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Believed to have been written around 1601 for the final night of the annual Twelve Days of Christmas festival, the play echoes the craziness of the holiday. Twins Viola and Sebastian are separated by a shipwreck that strands them on the seacoast of Illyria. Fearing her brother has drowned, Viola disguises herself as \u201cCesario\u201d to find work as one of Duke Orsino\u2019s manservants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the Duke\u2019s court, Viola\u2019s alter ego, Cesario, becomes Orsino\u2019s go-between in professing his love to Countess Olivia. Olivia is mourning the death of her brother but nonetheless falls for Viola disguised as Cesario. And Viola becomes smitten with the Duke. Adding to the craziness, Olivia\u2019s pompous steward, Malvolio, is fooled into believing Olivia is actually in love with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c\u2018Twelfth Night\u2019 is very, very funny but there\u2019s a lot of heart and depth to it,\u201d said visiting director Tyler Dobrowsky, a former associate artistic director at Trinity Repertory Company. \u201cIt is also quite romantic and then there\u2019s the reunion between the long-lost twin siblings, which is profoundly moving.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c\u2018Twelfth Night\u2019 is definitely hilarious,\u201d said Riley Nedder, a junior theatre and English major who plays Viola\/Cesario. \u201cThe comedic subplots are just so outrageous and they intertwine with the main plots in ways that feel ridiculous but so believable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Carleigh Boyle, a senior theatre major who plays Olivia, called the play Shakespeare\u2019s greatest comedy. It weaves a very good romantic story with the main characters, she said, but adds a lot of charm with its collection of clowns who ratchet up the miscommunication and confusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnother reason why this is Shakespeare\u2019s greatest is because of how beautiful the actual text is and the messages behind his characters,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is not just a surface slapstick comedy. It is a play about grief and love and heartbreak, and how often they intersect. Love is the thing that heals everyone in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe play is funny and incredible,\u201d added Peace Onyeme, a senior double major in theatre and film who plays Orsino. \u201cI have seen many productions and I\u2019ve seen how Tyler and the cast take this play in an authentic way with big character choices and different perspectives. Also, the play is very gender-fluid, bright and melodious.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s production gives \u201cTwelfth Night\u201d a definite contemporary feel, while not exactly wedded to 2022. The set, designed by 溏心vlog免费B站 Theatre alumna R\u00e9nee Surprenant Fitzgerald, resembles a dance club for royalty \u2013 with a DJ booth to work in the play\u2019s numerous musical interludes. Costumes, designed by Meghan Donnelly, another Theatre alumna, take the contemporary look to another level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe took a lot of inspiration from the Netflix [British high school comedy-drama], \u2018Sex Education,\u2019 which is similarly kind of set now but the fashion feels heightened,\u201d Dobrowsky said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not contemporary is definitely the language. Dobrowsky has had a lot of experience with Shakespeare and working with younger actors, including overseeing Trinity\u2019s education and outreach programming. At Trinity, he also directed \u201cMidsummer Night\u2019s Dream\u201d and \u201cJulius Caesar.\u201d So, one area he focused at the start of rehearsals was making sure the actors understood the archaic, murky language \u2013 a hurdle for anyone who has read Shakespeare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe language is not easy. It can be very dense. It is rich poetry at times, but it\u2019s language that requires a lot of diligence and work,\u201d he said. \u201cYou literally have to understand what you\u2019re saying if you\u2019re going to act it well. Especially with comedy because the intonation is so important. The timing is so important.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During table readings over Zoom, the actors focused on learning the language and its meaning, and getting the pronunciation down so the audience could also grasp the meaning, Onyeme said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs it is with most plays, the language is the most important thing,\u201d added Owen Gilmartin, a senior theatre major who plays Sir Toby Belch, Olivia\u2019s uncle and an instigator in fooling Malvolio. \u201cWe spent our first week only on the text: what we\u2019re saying, what it means, how each character feels. And over the past few weeks of rehearsals, we\u2019ve been figuring out how to best communicate that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gilmartin said Shakespeare\u2019s dialogue can be a big hurdle for potential theatre-goers. \u201cWhat I have learned from this process is that as actors, it is our job to understand the language, not the audience\u2019s, and that our number one priority is to convey the meaning and to make the audience understand. I would tell a prospective audience to drop that work, come in and let us show you why \u2018Twelfth Night\u2019 is Shakespeare\u2019s funniest comedy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Added Nedder, \u201cOur production of \u2018Twelfth Night\u2019 is a party. Be ready to laugh, to sigh and to fall in love alongside us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTwelfth Night\u201d<\/strong> runs March 3-5 and March 10-12 at 7:30 p.m. and March 6 and 13 at 2 p.m. in J-Studio at the Fine Arts Center, 105 Upper College Road, Kingston Campus. Tickets are $20 for general admission and $15 for senior citizens and 溏心vlog免费B站 students, faculty and staff. Tickets can be purchased at the 溏心vlog免费B站 Theatre box office in the Fine Arts Center or by calling (401) 874-5843. For more information on tickets and the University\u2019s COVID-19 policy, go to the ticket website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Character, Actor, Hometown<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Olivia, Carleigh Boyle, Hillsdale, New Jersey KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Feb. 24, 2022 \u2013 Two years into a pandemic, there\u2019s probably no better time for a full-on party \u2013 a riotous, romantic comedy full of music, mistaken identity, separated and reunited twins, a bevy of clowns, and a love triangle that may be more of a quadrangle. The 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":78697,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78696"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78706,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78696\/revisions\/78706"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Officer #2, Jordan Cardona, Johnston, Rhode Island
Fabian, Colin Cleary, Harvard, Massachusetts
Sir Toby Belch, Owen Gilmartin, Wakefield, Rhode Island
Curio, Olivia Humulock, Narragansett, Rhode Island
Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Omar Laguerre-Lewis, Mamaroneck, New York
Priest, Ho Shing Lee, Braintree, Massachusetts
Captain, Manny Maldonado, Newport, Rhode Island
Sebastian, Peter McGreen, Wakefield, Rhode Island
Viola\/Cesario, Riley Nedder, Attleboro Massachusetts
Duke Orsino, Peace Onyeme, Delta State, Asaba, Nigeria
Feste, Alana Parrott, Webster, Massachusetts
Antonio, Ben Pereira, Danbury, Connecticut
Malvolio, Liam Roberts, Warwick, Rhode Island
Valentine, Sarah Taylor, Providence
Officer #3, David Weber, Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan
Officer #1, Jenna Wentworth, Tewksbury, Massachusetts
Maria, Darby Wilson, Newton, Massachusetts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"