Twelfth NightBy William Shakespeare
September 14 to October 9, 2005 Click here for Reviews One of Shakespeare’s most popular comedies! A shipwrecked girl finds love and laughter in handsome Duke Orsino’s court in the seaside city of Illyria, which bears a remarkable resemblance to Hollywood, California in the studio days of the late 1930’s. Classic Shakespearean gender bending, mistaken identities, a beautiful heiress, her priggish manservant, a witty clown and a band of merry drunken revelers inhabit a world of matinee idols and lovely leading ladies! To purchase single tickets:If you know which show, date and seating section you want, go directly to our Online Ticketing Box Office. If not, we have plenty of information to help you, just follow the steps below: - Select your date using the calendar below, or by going to our new Season Calendar.
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Brandon Roberts (Sir Andrew Aguecheek), Andrew Shulman (Feste) and Michael Daly (Sir Toby Belch) 12th Night Cast ListOrsino, Duke of Illyria........................................................................Andrew Oswald*
Sebastian, brother to Viola.......................................................Christopher Kale Jones*
Antonio, a sea man, friend to Sebastian.......................................................Brett Mack
Sea Captain, friend to Viola.........................................................................Eric Zivot*
Valentine, gentleman attending on Duke.................................................Chris Lindsay
Curio, gentleman attending on Duke............................................................Chris Holz
Sir Toby Belch, uncle to Olivia...............................................................Michael Daly*
Sir Andrew Aguecheek.........................................................................Brandon Roberts
Malvolio, steward to Olivia..........................................................................Eric Zivot*
Fabian, servant to Olivia...........................................................................Michael Gill
Feste, a clown ...................................................................................Andrew Shulman*
Olivia, a rich countess............................................................................Mindy Anders*
Viola, sister to Sebastian..................................................................Christine Whitley*
Maria, Olivia’s gentlewoman...................................................................Anne Hering*
Married Girl............................................................................................Nicole Reinsel
Nice Girl..............................................................................................Brittany Morgan
Married Man................................................................................................Chris Holz
Servants, Chorines, Hookers..........................Brittany Cherie Morgan, Nicole Reinsel
Sailors, Officers.....................................................................Chris Holz, Chris Lindsay *Member Of The Actors’ Equity Association, The Union Of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States
REVIEWS
Hollywood Nights!The Orlando Weekly
Excperpts for the review by Steve Schneider
Posted 9/23/05  Christine Whitley (Viola) and Andrew Oswald (Duke Orsino)
As the Orlando-UCF Shakespeare Festival's old-Hollywood take on Twelfth Night begins, the clown Feste (Andrew Shulman) seats himself in front of a projection screen and reads an RKO-derived set of opening credits. The names of the play's stars and director Patrick Flick flash by, in a tone-setting show of black-and-white cheek. The action then turns live, if no less melodramatic. Strobe lights simulate a submarine attack, the survivors wash up on shore beneath a hillside bearing the Tinseltown legend "Illyria" … and the choice is yours to either go with it or not. Go with it. A rare easy swallow in the increasingly problematic category of Bardian updates, OSF's Twelfth Night makes re-envisioning Shakespeare seem like the most natural thing in the world. Perhaps it's that canny multimedia intro, which fixes the action in a world that's neither the playwright's Illyria nor the actual Hollywood of the 1930s, but some dreamlike hybrid of the two. Maybe it's the original music by Michael Andrew – a song cycle perfect in its plaintive minstrelsy. Most likely, it's the privilege of seeing a supremely talented cast guided to recreate the best of Shakespeare and DeMille without lapsing into a disrespectful caricature of either source. Director Flick has superimposed celluloid iconography onto the text so smoothly and successfully that you may be too caught up in the story to keep a full running tally of the references. As the stranded Viola (Christine Whitley) dons seaman's garb to serve as love's messenger (and eventually its sitting duck), she encounters a cast of supporting characters that just happen to be plucked straight from a Depression-era matinee. Feste is a Buster Keaton-type fool in both aspect and attire, while the roguish knight Sir Toby Belch (Michael Daly) owes a tippling debt to W.C. Fields. Anne Hering's conniving chamber gal, Maria, typifies Flick's adaptive approach: She's blond and Brooklyn-brassy but never over the top. Screeching is out of the question. That's good news when it comes to the casting of Mindy Anders, a gifted actress whose OSF roles have too often required her to emulate an air-raid siren. Mourning becomes her in her role as Olivia, she of the deceased brother and the growing lust for secret drag king Viola. From Anders' first entrance, she strikes a willowy, impossibly tall figure – one would swear she's wearing stilts beneath her black gown – yet that quality of nearly alien remove is played for gentle pathos and affectionate humor, rather than cheap laughs... Actors Brandon Roberts (as an ostrich-like Sir Andrew Aguecheek) and Michael Gill (the revenge-minded servant Fabian) take part in a stalking scene that has them (briefly) contorting their bodies into nearly horizontal shapes that would give the finest chiropractor pause. Best of all is an unforgettable grace note in which Olivia's sourpuss of a steward, Malvolio (Eric Zivot), is called upon to feign a smile. The simple act of putting on a happy face requires a supreme physical effort that begins in his feet and works its way up his body slowly and with pronounced discomfort. I can't think of an actor working today who is in more obvious control of his every extremity. Control should be the watchword for this production, which portends good things indeed for OSF's latest season. The show is Shakespeare as it should be: matching its author in its sense of adventuresome play, but not stooping to suggest that the old man needs endless jolts of joy-buzzer histrionics to remain relevant. I believe the word they used to use for it is "boffo."
Make it a Shakespeare 'Night'FLORIDA TODAY
Review by Pam Harbaugh
Posted 9/26/06  ORLANDO - For fresh concept, surprising invention, precise portrayals and sleek style, it doesn't getny better than the Orlando Shakespeare Festival's third production of "Twelfth Night."
Directed by the talented Patrick Flick and designed by scenic designer Bert Scott and lighting designer Dave Upton, Shakespeare's gender-bending romantic comedy blossoms here in the swanky, sleek and glamorous 1930s Hollywood peopled with impressions of its sophisticated movie stars. In fact, the production takes juicy slices from great black and white movies with the likes of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. It also takes a Ronco-matic to the original Shakespeare by tucking the famous opening line, "If music be the food of love, play on," into the production's second scene. Purists may grumble, but it works. That's thanks in large part to Orlando crooner Michael Andrew (of "Swingerhead"), who composed the production's splendid original music. A prelude begins with Feste, a Buster Keaton-type character who sits on a lone chair holding a box of popcorn. An old black and white movie flickers on a screen in front of him. The movie shows a scene of an imminent shipwreck, which suddenly bleeds onto the stage, with ship passengers and sailors running for safety. This brings Flick's folio to its beginning: a shipwreck (one of Shakespeare's favorite devices) in which Viola is separated from her twin brother, Sebastian. Viola is rescued and brought to the shore of Illyria.
And this tiny part is so nice. The town of Illyria is . . . No, we can't tell you. It's part of a basket of fun little surprises that Flick gives us in the beginning of the production. Let's just say we know the setting is Tinseltown.
Not knowing how she will be received in this new town, Viola dons a sailor's uniform, calls herself Cesario and gets hired at Orsino's Palace, an art-deco
inspired nightclub where lovers put on the Ritz. Her first job is to convince Olivia that Orsino's love is sincere.
But Olivia, a wealthy woman who wears haute couture mourner's clothes, takes on a bit of Garbo and wants to be left alone, until she sees Cesario and becomes infatuated.
And that is only the beginning. The play turns into a comic kaleidoscope, revealing an array of comic teams, foils, subplots, slapstick and silliness reminiscent of the best old comedy movies with greats like Laurel and Hardy and the Marx Brothers.
Rather than have concept imposed on the play, it grows from it and weaves its seductive appeal like the ivy meandering up the walls and staircase of Olivia's Spanish colonial estate. That harmony is thanks to the exquisite and fun portrayals by a talented cast that milks each moment for all its worth. Talented ActorsSvelte Mindy Anders slinks into the character of Olivia and does grand work showing off the divine clothing created by costume designer Denise Warner. Christine Whitley is sweet and tender as Viola/Cesario. But in this "Twelfth Night," the romantic leads end up supporting the masterful comic ensemble.
Using a squeaky, Brooklyn accent and physical stereotyping for Maria, Olivia's gentlewoman, Anne Hering seems to come right out of a B movie. Andrew Shulman, Michael Daly and a most-daffy Brandon Roberts as, respectively, Feste (a clown), Sir Toby Belch (Olivia's uncle) and Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Olivia's would-be suitor), have fun with antics and three-part harmony.
But what a find in Eric Zivot. As Malvolio, Olivia's fussy, super-cilious steward, Zivot is the soul of acting precision. His every movement, every glance and pose gives nuances to his portrayal and he gets the biggest laugh of the first act with a simple "hmph!" after one of his lines. And his attempt to turn his concrete frown into a smile brings in the biggest laugh in the second act. Finally, though, he brings pathos to the character. True love, identityAdding depth to the comedy is the undercurrent theme of true love, despite true identity. Orsino finds himself drawn to Cesario/Viola, despite the outwardly male identity. Olivia is drawn to Cesario/Viola despite the truth she is a female. When true identities are finally revealed, Orsino eventually turns from Olivia to Viola, hence the near anagram of Olivia and Viola.
And Malvolio (there's that Olivia, Viola thing again) goes from an insufferable image to one that is pitiable. Indeed, it is this final payoff that gives the production substance and gets it to resonate beyond humor and style.
Oh, What a Night in HollywoodThe Orlando Sentinel
Excerpts from the Reviews by Elizabth Maupin
Posted 9/23/05  Mindy Anders (Olivia) and Christine Whitley (Viola)
You can tell she's a movie queen by the way the Lady Olivia leads with her elegant shoulders, the way she poses, the way she pouts. As she's played by Mindy Anders in the Orlando-UCF Shakespeare Festival's breezy Twelfth Night, Olivia is a movie goddess of the highest order, but she's not the only Hollywood type in this particular kingdom. There's the streetwise maid, the feebleminded fop, the mournful madman with delusions of grandeur. Put those people around the pool at the Beverly Hills Hotel, and all of them would have a movie contract by teatime. William Shakespeare never set foot in the celluloid capital, but it's hard to fault director Patrick Flick's '30s-glam take on Shakespeare's timeless comedy, which turns the eccentrics of fictional Illyria into recognizable comic types from Hollywood's golden age. Flick may gloss over the melancholic story of love and loss that is at the center of Shakespeare's story. But the foolishness of these empty-headed mortals is on hand for all to enjoy. The distant hills and the towering palms are still there, but the famous HOLLYWOOD sign has been transformed to read ILLYRIA in the Shakespeare Festival's production, where Bert Scott's Mediterranean-style set is graced by Dave Upton's dappled lighting and a full moon hanging low in the sky. But before you actually catch sight of Illyria, you're whisked off to the movies, complete with melodramatic overture (by swing-king Michael Andrew), popcorn and a grainy old-style film intro, which plops you right in the middle of the shipwreck that serves as preamble to Shakespeare's tale. It's a terrific entree into a larger-than-life world, where glamour-queen Olivia mourns the loss of her dead brother, a wealthy guy named Orsino moans dramatically about his unrequited love for Olivia, and a young woman named Viola -- saved from the shipwreck but missing her twin brother, Sebastian -- decides to disguise herself as a boy, cast her lot with Orsino and hope for the best. Wandering in and out of these stories is a comical subplot -- that of Olivia's good-for-nothing relative, Sir Toby Belch; his rich but vacuous sidekick, Sir Andrew Aguecheek; and the trick they play on her steward, the self-important Malvolio, who is convinced that Olivia loves only him. Flick and his company obviously have had a fine time turning most of those characters into Hollywood archetypes, and... they succeed beautifully, from Anne Hering's dizzy little turn as Maria, Olivia's gangster's-moll of a maid, to Anders as the extravagant Olivia, who can't cross a room without turning her shoulders just so. It's wonderful to watch this straitlaced lady loosening those laces, and just as wonderful to hang with Michael Daly's genially drunken Sir Toby and Brandon Roberts' doltish but zesty Sir Andrew: Watch him cut a caper, as he calls it, and you'll want to watch him do it again and again. Best of all are the play's two comical masterpieces, the so-called fool, Feste, and the grandiose Malvolio. Andrew Shulman's keen-eyed Feste, the sharpest guy in the play, does a lovely job of strumming his ukulele, singing (beautifully) and pointing out folly wherever he finds it, which is just about everywhere. And Eric Zivot, a festival newcomer who is on the Rollins College theater faculty, makes a masterly Malvolio -- first the epitome of a silent-film comedian with his precise movements and flat-footed walk, then downright heartbreaking when he is wronged.... if it's star quality you want, this production has it -- in Denise Warner's swanky movie-star costumes, in Andrew's jazzy reworkings of Feste's songs, in the comical interplay nearly everywhere you turn. Watch Zivot's Malvolio try to smile without a winch to pull up his mouth at the corners, and you could be watching Buster Keaton. It's hard to get any more Hollywood than that.
Brilliant Entertainment!Ink19 Magazine
Excerpts from the review by Carl F. Gauze
Posted 9/23/05  Andrew Oswald (Duke Orsino), Christine Whitley (Viola), Michael Gill (Fabian),
Andrew Shulman (Feste), Mindy Anders (Olivia) and Christopher Kale Jones (Sebastian)
Ambiguity and androgyny are the key words in this modernization of Shakespeare's least confusing comedy. Wealthy Viola (Christine Whitley) is shipwrecked and separated from her nearly identical twin brother Sebastian (Christopher Kale Jones). They both wash up in Illyria, which looks suspiciously like 1920's Hollywood, complete with palm trees and a stunning, smog enhanced sunset. Violas best course is to get a job working for the lovesick nightclub owner Duke Orsino (Andrew Oswald), so she puts on a sailor suit and callers herself Cesario. Orsino courts the distant Olivia (Anders), but is not immune to Cesario's lithe charms. Olivia will have nothing to do with Orsino, but she, too fancies Cesario, and the more I think about this, the more appropriate the Hollywood setting seems. As the courting proceeds, the comic supporting charters Toby Belch (Daly), Andrew Aguecheek (Brandon Roberts) and Fabian (Michael Gill) cook up a plan to trick Olivia's steward Malvolio (Zivot) into believing she loves him.
The story is good, but the casting is great. Each holds both Shakespearian side and a Hollywood side, and they all seem at ease in both worlds. My favorite was Feste (Andrew Schulman), normally a secondary charter. Here Schulman waddles around in a Charlie Chaplin shtick, singing some decent songs by local hipster Michael Andrew, and serving as a framing device by opening each act as a patron in a movie house. Mindy Andrews as Olivia transitioned between Elizabethan frail and a Hollywood vamp as she leaves her extended mourning depression and discovers her latent sexuality. Daly's W.C. Fields inspired Sir Toby finds a wonderful chemistry with gangly fool Andrew Aguecheek (Brandon Roberts). Roberts presents a great physical presence, amplified by the ridiculous plus fours and glasses he sports. Malvolio comes across as an uptight midlevel executive, sandwiched between his status as major domo to a rich woman, and a compulsive need to be CORRECT. You KNOW he's going to be made the fool, it's the heart of the story.
Director Flick assembles a great cast, sets it on a typically brilliant set, and makes brilliant entertainment. This how ought to run 12 weeks.
Shakespeare Goes Hollywoodwww.theartsweb.com
Posted September 28, 2005 A solitary chair sits on stage facing a movie screen - a box of popcorn atop the seat. A figure strolls onto the scene – drawn to the chair. He sits. The screen flickers into life with scenes of Hollywood of long ago. The figure sits enthralled. Suddenly sirens blare, lights flash and we are washed upon the shores of Shakespeare’s fictional Illyria. I went into the Orlando -UCF Shakespeare Festival’s production of Twelfth Night unfamiliar with the storyline and a novice to Shakespeare’s plays in general, but I knew from this point on this was not going to be your typical Shakespearean comedy. From the musical overture to the closing credits, Director Patrick Flick’s vision of Twelfth Night goes to the movies - literally. Not only are the Shakespearean characters meshed with Hollywood archetypes, but the fictional Illyria remarkably resembles La La Land – complete with sign high atop a hill. Twelfth Night’s storyline – froth with mistaken identity and misunderstandings – is worthy of a Three’s Company episode. Spirited Viola is rescued from a shipwreck thinking her twin brother, Sebastian, has met his demise. She finds herself stranded in Illyria. For reasons beyond my understanding, she decides to disguise herself as a man, Cesario. She finds herself in the service of Duke Orsino who is pining away for the beautiful Lady Olivia who is mourning her dead brother. Orsino sends Cesario/Viola to woo Lady Olivia on his behalf, only to have Olivia fall for the young Cesario. To compound the situation, Viola finds herself falling in love with Orsino. A love, of course, she must conceal as Orsino thinks her a man. Then Jack and Janet discover Chrissie… Around the plot nucleus are orbiting subplots. Olivia’s uncle – Toby Belch (which he does) instigates further shenanigans spending his time carousing with buddies Feste, Olivia’s clown; wealthy Sir Andrew Aguecheek – a Barney Fife-ish doofus; and servant Fabian, and flirting with the bawdy and brassy Maria - Olivia’s chamber woman. One of the main subplots is the duping of snobbish Malvolio, Lady Olivia’s steward. Malvolio disapproves of all the frivolity pursued by the household and snubs the others’ fun. This incenses Toby to plan revenge by way of Maria forging a letter posing as her Mistress Olivia and confessing her love for only Malvolio (especially when he is smiling incessantly and clad in yellow stockings with cross-garters). Olivia, of course, is not in love with Malvolio and hates yellow stockings. She instead thinks him mad and has him committed to a dark room. There is also a thwarted duel, an arrest, a resurrection of a once thought dead brother, an elopement (no make that two) and a little song and dance. The brightest spots of the production are Eric Zivot’s Malvolio and Andrew Shulman’s ukulele playing and singing Feste. Not to mention a hilarious scene in which Michael Gill as Fabian does a mean worm dance to retrieve the elusive forged letter from the bottom of Malvolio’s shoe. Zivot – who stole the show - makes his debut in this production and is also a member of the Rollins College Theater Faculty. His ability to ‘sidle up’ undetected behind Olivia is sublime (perhaps she should suggest he carry Tic Tacs in his pocket - á la a classic Seinfeld episode). His flat-footed walk and grandiose delivery of his lines are superbly comic. And his heartbreaking commitment to the ‘dark room’ garnered sympathy from the audience.
Shulman – also new to the festival – portrays the fool Feste who astutely assesses any situation and puts it to song. It seems only he can see through the subterfuge. Shulman’s crooning is smooth and sweet. His persona is a cross between Chaplin and Harpo Marx - with a bit of Astaire on the side. Mindy Anders’ portrayal of Lady Olivia - a diva by anyone’s standards - is pure drama queen (in a good way). She is replete with furrowed brow and finger clutched in teeth. Anders exudes a Katherine Hepburn/Joan Crawford quality accentuated by her elegant wardrobe. Anne Hering’s Maria is reminiscent of Judy Holliday in a screwball comedy – with the voice to match. Christine Whitley’s (Viola/Cesario) facial expressions convey more than her words as she finds herself in sticky situations with the opposite and not so opposite sex. The production was complemented by the fine artistic set designs by Bert Scott which flowed seamlessly from Mediterranean loggia to 40s night club. And by Denise Warner’s costumes – Olivia’s gowns mesmerized me with their clingy and flowing fabrics. And Michael Andrew’s (Swingerhead) original music composed for the production ranged from ragtime to ballads to swing. The production was executed smoothly in the intimate theater setting. This non-stop comedy was cast superbly with Hollywood-worthy star quality.
12th Night SynopsisViola and Sebastian, twins, are separated during a shipwreck. Viola, thinking her brother dead, finds herself stranded in Ilyria. She disguises herself as a man, Cesario, and enters the service of Duke Orsino, who is in love with Olivia and who sends Viola/Cesario to woo Lady Olivia in his behalf. Orsino does not know that Viola has fallen in love with him. Olivia is indulging in a seven-year season of mourning for a dead brother and is refusing to accept the advances of any man. Her sorrow is not so profound, however, as to keep her from falling in love with the disguised Viola. She is so in love, in fact, that she later sends a Cesario/Viola a ring and invitation to return and then admits her love for “him.” Of Olivia’s household, only her steward, the melancholy Malvolio, finds a morbid pleasure in the atmosphere of mourning which Olivia has decreed. Her uncle, Sir Toby Belch (who lives in her house), doesn’t believe in grief; he spends his time drinking with Olivia’s clown, Feste, and his dupe, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, a wealthy but foolish knight. Because Malvolio is so arrogant, Maria, Olivia’s chamber woman, plots with Sir Toby, Aguecheek, and Feste to get even. This they succeed in doing by means of a forged letter supposedly from Olivia, duping Malvolio into wearing yellow stockings cross gartered, which she detests. Malvolio’s unaccountable antics cause Olivia to think him mad, and Sir Toby and Maria have him committed to a dark room. Meanwhile, Viola’s twin brother, Sebastian, unaware that Viola is still alive, arrives in Ilyria with a seaman, Antonio, who is an outlawed man in Ilyria. Antonio lends his purse to Sebastian and parts. Seeking more “sport,” Sir Toby presses Aguecheek and Cesario/Viola into a duel. Antonio rushes to rescue the youth, whom he believes is his friend, Sebastian, and is arrested by the duke’s men and met by Cesario/Viola with a denial that he/she ever saw him or his purse. Now Aguecheek rushes to complete the duel with Cesario/Viola but encounters Viola’s twin brother instead who quickly wins the fight. Olivia brings a priest to Sebastian and (thinking he is Cesario) marries the surprised young man. Antonio is brought before the duke and creates some confusion by relating his adventures with Cesario/Viola, who he still thinks is Sebastian. Olivia adds to the confusion by entering and claiming Cesario/Viola as her husband. Sir Andrew and Sir Toby in the meantime have had another encounter with Sebastian; they enter wounded and blame their hurts upon Cesario/Viola. Everything is finally made clear when Sebastian himself appears and the company sees Viola and Sebastian, twins, side by side. Viola promises to assume her maiden attire to prove her identity as Sebastian’s sister. Orsino, remembering Viola’s many expressions of affection, is content to abandon his hopeless love for Olivia and marry Viola. Sir Toby marries Maria for her wit.
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