Play contains mistaken identity and cross-dressing all on a Caribbean island
Posted on April 24, 2008
Director Wolf Sherrill is happy with his first JMU production. He has every reason to be. “Twelfth Night” incorporates innovative design techniques that engage the audience with the world onstage. The actors delve into their roles with visible enjoyment and the audience laughs appreciatively at almost every joke. Sherrill’s version of the classic play takes place on a Caribbean island somewhere between the Florida Keys and Cuba, in 1937. The director is quick to establish his disinterest in the politics of the time, citing his motivation for the setting as his desire for a time period that was modern, but not too modern.
“I had conversations with the designers about what kind of world we wanted to be in,” Sherrill said. “As a director I have a vision of something and I can’t use CGI [Computer Generated Image to achieve it].”
The man in charge of bringing Sherrill’s vision to life onstage is set designer John Burgess, whose background in film helped him utilize the 3-D space with a number of pieces mounted on casters for easy interchangeability. This resulted in a compellingly versatile and realistic world.
“This kind of comedy [lends] itself to these bright, vivid environments,” Burgess said.
Produced on a $2,000 dollar budget, the set simulates various locations through the addition and subtraction of elements.
“We really had to be resourceful,” said Burgess, who worked with his army of student assistants to finish the set in five weeks.
Those in the audience who are familiar with only the plot as filtered through Amanda Bynes’s “tween” comedy, “She’s The Man,” it goes as follows. Viola is separated from her brother Sebastian in a shipwreck. She comes ashore in Illyria, where she disguises herself as a man and works for the duke Orsino, who loves the countess Olivia, who falls for Viola — now going by the name Cesario — upon meeting her — pretending to be a him. Will Sebastian and Viola be reunited? Will each character find his or her true love?
Such a plot easily lends itself to the jovial histrionics of the actors, none of whom shy away from hamming it up while updating the Bard’s challenging dialogue with a directional hand gesture or two.
“[Shakespeare’s] writing is so universal,” said senior Jackson Thompson, who plays Sebastian. “That’s why people can put it in diverse places.”
Thompson plans to attend UCLA next year to pursue a Master of Fine Arts in acting. “Twelfth Night” is Thompson’s fourth Mainstage Production. As he prepares to graduate he notes that, “there’s a sense of energy and rejuvenation that Wolf is bringing to the program... he treats actors with such respect.”
Sophomore David Blore, who plays Orsino, says of their director, “[He] brings a lot of energy and it’s contagious...when he speaks, heads turn.”
Compared with other directors in the theater department, Blore has noticed “a chronological gap between their perspective and ours;” a gap Wolf bridges.
“With Wolf’s direction I feel I understand the group initiative, like passing energy to other characters...if you lose that energy it becomes dull,” junior Stefan Gural said. His previous experiences with Shakespeare include directing Tom Stoppard’s “The Fifteen Minute Hamlet” for last semester’s DirectorsFest. As the boisterous drunkard Sir Toby Belch, Gural applies his acting philosophy that, “if you personify [Shakespeare’s] language it helps others understand it.”
Sophomore Jamie Loving’s role in the production went beyond that of her character, the witty fool Feste. Loving composed original songs for the production, which she performs onstage.
“I’m a musician for myself and I’m an actor for the people. I’ve never performed for people before...but I’m not going to sacrifice the validity of my character for personal comfort,” Loving said.
“I think I’ve done every single Shakespeare production this year...and it wasn’t on purpose. I’m speaking in iambic pentameter without even realizing it.”
