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player ready...Moraine Valley Community College’s Academic Theater has expanded its annual Shakespeare Under the Stars production to incorporate live music before at least one performance.
“Twelfth Night, or What You Will” runs from July 21 to 24 outdoors at the Gateway. Members of Moraine Valley Orchestra perform at 6 p.m. July 23 and possibly other dates in the Shakespeare Garden.
“We were trying to figure out how to make it a little bigger,” said Craig Rosen, coordinator of Academic Theater for Moraine Valley Community College.
“Sean McIntosh, our technical director who also designed the set for the show, spoke to Moraine Valley Orchestra director Maryann Flock and she was thrilled to have the idea.”
The Shakespeare Garden, which is north of Moraine Valley Community College’s Fine & Performing Arts Center, debuted in 2016.
“It’s an awesome place right by where we perform,” said Rosen, director of “Twelfth Night, or What You Will.”
“Most of the flowers and plants appear somewhere in Shakespeare’s work. We have Shakespeare quotes. There are also park benches and paver bricks that people can buy and have inscribed so it’s a lovely place.”
“Twelfth Night, or What You Will” originally was scheduled to be staged two years ago.
“We were supposed to do it in the summer of 2020 but we canceled Shakespeare Under the Stars because of COVID. In summer of 2021 we wanted to do something small-scale,” said Rosen about staging “The Bomb-Itty of Errors,” a hip-hop retelling of Shakespeare’s “The Comedy of Errors,” in 2021.
“This year is the first year of true Shakespeare Under the Stars again. ‘Twelfth Night’ seemed appropriate. People seem to like the show.”
The comedy focuses on siblings Viola and Sebastian.
“It’s a fun story about twins, a brother and sister, that are separated in a shipwreck and they think each other is dead,” said Rosen of Naperville.
“The sister Viola ends up pretending she’s a man in the duke’s court. She falls in love with Duke Orsino. The duke thinks she’s a teenage boy and asks her to do his wooing for Olivia, a woman he’s in love with. Olivia falls in love with Viola, who she also thinks is a boy. It’s this love triangle.
“Then the other twin, the brother, shows up.”
Rosen said the 18th season of Shakespeare Under the Stars puts a few modern touches on “Twelfth Night, or What You Will.”
“It’s just a fun play so it will be really colorful. It won’t be set in Elizabethan times. It’s more of a nondescript time, more in the present if not today,” Rosen said.
“The costumes are a little bit modernized.”
The cast of “Twelfth Night, or What You Will” includes Diana Christine of Palos Hills, Natalie Cross of Summit, Elaina Dague of Homewood, Sean Gallagher of Mokena, Joe Gomez of Palos Heights, Zoila Hernandez of Chicago, Aidan McGuire of Mokena and Margaret Pesquera of Chicago.
Gracie Polchan of Justice, John Reidy of Palos Park, Jalin Rivera of Chicago, Dan Scott of Rockford, Lena Smith of Blue Island, Brian Walsh of Forest Park and Phil Montanez of La Grange Park are also part of the cast, which features a mix of Moraine Valley Community College students and community members.
“It was really important to us to get a lot of new people because as a theater department we’re rebuilding after a year of being shut down,” Rosen said.
“We were also hoping to be able to get some of the experienced people who come back year after year to perform to pass the tradition on. There’s some people who have been in these shows for over 10 years. That was one of the goals that really worked out well.”
“Twelfth Night, or What You Will” attendees may bring chairs, blanks and refreshments. Alcohol is not allowed.
“People set up picnics. It’s a wonderful thing,” said Rosen about the atmosphere at Shakespeare Under the Stars.
“It’s perfect for a night out in the beautiful summer air.”
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If it rains “Twelfth Night, or What You Will” will move inside the Fine & Performing Arts Center.
Academic Theater, which returns to a full season of shows in 2022-23, has planned “Urinetown” in fall, “Glassheart” and “Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play” in spring and “Much Ado About Nothing” next summer.
‘Twelfth Night, or What You Will’
When: 7 p.m. July 21-23; 3 p.m. July 24
Where: Moraine Valley Community College’s Gateway, 9000 W. College Parkway, between Buildings M and F, Palos Hills
Tickets: Free
Information: 708-974-5500; morainevalley.edu/fpac
Jessi Virtusio is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.