Twelfth Night

This winter, the LHS theater department, headed by the relentless, stupendous, splendid Ms. Sullivan, is presenting its very own take on William Shakespeare’s timeless comedy, Twelfth Night. This time, it’s set in the Wild West. 

For those unfamiliar with the play, it follows a young woman named Viola and her twin brother, Sebastian. The twins are separated in a shipwreck – er, a trainwreck, because this is set in the Wild West now – and each believe the other to be dead. Viola, desperate for a place to stay now that she is stranded in the city of Illyria, dresses as a boy and starts working for the Duke (Sheriff) Orsino, with whom she falls in love! Orsino, however, is in love with the lady Olivia, who has recently sworn to never leave her house or show her face for seven years after her beloved brother’s death, and who is not at all interested in Orsino. Orsino sends Viola, dressed as a young man named Cesario, to court Olivia, and Olivia ends up falling in love with Viola/Cesario. Quite the complicated love triangle. 

Meanwhile, Sebastian’s life was saved by Antonio, an outlaw with whom he quickly became incredibly close. After three months, though, Sebastian decides to set off into Illyria to make his way with the world. Antonio, head over heels in love with him, follows, despite the bounty Sheriff Orsino has placed on his head. Throughout the play, Sebastian and Viola run around Illyria unaware of each other’s presence and constantly being mistaken for their twin. 

As in any Shakespearian comedy, there are also the so-called “clowns” – the group of characters that are there to cause a ruckus and keep the audience laughing. Twelfth Night has Sir Toby Belch (Olivia’s drunken uncle), Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Toby’s foolish friend and suitor of Olivia), Maria (Olivia’s lady in waiting), Fabian (another of Olivia’s employees and Toby’s friends), and Feste (the fool). Together, the five of them conspire to prank Olivia’s steward, Malvolio, by convincing him that Olivia is in love with him and then convincing Olivia that he has gone mad.

The theater department has been rehearsing this show since the beginning of October. One thing that sets this cast apart from the rest is that it’s actually not just one cast – it’s two! Two sets of students are performing the show. The Winston cast, with shows on the 2nd, the 8th, and the 10th, and the Ned cast, with shows on the 3rd, the 9th, and 11th. Below are the rosters for each cast. 

As with any theater production, a lot of work has to be done behind the scenes for the play to be as amazing and smooth-running as it ought to be. If you go to see the show, you might notice the detailed and vibrant sets, designed by Adrian Martin, a junior who also plays Sir Toby Belch in the Winston cast. Months of work went into designing, constructing, and gathering just a handful of set pieces that can become setting the play needs them to be, from the sheriff’s office to a bar to the outskirts of the desert town.

One may also notice the vibrant costumes, especially the beautiful dress worn by the lady Olivia – an 1880s bustle dress made out of some curtains purchased for the theater’s production of Addams Family the year prior. The dress was handmade by Sarah Adams, a senior and one of two costumers working on Twelfth Night. “She made [the dress] herself with a sewing machine in a hallway that we have been working in for the entirety of the show,” adds Karishma Sears, a junior and the other costumer. 

Sarah and Karishma had to do almost double the work for Twelfth Night as they would have for a different show, since a double cast means double costumes. “It’s a double cast, [and] we can’t always have the actors share,” says Sarah. “Luckily a lot of them could share, but we also have shoe size to be accounted for,” Karishma cuts in. “We have, I believe, 29 pairs of shoes, 9 hats, and just…so many clothes.” 

“I would be nowhere without my spreadsheet,” Sarah sighs.

When asked about the best part of being costumer, Sarah says, “It’s really interesting to work with the actors and kind of see them get into character when they put their costumes on. It’s really cool to see costumes come to life onstage and go from a drawing on paper to real life.” Karishma agrees, saying, “It goes from like, an idea to an actual thing you see, and it’s nice to see how it all comes together cohesively.”

“Shoutout to Garfield because they let us ransack their costume room,” Karishma adds. Comradery between theater departments is always important, especially for a new school like Lincoln that doesn’t yet have an established collection of set and costume materials like other, older schools. 

Another critical part of a smooth-running theater is the stage manager. For Twelfth Night, that’s the one and only Mara Hake. “It’s a lot of ensuring that communication happens between tech departments, that actors know where they need to be and when, and keeping on top of where things are on the stage,” Mara answers when asked what, exactly, a stage manager does.

“In a more personal sense,” she adds, “I think stage managing also means being a strong leader and being strict when I need to be, but also being approachable, kind, understanding, and helpful. My job is making sure everything goes as smoothly as possible onstage, and there’s a lot of factors, both in tech and in relationships, that go into that.” 

“My favorite part about working on this show is seeing everything come together,” Mara says, echoing the statements of the costumers. “It’s always stressful towards the end, that comes with theater, but with our first two shows done it makes me really proud seeing how far our actors have come and how much work tech has put into it. It’s almost unbelievable that we didn’t have a show two months ago, and I’m so proud of how everyone is doing.”

So many passionate, hardworking people poured their time and energy into making the show what it is, and they all deserve a standing ovation – especially the crew. 

Keep reading for a student review of the show!

Student Review:  

As an audience member of Twelfth Night’s opening night with the Winston cast, the first thing that jumped out was the unusual setting. With the auditorium still under construction, this production is hosted in the commons. Audience members file through the main entrance to find a spot on the big concrete steps. Other than minor issues for audience members with back problems, the cast and crew managed to adapt quite well to the situation. The velvet purple curtain, lighting system, large props, and ever moving backdrop transform the commons into a real theatre. I can only imagine how much extra work this caused the tech crew. 

The play began with an excellent display of the working lighting system. The audience is immediately caught by the dilemma and choices of Viola and her brother Sebastian, who have been separated by a ship/train wreck. Even more compelling are the costumes: incredibly vibrant and detailed, embodying the Wild West but somehow still appearing Shakespearian. Watching Rosemary Thorton as Viola balance her romantic feelings for Orsino with keeping her female identity secret was quite entertaining. Ruby Eister Hargrave’s entrance as Olivia takes your breath away: she stuns in a beautiful four layer purple gown, complete with a petticoat, skirt, and corset, handmade by costume manager Sarah Adams.

Especially enjoyable was watching Jonah  as Malvolio be tricked into thinking Olivia was in love with him. When he, reading a fake letter that was planted for him, ponders the meaning of “M…O…A…I…”, I was with him in his puzzlement. When he exclaims “My lady loves me!”, I was with him in his excitement. Even funnier were the facial expressions of Adrian Martin, Lucas Childers, and Valentine Wells as they hid, watching, behind a bench and barrel. Audrey Mack, as Maria, in a beautifully handmade red skirt, also got some big laughs with her sarcasm and facial expressions in this scene and throughout theshow. In another highly entertaining scene, Jonah somehow squeezed himself into the tiniest of boxes for a morbidly hilarious circus-esque moment that kept the audience simultaneously cringing and laughing.

The casting and acting was excellent overall – Lucas Childers as Sir Andrew Aguecheek was effortlessly hilarious, and the singing of Adrian Martin and Elliott Reed as Sir Toby Belch and Feste was simultaneous pleasant and funny. The energy of Sir Toby Belch and his crew was infectious. Ruby Eister Hargrave embodied the elegance and wit of Olivia, and Rosemary Thornton did an as excellent job representing Viola’s dilemma and desires. Forest Obermiller as Orsino and Nate Ellis as Sebastian were both charming. The supporting actors also were fantastic and played their parts well while not taking attention away from the leads. 

The set and props are also quite impressive, with a huge hand-stitched cactus, street sign, character paintings by Isa Poole, and large, multi-use, back-drops that are rotated to change the setting. The props did lead to a few moments of excitement – during a sword fight, the street sign was knocked over. The audience held its collective breath, trying to figure out if it was on purpose or not (it was not, but nothing was broken).

The ending sequence proved that there is nothing better than watching other’s confusion (even if we are a bit confused ourselves). We waited in anticipation for Viola and Sebastian to find each other and realize that their identical appearance was what was causing all of the chaos and confusion, which required slight suspension of disbelief given that that the two actors looked nothing alike.

Lastly, listen with a keen ear to hear lines that were changed to fit the Wild West adaptation. It took a few repetitions of hearing ‘Sheriff’ instead of Count for me to realize that it was unlikely that line was written by Shakespeare. I also caught the lines “when our train did split” and “cacti fresh in love”, doubtlessly a deviation from traditional Shakespearean English. 

After the show, I had the chance to speak to a few actors and tech crew members, who all echoed how proud they were of the team and hard work that went into the production. I highly recommend that you grab tickets for any of the remaining shows, if they are still available – and check out the Ned cast, who I hear are just as amazing. But if you aren’t confident in your ability to understand Shakespeare, I also recommend that you brush up on the plot of Twelfth Night beforehand so you can focus on the beautiful theatre. 

Gallery • 7 Photos

Unfortunately, our reviewer for the Ned cast’s opening night was otherwise occupied, but as a completely unbiased commentator, I can assure you that they’re just as fantastic and funny. Here are some photos to make up for the lack of a review. – Amelia

Gallery • 7 Photos