Somewhere in South Miami Beach in the mid-1980s there is a man who is in love with a woman. A story of confused gender identities and myriad romantic tensions, UW’s theatre department presents a love triangle as only William Shakespeare could imagine.
The rest of the story unfolds in “Twelfth Night; or, What You Will” at 7:30 pm every night this week and a Sunday matinee at 2:30 pm.
Director John O’Hagan said he chose “Twelfth Night” because, “It’s a script that is easily accessible both for the actors and the audience in terms of storytelling. It combines a number of Shakespeare’s most beloved plot devices for the comedies. It’s really kind of in a weird way some of Shakespeare’s greatest hits in terms of the comedy.”
He said he knew from the beginning he wanted to bring the play forward in time to resonate better with modern audiences. The decision to place the action in the mid-1980s struck him while he was listening to music through his headphones and Simple Mind’s “Don’t You Forget About Me” came on.
O’Hagan said he believes the play complements the rest of the performances from throughout the year. “It has similarities and it has differences to the rest of the season. In its similarities, it’s a wonderfully rich language play, like ‘Marat/Sade,’ that deals with some really heightened language that has been a challenge for of the actors. Like ‘Boeing Boeing,’ it is very comical in its premise and it’s a very dynamic and energetic play,” he said.
In preparing for a performance of “Twelfth Night”, actors had to struggle with a language that in many ways is foreign to them.
“There’s a fair amount of archaic language in the text that the actors have to be able to contemporize in their head, in their minds,” O’Hagan said. “They have to understand on a contemporary level what the character is saying, what it’s communicating, what they are trying to pursue with that and then really fuse that within their own thinking so that when they speak the text, the intention and sensibility comes out so the modern audience can understand.”
Bri Cordova, a musical theater senior and the only actor to sing in the play, said she is sad to see this theater season come to a close and, even though she has one more year, “Twelfth Night” has been a particularly interesting experience.
“I came into this process hating the ‘80s, but now I’m obsessed. I can’t stop listening to the music that I thought I didn’t like. I wouldn’t trade this journey for the world. I’m sad it’s coming to an end,” she said.
This is her first Shakespeare performance and she said she was worried about not getting the message across.
“I personally had to do a ton of research and just kind of listen as much as possible to gain some new information through what I felt was a foreign language. I had to really get comfortable with Shakespeare and learn why he wrote the way he did and what I am actually saying,” she said.
Christopher Wolter is a playwriting and directing senior with plans to head to Chicago after graduation. “Twelfth Night” will be his last performance with the University of Wyoming Theater and Dance Department.
“I’m incredibly excited. This is definitely the best show I’ve ever done, so I’m really really excited to be part of it,” he said.
Wolter was in “Marat/Sade,” another performance where language was difficult to master.
“Similar to ‘Marat/Sade,’ it’s heightened language so there’s a lot of time spent just pouring over the words and figuring out what people are saying and trying to figure out what the cadence of speech is, how we’re supposed to talk,” he said.
For “Twelfth Night” ticket information call 766-6666 or visit the UW Theater and Dance webpage.
