As the school year comes to a close, students are anticipating senior sports games, final concerts, and of course, the term-ending theater production.
Back for the first time since the start of the pandemic, the scale of this year’s musical has presented both unique opportunities and challenges. With a student company of 35 and a faculty production team of ten, Twelfth Night is one of the larger productions attempted at Deerfield, and as such has a lot of moving parts.
One of the benefits of such a large cast is the possibility to showcase talents from all parts of the performative arts department. As co-director and choral coach Eve La Puma put it, “It’s this wonderful chance to collaborate between so many different departments in the school, and really give everyone a chance to shine in multiple ways through one larger story.”
Such variety allowed members of the cast to display their respective talents and expand their horizons. Seasoned singers have gotten to engage in dance choreography and advanced dancers have learned to push their vocal capacity.
Of course, all elements of the show are emphasized by a strong standard of acting. Ally Atwell ’22 talked about her process of developing her character, Sir Toby Belch, who is the uncle of protagonist Olivia, Countess of Illyria. Atwell said she drew inspiration from Johnny Depp when he played Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean, picking out mannerisms that make, in her words, “a classic, loveable, drunk character.”
As a female-identifying student playing the role of a man, Atwell also acknowledged the relevant issues that the play addresses, including gender and sexuality.
She said, “It’s really rare to get this kind of opportunity to act in a Shakespearean character that’s not my gender, and also get to play with gender as a fluidity and as a spectrum.”
Atwell complimented Lori Clark, this year’s co-director and choreographer, saying, “The dance work has been a lot of fun. I just really love Mrs. Clark, and I think she’s super talented and has created so many amazing numbers…I’ve never been in a musical before, so it feels very professional and so creative. I love the big number finishes and also just the variety of dance styles that we have in the production itself.”
Mrs. Clark and Ms. La Puma’s contributions have allowed Theater Director and Chair of Deerfield’s Visual & Performing Arts Department, Catriona Hynds, to take a step back. The two have risen to the task of lead directors with admirable determination and grace.
In an interview with Mrs. Clark, she commented, “It was a daunting but exciting task to undertake and I feel proud of what we have accomplished together. We are a large team of professionals and students, and our communication thus far has been constructive, and supportive, and is yielding excellent results in my opinion. Thank you to Ms. Hynds for trusting us and supporting this endeavor. She directed the last 8 shows in a row and we’re happy to give her a little break too!”
The tech crew, however, has not gotten a break.
Costume designer Karen St. Pierre said that she’s had to design fifty-four costumes for this production. Ms. Pierre’s vision while creating them was, “Twiggy from the 1960s, Colleen Atwood, Katy Jones, Alice and Olivia, Ken Scott, 90s and 60s patterns, and Meghan Fabulous.” She aimed to capture something that was “youthful, timeless, vibrant… like every costume was an instagram filter.”
Theatre Technical Director, Paul Yager, stated, “I would say it’s not the biggest production we’ve ever done but certainly there’s the added difficulty of having to build the set in the Blackbox Theater and moving it to the Hess auditorium…This might be the tallest set we’ve ever built, definitely the tallest one we’ve put on the main stage in my 33 years.”
A typical day in Mr. Yager’s life involves working independently in the morning and setting up projects for the student tech crew during the allotted co-curricular window.
Mr. Yager finishes out the day working with the tech crew “ for two hours every day with no days off. Nobody sits on the bench.”
Three of the students on the team this term are veteran theater technicians which is helpful since, according to Mr. Yager, “one of the difficulties that the technicians have is that they have to come in and learn how to use all the tools and painting techniques and all the safety protocols so we can do what we do before we even begin construction.”
According to Mr. Yager, the crew is making good time, especially due to the extra help they’ve received from the rest of the cast on days they aren’t explicitly called.
Despite being grateful for the help, Yager feels that “sometimes we have too many people, too many people who are willing to help, and everything we build builds upon pieces that we’re working on. There were times when four people came in with a half-hour left and there was really nothing for them to do for that short amount of time.”
The cast is excited to share the results of their efforts this term. As Cam Howe ’22 put it, “We’re aiming to have bigger audiences, we want to pack people in.”