Twelfth Night has been my favorite Shakespearean comedy since I was lucky enough to attend a professional production on a field trip during my high school years. Working on it with this talented group of students has only made me love it more.  If you find this production is on the sillier side of Shakespeare, thanks! I think comedies are supposed to be… silly. 

The play's story has nothing to do with twelve nights. We believe it got this title when it was first performed on the evening of the 12th day of Christmas, amidst all of those twelve drummers drumming.

Synopsis

Set on the fictional island of Illyria, the story starts before the play does. The Countess Olivia has a father who dies. Then her brother dies. Then Orsino, the duke of Illyria, thinks this is an appropriate time to fall madly in love with her and pursue marriage.  Olivia disagrees. Grieving for her lost father and brother, she refuses to start a romantic relationship with any man.

Meanwhile, two twins, Viola and Sebastian, get in a shipwreck.  Both survive but think the other has died.

Hopefully, you are not lost because this is the point where the play actually begins.

The Duke Orsino is wallowing in his love for Olivia, but she still refuses to see his any of his love messengers.

Viola, newly washed up on the shore, tries to find out if her brother has died. Feeling alone and vulnerable after learning about the situation between Olivia and Orsino, she decides that she will disguise herself as a young man and try to get a job working for Duke Orsino. After all, everybody thinks she looks like her brother.  She takes the name Cesario and heads off to the duke's court. The Duke takes a liking to his newest worker and immediately makes Cesario his new love ambassador to Olivia. Unfortunately for Orsino, Olivia decides she likes Cesario, too. She falls in love. Taking action, she sends a ring to Cesario, pretending to return it. Viola now realizes that she is caught in a complicated love triangle.

Meanwhile, Olivia's uncle is starting to get on everybody's nerves.  Maria (traditionally pronounced like Mariah Carey) warns him he may be tossed out if he doesn't stop drinking and parading around his obnoxious friend, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, who has arrived to join in the hunt for Olivia's hand in marriage. 

Leading the charge against Sir Toby is Malvolio, her steward. While Malvolio hates Sir Toby, he secretly loves Olivia. When Malvolio manages to threaten everybody due to Toby's bad behavior, all of the workers in the house gets together to take him down. Maria forges a mysterious love letter that Malvolio assumes to be to him from Olivia , instructing him to a bunch of things that will only turn Olivia off.

The two stories start to intersect when Sir Andrew starts to get jealous of the attention that Viola/Cesario gets from Olivia. Egged on by Sir Toby, Sir Andrew challenges Viola/Cesario to a fight in order to win Olivia's heart.

Things get really complicated when Sebastian, VIola's look alike brother starts wandering around Illyria. Having arrived with Antonia, who is simply obsessed with him, Sebastian's wanderings around the island seems to make everything worse. However, an extra object of affection might be exactly what Illyria needs to sort out that love triangle.

This is my fourth year celebrating excellence with the Western Center Academy. The Dramatic Arts Mammoth Players seek to contribute to the school's climate of learning in the following ways.

• We promote learning theatre arts as well as academic excellence in other classes.
• We create shows where our loved ones can experience laughter, love, and loss with us.
• We craft competition pieces that push ourselves and our audiences artistically.
• We work together to create a safe environment where everybody feels valued for their unique contributions.