Twelfth night by Shakespeare is a play about two siblings who were separated in a shipwreck. As the play focuses on the drama of a Countess, who falls in love with one of the siblings in what we can view as a one sided love triangle. Jon Tracy’s rendition of the play, which was performed at the Shotgun Players Theater in Berkeley, certainly used the venue to his advantage. As the play progresses on, it expanded into a musical which interprets the message of the play. The actors and performers of the play leaves the audience awe and amazement through musical and artistic talent. Jon Tracy strongly assumes the role of the director into guiding and shaping the production through the use of many elements throughout the show. These elements include lighting, usage of spacing, and sound. These elements alone help portray the works of William Shakespeare in Jon Tracy’s version of Twelfth night.
Twelfth night was not finished in one night by a single person, but an effort from multiple individuals and countless hours of practice. The production team did an outstanding job. The stage itself was bare minimum, with very little furniture to suggest the setting. There was very little need for any props of any kind in this production because the sound effects created from the instruments helped the imagination create the scene and vision that the director wanted you to see. The person behind this was the Stage manager, Hanah Zahner.
Hanah did an amazing job, especially with the lighting. There was an array of lights above the stage, and multiple lights that were to be set up by the cast members. Each light had a purpose. Whether it was to set the scene, or to help establish a point of view, the lighting always gave the audience the mood of the scene. What intrigued me most was that the one of the lights was used as part of a prop. In one scene where Nick Medina, who played
Aguecheek, swung on a light that was propelled down from the ceiling (this part was my favorite). This gave me the sense that the actors were interacting with a stage element. Lets not forget to mention the music and sound. This to me was the meat and potatoes of the production (besides from the actors of course), without the sound and music i would not have been able to imagine the scene as well as i did, and lets not forget that this is partly a musical! For the introduction of the play, there was very eerie music playing, i almost thought the scene was set on an Alien planet, boy was i wrong. Even though i may not be certain, i am sure it took place on earth in a much distant time period because of their clothing. Will Hand, who played Sebastion, and Reecca Pingree, who played Viola, would wear top hats. This is the kind of hat you would see back in the old days.. What had me confused the most was during an act,