Sometimes the beauty of Shakespeare's poetry takes your breath away. In the case of today's guest,

Shakespeare gave him his breath back.

From the Folger Shakespeare Library, this is Shakespeare Unlimited. I'm Michael Whitmore,

the Folger Director. You may recognize actor Michael Patrick Thornton

from his roles on TV series like Private Practice and The Good Doctor. 20 years ago, Thornton had

just started out his acting career when he suffered two spinal strokes that nearly ended his life.

Thornton survived, but the strokes took away his ability to breathe and speak.

A speech therapist helped Thornton find his way back to breath control by reciting Shakespeare.

Since then, Thornton co-founded the Gift Theater in Chicago, where he serves as artistic director.

He's played Iago at The Gift and Richard the 3rd in a co-production with

Steppenwolf Theater. He appeared on Broadway in Sam Gold's 22 production of Macbeth, starring

Daniel Craig, and in the Tony-nominated production of a doll's house earlier this year.

Here's Michael Patrick Thornton in conversation with Barbara Bogie.

You have such a long association with Shakespeare. Why don't you tell me about your first

encounter? I do remember wandering the stacks of what seemed like, you know, a large

library back then, and stumbling around to the Shakespeare section.

And it was the old, I believe, Cignaut classics additions, and they were all dog-eared.

And I remember opening it up and looking at the words and knowing, okay, I know this is English.

And I know Shakespeare's hard.

And, you know, people say, you know, it's hard hard to understand and you're smart if you get it, you know.

And it just felt like there was a really cool universe hiding behind these pages if only you could kind of unlock the language.

If only you knew the code to get past it.

...