twlfth Night

This is set design when I saw this. You need to follow the set what I saw

IMPORTANT:::

Consider the following in your essay:

-Choose two characters from the play whose storylines are clearest and/or most interesting to you. How did the actors make those stories clear and defined for the audience? Did the Elizabethan dialogue hold them back, or enhance their characters? How about their body language, posture, tone of voice? 

-Discuss the set design and how it pertains to your thesis/premise. There is one large central design, so how could you keep track of scenic locations? What indicated a scene change? How does the set further the story along?

Those two elements should be the main discussion points of your essay. Be sure to refer back to your premise/thesis; your paper should always back up your strong statements.

BackGround:

Director's Notes

I first met Twelfth Night in 1971 at Washington’s Folger Shakespeare Library. The Library’s brand new director, the wonderful poet and scholar, O.B. Hardison, decided to bring the museum’s unused theater (a replica of Shakespeare’s Globe) to life with a professional acting company. Twelfth Night was chosen as the company’s first Shakespeare, and I was hired to play Antonio and design the set. A deal with the Reynolds Corporation gave us enough aluminum to cover the theater, build a spiral staircase, and install a fire pole. With the addition of some shag carpet, a playground slide, country rock music, some boxing gloves and bell‐bottoms, we took the Bard fashionably into the world of 1971. The production, heavily influenced by the writings of the Polish theater critic, Jan Kott, had a single androgynous actor playing both Viola and Sebastian. Each performance proceeded smoothly until the final scene when, inevitably nothing made sense, and audiences were mystified. But the controversy garnered a great deal of press, and the new theater company was off and running. Happily the Shakespeare Theater at the Folger continues all these years later, a bright gem in DC’s theater scene.

Since then, I have had the good fortune to act in, or direct a half dozen more productions of Twelfth Night. It has become one of my favorite comedies‐‐one that begins in darkness and ends in joy. Perhaps no play of Shakespeare's connects more directly to his personal life. Shakespeare was father to a set of twins, Hamnet and Judith, born in 1585. Hamnet died at the age of eleven in 1596. Four years later the Bard joyously wrote his only son back to life as Sebastian in Tweltfh Night. The play’s first recorded performance was in 1602. Our production is influenced primarily by the original text, set down in the First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays. It was published posthumously in 1623 and lovingly put together from the playwright’s own manuscripts by the members of his acting company. Composer Trevor Smith has written original music for Feste’s songs for this production.

—Gus Kaikkonen

HOT TIPS: 

Before you see the show: Examine your relationship to Shakespeare. Have you seen a Shakespeare play before, or a movie adaptation? Do you feel intimidated or nervous about the use of Elizabethan language? What about it makes us treat Shakespeare as a unique genre within theatre?

Read a synopsis of the play online (or read the play itself!). There is one main plot (Olivia/Viola/Duke triangle) and several subplots (prank on Malvolio, the friendship of Antonio/Sebastian, Feste’s general observations), so you must pay close attention to the play to understand what is happening. Your essay will be clearer as a result.

While watching the show: 1) Which storylines are clearer than others? Why? How does the acting help or hinder clarity? What is making the audience laugh? What is confusing them? 2)  In a much smaller space than the Pasant, the Arena Theatre’s capacity for set and light changes is more limited. How does a scene change happen? How do you know? 

After the show: Write a clear essay in which you make an argument about the theme and/or premise of Twelfth Night, and how, despite the fact that we no longer speak in Shakespearean verse/language, the plot, acting, and set design support your premise.

Be sure to write a clear thesis statement expressing an active theme/mood/premise.  Remember, your premise should support the sentence ______ leads to ______. You can use your introductory paragraph to express how the story was familiar or unfamiliar to you.  Use specific evidence from the show to support your ideas. Be sure to link your evidence to your overall thesis; the best way to do this is to write a strong topic sentence for each paragraph.