TWELFTH NIGHT
Director's Note
I fell in love with Shakespeare and theater on a trip to England as a teenager. The first professional production of a Shakespeare play I had ever seen was "Twelfth Night" by the RSC. So when the Secret Theater approached me about directing the show, I couldn't help but remember the feelings that it brought back. There is a reason why those of us in the lime light take out student loans for MFA programs, move from all over the world to New York, miss holidays, screw up relationships and dating, take on crappy side jobs, and sacrifice everything to create illusions and live out stories for audiences... Love. Love of the theater.
When I approached this play many years later while reading it, I laughed and at the same time felt my heart break. There are mistaken identities and people falling in love with an illusion.
The play has just as much drama as it has comedy. For me This play is about the two sides of love. What we think we love and the reality of what is actually there. And just like love, there are winners and there are losers. Love seldom comes to us how we planned or with who we thought it would be.
I dedicate this show to the theater. The cruel mistress of illusion I love that demands so much of me... And so much of its lovers. To its people, the actors, designers and directors I have worked with in the past. Especially in the Off-Off-Broadway world of independent theater -- where there is no Broadway paycheck and people sacrifice so much for love... To create an illusion to live out for an audience to transport them to another world. But most of all, I dedicate this show to you... the audiences who come and keep independent theater alive. Who believe in supporting risk takers.
I invite you to fall in love with the theater again. Our vaudevillian group has gathered the greatest performers from all over the world to bring you Twelfth Night. You are the final piece that is missing from our show, for without you there is no theater. You have a role in our production... Even some lines -- but do not fear, we will guide you. Drink, laugh, and enjoy Twelfth Night, for it was made especially for you.
“Living out the production’s humorous side, the troupe carefully created a comically chaotic climate while interacting with the audience mid-show. Using cue cards, the actors taught the reluctant-yet-interested onlookers a song. While on stage, the cast served beverages, hurled themselves across the aisles and begged for cash. — Bonilla, who has a background in the art of physical humor, hoped to update the performance for today’s audiences, who may not be fully swayed by Shakespeare’s amusing style of comedy. ”
“Bonilla was inspired to create a more interactive ‘Twelfth Night’ production by a performance of the play he saw done by the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon. — Growing up in Arizona, he saw a lot of what he calls hoity-toity interpretations of Shakespeare. In his production he wants that mix of tragedy and hilarity, as well as accessibility. That’s where the feel of vaudeville clowning — aka audience participation — comes in.”