Twelfth Night Kicks Off The New Year at Trinity Rep

Shakespeare's topsy-turvy tale of love and laughter runs January 29-March 7

PROVIDENCE – Love's a funny business in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night – the madcap romantic comedy ringing in the new year at Trinity Rep. Brian McEleney, the award-winning director who brought local audiences to their feet with recent productions of Hamlet, Our Town and A Raisin in the Sun will helm the production. Twelfth Night opens in previews on January 29 and runs through March 7. Tickets are on sale now at the Trinity Rep box office at 201 Washington Street; by phone at (401)-351-4242; and online at www.trinityrep.com.

Brian McEleney will be reprising his role as the fastidious butler Malvolio – a role he’s taken on three times before – in addition to his spot in the director’s chair. “Taking on this double-duty is something I have never done before,” confesses the actor/director. “It will be a wonderful challenge for me and for the acting company. I love this company, I trust them, I value our work together - for me to be one  among equals, instead of the guy sitting behind the table, it’s all for the better!”

Shipwrecked and separated from her twin brother, Viola (Cherie Corinne Rice, Brown/Trinity ‘10) must disguise herself as a man to survive. Just when she thinks things can’t get any worse, she falls for her new boss, the Duke, played by resident company member Joe Wilson, Jr. Meanwhile, the Duke pines for Olivia (Annie Worden, Brown/Trinity ‘10), who has sworn off men – until she meet Viola’s male alter-ego, “Cesario.” This lover’s knot gets more tangled when Viola's twin brother, Sebastian (also played by Cherie Corinne Rice), arrives in Illyria and is mistaken for "Cesario."

Meanwhile, the locals in Illyria are enraptured in the drunken debauchery of the Twelfth Night festival. Olivia's hard-drinking uncle, Sir Toby Belch (Fred Sullivan, Jr.), carouses with Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Stephen Thorne), Maria (Anne Scurria), the clown Feste (Stephen Berenson) and Fabian (Mauro Hantman), much to the chagrin of Olivia's uptight butler, Malvolio (Brian McEleney). Rounding out the cast of characters are Brown/Trinity Rep MFA student actors Christopher Berry ‘11, Jamey Grisham ‘11, and Rich Williams ’11. Spurned suitors, servants with delusions of grandeur, and cross dressing confusion – it’s a hot mess that’s likely to put someone in the madhouse.

Director McEleney is quick to point out that - as in the case in many of Shakespeare’s comedies - much of the play’s humor is about mistaken identity and gender. In this case, a woman dresses as a man and discovers experiences forbidden to the fairer sex in this society. He explains: “People fall head over heels in love without knowing that the objects of their affection are not what they appear to be. There’s a great deal of confusion among the characters, and if the audience is slightly confused at times, that will add to the fun. We’re meant to be thinking ’Oh wait, she’s a man, no, now she’s a woman dressed as a man…’ ”

The production team includes set designs by Tony award-winner Eugene Lee, costumes by resident designer William Lane, lighting by John Ambrosone, sound design by Peter Sasha Hurowitz and musical direction by Jamey Grisham. The design of the show has a Victorian feel, giving audiences a context for Shakespeare’s humor involving class structure and status. Explains McEleney “I want to show you what it means when people fall in love with people far, far above them socially, out of reach. We don’t get that in modern America – the rigid class and gender structures are more clearly visible in a Victorian world.”

The director goes on to say, “In my conversations with Eugene Lee, who’s designed the set, we talked about how to best create the world of the play, which takes place during this big Twelfth Night celebration. His initial idea was to set the action in an elite members-only gentleman’s club - and that’s what he’s created onstage in great detail. Of course as Shakespeare says in the play, ‘…the rain it raineth every day,’ so there’s going to be a lot of water involved as well!”

Director Brian McEleney has been a member of the resident acting company since 1983. A Trinity Rep Associate Director, he has directed Trinity Rep productions of A Raisin in the Sun, All the King’s Men, Measure for Measure, Dinner with Friends, Master Class, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, A Christmas Carol, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Stones in His Pockets, Proof, Our Town, and Hamlet (2006 Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Director), as well as over a dozen Conservatory productions, including The Merchant of Venice, Blood Wedding, Pericles, and Troilus and Cressida. A graduate of Trinity College and the Yale School of Drama, he was a member of the faculty at Princeton University from 1982– 1990. In addition to his work at Trinity Rep he has acted in productions in various New York theatres such as Theatre for the New City and St. Clement’s Theatre, and has been a member of the Robert Lewis Acting Company and the Bread Loaf Acting Ensemble.

Continuing this season is a unified curtain time of 7:30 PM for all evening performances. Regular performances start at 7:30 pm on Tuesday through Sundays with selected Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday Matinees at 2pm.

The first performance on January 29 at 7:30PM is Pay What You Can (PWYC). PWYC tickets go on sale at 6:30 pm, limit one per person. This season Trinity Rep has responded to these economic times by continuing to offer $20 discounted seating, and $10 seats are also available on the Chace Theater’s 12th row bench. Additional discounted and rush tickets are also available, call box office for details. For information on group rates (parties of 10 or more) contact Group Sales at (401) 453-9223.

Talkbacks will be held after every performance of Twelfth Night. Audiences are invited to share their response to the play’s production and themes for approximately twenty minutes. Trinity Rep’s 46th season is sponsored by NBC 10, with supporting sponsors Cox Media, Rhode Island Monthly and RISCA.

PD PLUS: Twelfth Night in the classroom
Trinity Rep's Education Department will continue to offer its popular "Project Discovery Plus” program which presents five student matinees to local middle and high school students, as well as complimentary in-school workshops taught by Teaching Artists and cast members from the production. Project Discovery Plus began five years ago as part of Shakespeare for a New Generation, a national theater initiative sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts in cooperation with Arts Midwest. The program is a three-part experience, beginning with in-class workshops held prior to the students attending the play, in order to prepare them for the production. The schools then attend one of the weekday Project Discovery student matinees at Trinity Rep. In the weeks following the performance, actors will once again visit their classrooms again in order to work with the students to reflect and build on what they've seen. The workshops can take a number of different forms, from an "Inside the Actors Studio" format to writing and performing their own modern adaptations of the play. Education Director Carrie Azano states "The impact on the students is immediate and powerful – they become engaged with the material, and their understanding of the text deepens exponentially as they see it performed, and as they, in turn, perform scenes from the play themselves."

Education programs surrounding Twelfth Night are part of Shakespeare for a New Generation, a national initiative sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts in cooperation with Arts Midwest. Trinity Rep's production of Twelfth Night is supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.