For today’s episode, as we literally celebrate Twelfth Night this week, what better time than now to release part one of our REPERTORY workshop of this Shakespearean play!
This was an even bigger experiment than The Rehearsal Room workshops! With Repertory, we had a company of 6 actors (half professional and half younger and/or newer) who met twice a week for 7 weeks to work on 4 different scenes! Everyone played at least two characters and they worked with two different directors.
In this episode, you’ll hear the two scenes they worked on with director Brendon Fox. This was actually the second presentation we did, though these two scenes come first chronologically in the play, so that’s why you’re hearing this part first. Don’t worry – you didn’t miss anything!
The other presentation, which I plan to release next, will include two scenes from Act 3 directed by Liz Swain.
So, from May 2021 and directed by Brendon Fox, here are Act 1, Scene 5 and Act 2, Scene 4 from Twelfth Night.
The first scene includes almost everyone at Olivia’s house, some great exchanges with the Fool, and then the meeting of Olivia and Viola, who is disguised as Orsino’s servant Cesario. Then the following scene has Orsino with Viola (disguised) who expresses her love for Orsino through a story about “Cesario’s sister.”
This group all did such exceptional work – there are so many places I could highlight with each of them with moments they found—it was truly a joy to watch. We’d be here for another hour with me just talking about all the things I loved.
We continue rolling out these episodes from the past 12+ months of workshops we’ve been doing, including Hamlet, King Lear, Troilus and Cressida, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and King John and more. You get some of the popular plays and the lesser-known ones too. If you’ve missed any presentations thus far, click here to find them all.
Our director Brendon Fox is back after directing a scene from The Merchant of Venice in The Rehearsal Room, which you’ll find on the podcast and on YouTube. Brendon worked as an Associate Director at the Old Globe and has worked nationally and internationally as a director.
These presentations are available on the podcast and YouTube, and you can find both below. While there is a video component, since so much emphasis is on the text, I believe it’s still an excellent experience with the audio version.
I gotta say: as the producer and an audience member, this became a particularly rewarding experience because I was able to watch all these amazing artists work on such different characters, to not only stretch themselves, but also to bring so much of each of their own personalities to all of these roles – to make everyone so human. There’s lots of fantastic discussion and you are in for some first-rate work. I’m very grateful to Liz and Brendon for bringing up this idea in the first place and being willing to take this ride. I’m so glad we did!
Enjoy the audio version of the Repertory presentation of Twelfth Night, Part One:
Total Running Time: 1:46:32
- Stream by clicking here.
- Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as/save link as”.
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Twelfth Night, Part One
DIRECTOR: Brendon Fox
DRAMATURGS: Gideon Rappaport (Q&A episode) and Philippa Kelly
VOICE COACHES: Ursula Meyer(Q&A episode) and Scott Ferrara(Q&A episode)
Act 1, Sc 5:
- MARIA – Janet Greaves
- FESTE – Sara Mountjoy-Pepka
- OLIVIA – Michele Schultz
- MALVOLIO – Jamal Douglas
- SIR TOBY – Garrett Botts
- VIOLA – Erika Rolfsrud
Act 2, Sc 4:
- ORSINO – Garrett Botts
- FESTE – Michele Schultz
- VIOLA – Sara Mountjoy-Pepka
Brendon Gideon Philippa Ursula Scott
Janet Erika Jamal Sara Garrett Michele
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