeare Center. They do a season every year called the 'Renaissance Season,' where they try to replicate what we can gather Shakespeare's rehearsal process might have been like.'

Memorized lines

O'Reilly impressed Robert Currier, his director at Marin Shakespeare, by committing all his lines to memory before rehearsals started, meaning he needn't look at the script during rehearsal. In theater jargon, he's already 'off book.'

'I'm just amazed this guy has been able to achieve as much as he has,' Currier said. 'Many companies have hired Aidan to play major roles, even though it's hard for him to see what's going on onstage all of the time.'

Despite his impaired vision, O'Reilly can read and study scripts, using a special lens.

'I read with something that looks like what a mad scientist would have,' O'Reilly joked.

'I'm told it's what a hand surgeon would look through during surgery. It's like a pair of glasses, but it has this funny attachment over the right eye.'

Born in San Francisco, O'Reilly grew up mostly in Sonoma and Santa Rosa, splitting his time between his divorced parents and sharing his childhood with two brothers and two sisters.

He credits his family with helping him adjust to partial blindness, encouraging him to perform in public from an early age and building his confidence with the people he met.

'There was some prejudice,' O'Reilly recalled, 'but mostly it came from a good place. People were trying to take care of me.'

Produced play at 14

O'Reilly's theatrical history in Sonoma County is a long one. As a teenager, he worked with Argo Thompson, then director of Actors Theatre and now founder of the new Left Edge Theatre in Santa Rosa.

'Aidan is an amazing actor,' Thompson said. 'I've been following his career since he produced Shakespeare in the redwoods when he was only 14 years old.

'Aidan is very believable and has a vulnerability, which makes it very easy for the audience to root for him. These are great characteristics, particularly when playing a villain like Richard III.'

After his stints in London and Virginia, O'Reilly settled once again in Santa Rosa three years ago, this time with his longtime girlfriend, Jocelyn Murphy of upstate New York. The couple got married last May.

O'Reilly went on to star as the spiteful composer Antonio Salieri in 'Amadeus' at the City Lights Theater in San Jose.

'Theater is all I do,' said O'Reilly, a member of the professional union Actors Equity. And theater is all he wants to do, in spite of the special challenges he faces.

'Even when you think you have an Achilles' heel,' O'Reilly said, 'sometimes it's not. It's always good to challenge yourself.'

'Richard III' runs Sept. 4-27 in the Forest Meadow Amphitheatre at Dominican University in San Rafael. Information: 415-499-4488, marinshakespeare.com.

You can reach staff writer Dan Taylor at 521-5243 or dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @danarts.