Twelfth Night
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
2008 | 2009 season Table of Contents Feature A Double Life By Akiva Fox 5 Program Synopsis 11 About the Playwright 13 Title Page 15 Cast 17 Cast Biographies 19 Direction and Design 23 In Rehearsal 60 Shakespeare Theatre Company Shakespeare Theatre Company 26 Board of Trustees 28 For the Shakespeare 29 Theatre Company Staff 32 Special Thanks/Volunteers 34 Individual Donors 36 Lawyers Committee 45 Corporate Partnerships 46 Foundation/Government Support 48 Departments Happenings at the Harman 18 HCA Upcoming Events 25 Year-End Giving 44 Education 51 Guide to the Season’s Plays 52 Academy for Classical Acting 55 Shakespeare Theatre Company Membership 56 Special Events 59 Audience Services 62 Photos on cover, page 4, 5, 9 and at right of Samantha Soule by Scott Suchman. 3 When William Shakespeare wrote about twins, he wrote from experience. In early 1585, his wife, Anne, had given birth to fraternal twins. Not long after, Shakespeare traveled to London to make his name in theatre. One of his first efforts as a playwright was an adaptation of an old Roman play about a pair of separated identical twins who reunite on one frantic day in Ephesus. Called The Comedy of Errors, the play hinged on mistaken identity; Shakespeare even added a second set of twins to compound the confusion and hilarity. to compound the confusion and hilarity. 4 5 5 By 1596, Shakespeare had become brother Sebastian) gives rise to the one of the most successful mistaken identity and unrequited playwrights in London. But that love that drive the comedic engine summer, tragic news came from of Twelfth Night. But just as the home: Hamnet, his only son, had similarity between Viola and died. Hamnet’s twin sister, Judith, Sebastian causes confusion, so, too, was 11 years old. The next time does their oppositeness. Unaware of Shakespeare wrote a play featuring the twinning, characters are baffled twins, the twinning served as much when Cesario suddenly switches more than a gimmick. Twelfth Night from brave to cowardly, assertive to opens with a young woman named reserved, lusty to shy. Cesario—and Viola washing up on an unfamiliar by extension Viola—is a walking shore, convinced that her twin contradiction. brother has died in their shipwreck. Distraught and alone, she takes an unusual step to protect herself: she Twelfth Night is full of such puts on her lost brother’s clothes and contradictory twins. The play sets off into Illyria disguised as a boy. begins in a state of mourning; like Viola, the noblewoman Olivia has lost her father and brother Viola’s choice may be as much and determines to mourn within emotional as it is pragmatic. In her house for seven years. Her her study The Lone Twin, the British steward Malvolio encourages this psychotherapist Joan Woodward mourning, in part because it allows writes that after the death of a him greater control over her. On twin, “one of the ways that guilt the opposing side, Olivia’s uncle Sir feelings were expressed by many of Toby Belch declares that “care’s an the lone twins was in their attempt enemy to life” and spends his days to ‘live for two.’” More than just a in drunken revelry. But when love woman in disguise, Viola becomes enters the scene and the characters a double creature comprising both all move from extreme mourning herself and her brother. She all but to extreme revelry, these apparent admits this when she cryptically opposites reveal their similarity. tells her master Orsino that she is “Toby’s misrule and Malvolio’s “all the daughters of my father’s excessive rule are really two sides house, and all the brothers too.” of the same coin,” writes the scholar She even embeds this doubling Marjorie Garber. “Both are aimless, in the name she chooses: Cesario, fruitless, and preoccupied with which comes from the Latin word sterile formalities.” The same could be for “cut” or “split.” said for the twinned opposites pain and pleasure, tears and laughter, and repression and release. Viola’s doubleness (and the miraculous reappearance of her 7 Once revelry and release replace spins to revelry and back again in mourning and repression, everyone in an endless cycle. Fame and status *For details about the AA.com® bonus-mile offer and for full details on our Lowest Fare Guarantee, visit www.aa.com/benefits. Twelfth Night falls in love. But instead of come and go, and the least person AmericanAirlines, AAdvantage, AA.com and We know why you fly are marks of American Airlines, Inc. falling in love with a person, they fall soon becomes the greatest. People in love with their idealized image of fall in and out of love, experiencing that person—a kind of shadowy twin. exhilaration and dejection anew each Orsino, who burns with love for Olivia time. Feste’s position allows him to despite hardly knowing her, confesses mock everyone alike, and he never that he is smitten only by the “image misses an opportunity to puncture of the creature that is beloved.” “I am inflated extremes of love or despair. not what I am,” Viola warns a love- “What’s to come is still unsure,” he smitten Olivia, but Olivia replies, “I tells the other characters, urging would you were as I would have you them to live their lives free from be.” Even Malvolio convinces himself all-or-nothing hysteria. In a world that Olivia loves him, imagining an torn between the twins “all” and elaborate fantasy of his life as “Count “nothing,” only Feste sees that reality Malvolio.” lies in between. Only one character sees without Akiva Fox, Literary Associate the double vision induced by excess: Olivia’s jester, Feste. He believes in the “whirligig of time,” named for a spinning toy. Over time, mourning Earn AAdvantage® bonus miles* and pay no online booking fee when you purchase your next flight on AA.com. Try our flexible fare search options and see how our Lowest Fare Guarantee works at AA.com/guarantee. 9 “I will live to be thankful to thee.” Twelfth Night Synopsis Twelfth Night, act 4, scene 2 Duke Orsino of Illyria persists in courting the beautiful Countess Olivia, even though she has sworn off love to mourn for her deceased brother. Meanwhile, a shipwreck separates a young woman named Viola from her twin brother, Sebastian. Fearing for her safety, she disguises herself as a man and secures a position in Orsino’s house. Orsino soon sends the young “man” as his emissary to Olivia. Olivia’s Uncle, Toby Belch, disturbs her mourning, despite the efforts of Maria, Olivia’s attendant. In order to finance his drunken binges, Toby has brought in the dim-witted Sir Andrew Aguecheek. Feste, Olivia’s fool, also returns to the house to disrupt the mourning—much to the disapproval of Olivia’s steward, the sanctimonious Malvolio. When Viola (now going by the name Cesario) arrives to woo Olivia for Orsino, the charming messenger unintentionally wins Olivia’s heart for himself. The love-struck Olivia sends Malvolio after Cesario with a ring as a ploy to make him return the following day. Viola immediately realizes that the countess has fallen in love with her male alter ego. Elsewhere in Illyria, Viola’s brother Sebastian surfaces alive, believing his sister to be drowned. Toby and Andrew wake up the house with their late-night carousing, and Malvolio threatens them with eviction—on Olivia’s authority. Maria is outraged by Malvolio’s arrogance and vows to help Toby get his revenge. Viola attempts to make Orsino accept Olivia’s rejection, nearly revealing her own unrequited love for him, but he sends her back to woo Olivia again. Maria forges a cryptic love letter in Olivia’s handwriting, and Malvolio interprets it as an expression of Olivia’s love for him. He determines to follow its instructions—to wear yellow stockings and crossed garters, and to act boldly. Cesario returns, and Olivia declares her romantic feelings. When Sebastian and his friend Antonio arrive in town, Antonio reveals that he once fought against Orsino and must hide until night. He gives Sebastian his money for safekeeping. Cross-gartered and in yellow stockings, Malvolio presents himself to a mystified Olivia. She entrusts him to Toby, who orders him bound and imprisoned like a madman. Toby next encourages a duel between the timid Cesario and Andrew. Seeing what Costume rendering of Olivia by Miranda Hoffman. he thinks is Sebastian under attack, Antonio intervenes. But Orsino’s officers arrest Antonio, and he feels betrayed when Cesario denies having his money. The real Twelfth Night is sponsored by Sebastian appears and is mistaken for Cesario, both by Toby and Andrew and by the amorous Olivia. Attracted to Olivia, Sebastian impulsively agrees to marry her. When Orsino arrives to court Olivia personally, Olivia not only rejects him but also calls Arlene and Robert Kogod Cesario her husband. Andrew comes seeking help for Toby—wounded, Andrew claims, by Cesario. Finally, Sebastian appears and apologizes to Olivia for injuring her uncle. Reunited in the presence of the stunned assembly, Sebastian and Viola reveal that The Shakespeare Theatre Company would like to thank the they are twins, brother and sister. Olivia and Orsino accept the pair as their respective 2008–2009 Corporate Season Sponsors mates. Olivia discovers the trick played on Malvolio, but he refuses to be reconciled as the others celebrate. 11 About the Playwright William Shakespeare No man’s life has been the subject of more speculation than William Shakespeare’s. While Shakespearean scholars have dedicated their lives to the search for evidence, the truth is that no one really knows what the truth is.