Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

This past weekend at the University of Incarnate Word, their theatre department hosted the Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare. The play was presented on November nineteenth through November twenty-first, two-thousand fourteen, in the Elizabeth Huth Coates Theatre. Twelfth Night consisted of fifteen cast members,a production team of nine, and a production crew of nine different departments with a total of forty-eight members and a Illyrian gypsy band of five members.

Going into this play, I had the impression that it was going to be a classic theatre, something I would not comprehend to start with nor end with. Throughout the play, their were various twist and actions being played out. When reading about the play, some described it as a comedy about a cross-dressing, ship-wreck surviving, poetry-loving girl who finds herself at the center of a not-so-average love triangle, and others described it as a “transvestite comedy”. The reason being for a “transvestite comedy” is do to the role plays within the play, you had women played as a men, and men played as women,Twelfth Night is particularly provocative and interesting, since the role of it is heroine, Viola(the survivor sister who separates from her twin brother after a ship-wreck), would have been played by a boy actor, who was cross-dressed as a female character, who cross-dresses as a boy.

Throughout this play, it was a bit confusing considering there were switched role plays, men as women and women as men. Some were interesting and some just had one line to the next and exited the stage for the remaining of the play. The most compelling actor that was brought to my attention was Malvolio(Michael Ciaramitaro). He played a sassy role within the play. Malvolio, the steward of Olivia's household, is prized by that lady for his grave and punctilious disposition. He discharges his office carefully and in a tone of some superiority, for his mind is above his estate. At some time in his life he has read cultivated books, knows the theory of Pythagoras concerning the transmigration of the soul, but thinks more nobly of the soul and no way approves that opinion. He is the character amongst all, which I happen to find fascinating and the most compelling. The character who played the captain/priest(Jovan Gonzales), was my least compelling actor during the play, he seemed as if he did not know his lines very well, he sounded more of reading the script rather than getting in depth within his character. Antonio the sea captain by trade, Officer I, Viola/ Cesario, Fabia, Sebastian, Feste “the Clown”, Olivia, Maria, Sir Toby whom was the drunken one,and Maria whom was the “lady in waiting” were all great parts of the play. They all came in contact in the play, and all had different conflix within each other as well.

Mark Stringham, whom received his M.F.A in Acting from the Professional Actor Training Program at Ohio University and is a proud member of Actors Equity Associations. He has acted for regional theatres, commercials, television shows, and films across the country. He also has directed nine plays at the University of Incarnate Word, Twelfth Night being his tenth. Being