By Melanie Spina
Assistant A&E Editor
This past weekend, the Post Theater Company began it’s showing of William Shakespeare’s, “Twelfth Night.” Opening night took place on Friday, Nov. 13 in the Little Theater. Nicole A. Watson, a freelance director that likes to focus on new plays and devised work, directed the show.
“We’ve been preparing since the second week of October, which is actually a shorter process than normal,” said Hailey Mickulas, a senior musical theater major, who carried out the role of the dramaturg, which is a position within the creative team that deals with research and development of the play. “We had a three-day paper tech and then we put the show right up on its feet and we were able to go into the space right away, which was great,” she said.
Mickulas said that the cast was very well prepared and thanks to that, it was off book by the second week of their rehearsal time. “The show has so much energy and the cast is amazing and it’s a predominately senior cast,” she said. “There are only two people that aren’t seniors, so just that drive as that last show that they might possibly be in was totally present there and everyone brought all of their training with them and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
To receive a role in the play, students had to go through an audition process that takes place during the semester, according to Kelsey D’Andrea, a senior in musical theater major who played Sir Andrew in the play. “For fall shows, we go in an audition process in the spring and then we find out the cast listing in the summer,” she said. “You get your scripts in the summer to start working on it for the fall.”
D’Andrea said that preparing for the show wasn’t too hard thanks to their director. “She is really great, she is kind of like a teacher more than a director so if we were ever confused she was really good at guiding us into what to do,” she said. “Also, it’s a bunch of seniors and a couple others so they have all been very supportive, so it’s been a pretty easy ride if we needed help they were always there.”
Regarding memorization of the lines from Shakespearean language, D’Andrea said that it wasn’t as hard as some people think. “It’s really like Shakespeare means what he says so if you just really say the words and know what you’re saying then the audience is going to know what they are saying too,” she said. “Just have fun with it, he is a funny dude.”
Paige Espinosa, a senior musical theater major, played Viola, one of the lead roles in the play. “It’s been such a fast process, that between memorizing lines and trying to actually make a show it’s been so quick that the opening night came and we were just standing backstage like ‘it’s here, this is actually happening’,” she said.
Espinosa had done a piece that involved a bit of Shakespeare before, but much like D’Andrea, this was her very first full length Shakespeare show to act in. “We haven’t done a Shakespeare [play] here in forever. I think we did one a year before our freshman year,” said D’Andrea. “So now it’s kind of like the right students at the right time so they went from that,” she added.
Espinosa claims that it took her some time for everything to start to make sense. “I feel like I didn’t really know what I was doing until I got the costume on and I was on the set,” she said. “I was like ‘ok things are making sense now’ but it took that too really kind of push it.”
“Twelfth Night” is, Espinosa’s favorite Shakespearian play, so she was pretty familiar with the show. “In reality this is my absolute dream role and I never thought I’d get to play it so soon,” she said. “So seeing how great the reception has been it feels quite amazing. I didn’t know what to expect, to be honest, but people have been so supportive it’s unreal.”
Opening night and the rest of the shows for the weekend have been quite a success for the cast. “I am really proud of everyone, it’s been really great and it’s been really great to do this with the senior class and with our other friends,” said D’Andrea. “It’s been a very successful and we think we overcame and obstacle that a lot of people probably thought we couldn’t do, but its been really great and its been really rewarding.”
The play will continue to play this weekend, at 8 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 18 and on Saturday, Nov. 21, and at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 22 in the Little Theater.
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