improvisational quality to Widge's acting.  This same element is seen in Widge's life, where he has been forced to play roles that have lacked direction, script, and critical elements.  In both realms of life and art, Widge has been forced to act, to perform, and to use what he knows in order to survive.  The harsh glare of the spotlight and the glare of the life as an orphan have demanded that Widge act decisively in order to survive both.  This parallel can be delved into as a question to better understand Widge's characterization.

Later on in chapter 17, Julian and Widge talk about their lives.  This helps to reveal another "deep" question regarding both characters:

How are the lives that Julian and Widge lead the lives of "actors?"

This idea of "acting" becomes a rather powerful element in the predicaments of Julian and Widge.  Both of them are actors in how the live and in concealment. Widge has to conceal much in order to survive and learns that acting and adaptation go together.  Julian/ Julia must also "act" in order to pursue her passion.  This is a critical element of convergence in both characters.  Both must act in accordance to external reality in order to survive.  The acting that Julian/ Julia does is to pursue dreams.  For both, the acting they must perform is dictated by social reality: Indentured orphanhood for Widge, gender exclusion for Julia.  The probing of how both must "act" to survive can reveal profound examination of social reality.

The main character of The Shakespeare Stealer is an orphan boy named Widge. Widge is a dynamic character, and he grows throughout the book. Widge is smart, as he is able to learn shorthand while apprenticed to Dr. Bright. He follows orders, as Dr. Bright teaches him that, as an indentured servant, he is owned by someone. At first, Widge does not know right from wrong because he was never taught that. When he realizes Dr. Bright is stealing sermons, Widge wants to stop—not because he morally knows it is wrong, but because he is scared he will be caught.

Widge begins to grow as a character when he is fourteen and sold to Simon Bass, who orders Widge to steal Shakespeare's Hamlet. Widge joins the players, and begins to make friends. This is when he begins to develop a moral code, and feels a sense of loyalty to the players the longer he stays with them.

Widge is young and naive but also smart, and learns about ethics throughout the story.

Widge grows up as an orphan for the first seven years of his life, and then he becomes an indentured servant. While working for his first master, Widge learns to write charactery, a shorthand code that allows him to write down everything that's being said. Widge has never had a family or a friend, and he has never been taught right from wrong. When he's fourteen, Widge is sold to another man who wants him to go to the play Hamlet and write it down in code so the man can perform the play with his troupe. When the actors take Widge in, he feels a sense of security and friendship for the first time in his life. He has to learn how to be a friend in the theater, and he learns to feel respect for himself and others.

In Gary Blackwood's The Shakespeare Stealer, the reader meets the narrator, Widge, who is an orphan born in 1587 during the era of Queen Elizabeth. Widge is adopted by Dr. Timothy Bright at the age of seven to become an apprentice. His first job is to care for the potion that is kept over the burning pitch. However, he is also tasked to learn Latin, English, and Dr. Bright's own language invention called Charactery,which is "an art of short, swift, and secret writing by the which one may transcribe the spoken word as rapidly as it issues from the tongue." This type of shorthand is much like today's stenography.

Widge eventually discovers that Dr. Bright is using his writing ability to steal sermons. He ponders the question of right and wrong, a theme in this work. Widge believes that right is what helps him survive and wrong is what will hurt him. However, when he asks Bright to relieve him of his duty to copy sermons for fear of getting caught, Bright lets him know he is only a lowly apprentice: he is Bright's property and must do as he is told.

Widge, at fourteen, winds up with a new master, Simon Bass. He is tasked to "steal Shakespeare's play Hamlet . . . or else." This leads into the theme of loyalty vs. betrayal,as Widge is accepted into the group of actors at The Globe Theater and must decide whether to betray his new family and steal the play or become loyal to the group. This also relates to ethics and Widge's learning the true meaning of right and wrong.

Widge is an orphan who is sent by his master to write down every word of Shakespeare's latest play that is being performed. He does so, but a pickpocket steals the copy from Widge. Widge then decides to steal a copy of the play and joins the acting group to get it. He's treated so well by the people in the acting troupe that he realizes he must decide to stand by his new friends or betray them.

Basically, the main theme is learning to respect others and yourself.

It is easier to start with which characters are only fictional and were not real individuals connected with the authentic Globe Theatre. Based upon current research, Widge himself, "Julian" Cogan and Simon Bass are the three who were not real individuals. The sharers, the hired men, the manager, the trainers, the caregivers and the major apprentices ("prentices") were authentic people who fulfilled functions in the Lord Chamberlain's Men at the Globe Theatre. Even "the boy named Nick" may have been Nicholas Tooley, a player in the Lord Chamberlain's company who was noted for specializing throughout his career in playing female roles. Blackwood's Nick puts up a fuss over continuing to play women's parts but finds himself back with the youthful apprentices when he fails to learn and correctly execute his first male role:

Before [Nick's] second week was out, the part in Love's Labour's was given to Chris Beeston, and Nick was back upstairs with [the prentices], practicing his swordsmanship.

Even Dr. Timothy Bright and his system for "shorte, swifte, and secrete writing" were authentic, he being the "chief physician of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital" in London and his system having been published as Characterie in 1588 (Frances Henderson). The names of those in The Shakespeare Stealer who were authentically involved with the Lord Chamberlain's Men along with William Shakespeare at the Globe Theatre include these:

• Robert Armin: son of a tailor, played the fool; one of Widge's trainers.
• Christopher Beeston: entrepreneur and actor.
• Richard Burbage: financial backer for the Globe Theatre; friend of "Mr. Shakespeare," both dislike "others pawing them" in "the tiring-room."
• "Henry" who dropped his lines to whom Beeston refers may be Henry Condell, an actor.
• Alexander Cooke: a tragedian (specialist in tragedy); known in this story as "Sander," Widge's trusted friend.
• Richard, who commented on the stage makeup of Julian, Sander and Widge ("Widge, a little less whitewash"), may have been Richard Cowley, an actor.
• William Kempe: noted singer and dancer in comedies; known to Widge as "Will Kempe" who "left the company" under a cloud of suspicion regarding As You Like It and Leicester. 
• Thomas Pope: actor, musician, dancer; he "caught the dirty dastard," Widge, then gave him a home with "regular meals and soft bedding."
• William Sly: an actor; "a prentice like [Widge] a few years ago ... [now] a hired man."
• Augustine Phillips: actor, dancer; a "small, athletic-looking man."
• John Heminges: partial financial backer; speaking with a stutter, he welcomed Widge into the "Lord Chamberlain's company."

In these pages, Widge joins the company.

In Chapter 10, Widge has decided on a plan to steal a table-book, but in the course of doing so, he manages to lose it. When he decides to go back into the theater to look for it, he gets hit in the head by an opening door. Apprehended by an actor, he is taken before Mr. Heminges. Another actor recognizes him as the boy who just disrupted their performance.

Widge tells him he just wanted to see the play but didn’t have a penny for the admission. When he denies having a master, although he had previously said he worked for Dr. Bright, Heminges assumes he has come to London on his own and asks him why he came. At this point, Widge realizes he needs a good, convincing lie.

“Hesitantly,” I said, “I want to be a player.”

When Heminges questions his intent, he swears by his own bones that is what he wants. After some laughter and some discussion with another man he had seen playing the first gravedigger a few days before, Widge is admitted to the Lord Chamberlain’s company.