California Shakespeare Theater announced today it will launch its year-long 40th anniversary celebration in February 2014 with William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night in the company’s first-ever performance tour to community settings throughout San Francisco and the East Bay.
A co-production with San Francisco-based Intersection for the Arts, Twelfth Night will be directed by Michelle Hensley, Artistic Director of Minneapolis-based Ten Thousand Things, one of the country’s most highly regarded classics-based theaters.
Hensley will bring Shakespeare’s tale of love, romance, and mistaken identities to a variety of community locations, reaching groups of all ages that have little access to the arts. Tour sites in San Francisco include Central City SRO Collaborative, OpenHouse, and Woolf House; East Bay sites include Alameda County Juvenile Detention Center, Berkeley Food and Housing Project, Civicorp, Eastside Arts Alliance, and Youth Uprising. The production will also have ten low-cost public performances at Intersection for the Arts.
“I love the way Twelfth Night explores how falling in love can be an escape from enormous pain, while at the same time taking a clear look at the not always happy consequences of abandoning reality and reason to plunge into love’s delirium,” says director Hensley. “Shakespeare performed the tale with a single-sex cast, so I wanted to find out what would happen if the cast was only women instead of only men.”
“This production deepens Cal Shakes’ commitment to making it possible for everyone, regardless of age, circumstance, or background, to discover the depth and joy of Shakespeare’s work,” says Artistic Director Jonathan Moscone. “The Public Theater’s Artistic Director Oscar Eustis calls Michelle a ‘national treasure,’ and his was the first Theater to adopt her unique approach of stripping Shakespeare down to its most human essence, performing in intimate settings for non-traditional audiences. I am happy to say we are the second in the country, and I hope others follow suit, and we, in the American Theater, continue to share the great works of Shakespeare and other classic writers with as many people, from all walks of life, as we can reach.”
As artistic director and founder of Ten Thousand Things, Michelle Hensley has directed and produced more than 40 TTT shows. Most have made local critics annual Top Ten lists, and many times been named Outstanding Small Theater Production or the Outstanding Small Theater Musical of the Year by the Star Tribune. She was Best Director in the Twin Cities for City Pages in 2010, 2006 and 2004, and in 2010 for MN Monthly, and the 2005 winner of the Francesca Primus Prize, given by the American Theater Critics Association for outstanding contribution to the American theater by an emerging female artist.
The cast of this production includes Cal Shakes Associate Artists Nancy Carlin as the straight-laced Malvolio and Orsino’s servant Valentine, Catherine Castellanos as Olivia’s cousin Sir Toby Belch, Joan Mankin as Toby’s sidekick, Andrew Aguecheek; Maria Candelaria, recently seen in Cal Shakes and Campo Santo’s world premiere of Luis Alfaro’s Alleluia, the Road, as Olivia; TCG Fox Resident Actor Fellow Cindy Im as the twins Viola and Sebastian; Rami Margron, last seen in Cal Shakes’ Lady Windermere’s Fan and MTC’s Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol, as the love-struck duke, Orsino, and the gentlewoman, Maria; and Sarita Ocón, who appeared in SF Playhouse’s Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, as the clown Feste and Sebastian’s friend, Antonio.
California Shakespeare Theater will launch its year-long 40th anniversary celebration in February 2014 with William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night in the company’s first-ever performance tour to community settings throughout San Francisco and the East Bay. A co-production with San Francisco-based Intersection for the Arts, Twelfth Night will be directed by Michelle Hensley, Artistic Director of Minneapolis-based Ten Thousand Things, one of the country’s most highly regarded classics-based theaters.
Hensley will bring Shakespeare’s tale of love, romance, and mistaken identities to a variety of community locations, reaching groups of all ages that have little access to the arts. Tour sites in San Francisco include Central City SRO Collaborative, OpenHouse, and Woolf House; East Bay sites include Alameda County Juvenile Detention Center, Berkeley Food and Housing Project, Civicorp, Eastside Arts Alliance, and Youth Uprising. The production will also have ten low-cost public performances at Intersection for the Arts.
“I love the way Twelfth Night explores how falling in love can be an escape from enormous pain, while at the same time taking a clear look at the not always happy consequences of abandoning reality and reason to plunge into love’s delirium,” says director Hensley. “Shakespeare performed the tale with a single-sex cast, so I wanted to find out what would happen if the cast was only women instead of only men.”
“This production deepens Cal Shakes’ commitment to making it possible for everyone, regardless of age, circumstance, or background, to discover the depth and joy of Shakespeare’s work,” says Artistic Director Jonathan Moscone. “The Public Theater’s Artistic Director Oscar Eustis calls Michelle a ‘national treasure,’ and his was the first Theater to adopt her unique approach of stripping Shakespeare down to its most human essence, performing in intimate settings for non-traditional audiences. I am happy to say we are the second in the country, and I hope others follow suit, and we, in the American Theater, continue to share the great works of Shakespeare and other classic writers with as many people, from all walks of life, as we can reach.”
As artistic director and founder of Ten Thousand Things, Michelle Hensley has directed and produced more than 40 TTT shows. Most have made local critics annual Top Ten lists, and many times been named Outstanding Small Theater Production or the Outstanding Small Theater Musical of the Year by the Star Tribune. She was Best Director in the Twin Cities for City Pages in 2010, 2006 and 2004, and in 2010 for MN Monthly, and the 2005 winner of the Francesca Primus Prize, given by the American Theater Critics Association for outstanding contribution to the American theater by an emerging female artist.
The cast of this production includes Cal Shakes Associate Artists Nancy Carlin as the straight-laced Malvolio and Orsino’s servant Valentine, Catherine Castellanos as Olivia’s cousin Sir Toby Belch, Joan Mankin as Toby’s sidekick, Andrew Aguecheek; Maria Candelaria, recently seen in Cal Shakes and Campo Santo’s world premiere of Luis Alfaro’s Alleluia, the Road, as Olivia; TCG Fox Resident Actor Fellow Cindy Im as the twins Viola and Sebastian; Rami Margron, last seen in Cal Shakes’ Lady Windermere’s Fan and MTC’s Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol, as the love-struck duke, Orsino, and the gentlewoman, Maria; and Sarita Ocón, who appeared in SF Playhouse’s Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, as the clown Feste and Sebastian’s friend, Antonio.
TWELFTH NIGHT
California Shakespeare Theater
A co-production with Intersection for the ArtsIntersection for the Arts
925 Mission Street, San Francisco CA 94103Directed by Michelle Hensley
Music composed by Peter VitaleFebruary 20-March 2, 2014
