Twelfth Night
I am thrilled to be playing Antonio in the upcoming co-production of Twelfth Night with Raw Shakespeare Company and ArtisTree Theatre Company August 13-16 at Norman Williams Public Library in Woodstock, VT.
This August, Raw Shakespeare Company of Woodstock, VT, in partnership with ArtisTree Theatre Company, offers Twelfth Night. In the spirit of their mission to milk Shakespeare’s text for all its meanings, the company has developed a production revelatory in its staging (the mezzanine of the Norman Williams Public Library), costuming (urban contemporary), and casting (across age, gender, and type). The show, which features a live band, is at 7:30 p.m. August 13 – 15. The final show, Sunday, August 16, is at 4 p.m. Tickets are $15, available online and at the door. In a special library benefit and to kick off the production, the library will hold a special lecture, “The Meaning and Relevance of Twelfth Night” in advance, at 6:30 p.m. on August 12.
“If music be the food of love, play on, Give me excess of it;…”
Twelfth Night is one of Shakespeare’s most performed plays. With this RSC (RAW Shakespeare Company) and ArtisTree Theatre Company production we will present ALL of its many hues and facets. This is unique as most productions tend to neglect the full breath and message of the script. The RSC’s aim is to stage Shakespeare’s works as written and not edit out the “humanness” included in the sub-plots that he illustrates better than any other playwright ever has. Twelfth Night (as with our staging of Hamlet last year) holds many ideas and contemplations within the script. Here, desire and love lace through each scene and character as do the all too human qualities that often accompany love: madness, melancholy, sexual identity, deception…the list is long and wide because that is the capacity of Shakespeare and of us all. This production presents the entire range of Shakespeare’s work and we believe that will deepen our audiences’ appreciation of this great bard and hopefully, of the artistic talents of our wonderful cast and crew and musicians who stage it.
RSC: Michael Barnhart is the Artistic Director of the RAW Shakespeare Company, a theatrical troupe that began in 2013. The RSC is a nonprofit theatrical troupe made up of local thespians, dramaturges, students, poets and mostly people with ‘day’ jobs who are interested in words. It’s all about the words, the raw script in its purest form.
