Twelfth Night Jobs

The Cary News - May 29, 2003

Twelfth Night Preview
by Lisa Coston

Wilson Pietzsch spends his days working for IBM, as a systems analyst and program developer.

For the past couple of months, he has spent most of his evenings -- and a few of his afternoons -- staggering around, drinking, singing, guffawing and generally carousing.

It's all pretend, though.

Pietzsch is an actor with the Cary Players community theater group. He plays the colorful Sir Toby Belch in William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night or What You Will," which opened Wednesday evening.

"I like to think of him as a drunken rogue," Pietzsch said of Sir Toby. "Not a fool -- a lot of people think of him as a fool, but he's too smart for that. He does love to have fun and he's mostly harmless, although he causes some trouble."

Cast and crew members of "Twelfth Night" work for SAS, Cary town government, state government, the N.C. State library and more. They are receptionists and restaurant proprietors.

But they also get to speak in lyrical iambic pentameter, clown around, be serious and try to trigger thought in their audience, and even fight with swords in a scene choreographed by Steve Whetzel (who plays Antonio), a veteran swordsman and member of the Shadow Players stage combat group.

A couple of weeks ago, most of the actors even got to don work gloves, play with power tools and hammers, and climb around on ladders as they helped assemble the set that technical director Neil Williamson built partially off-site.

"That's what the theater is all about," said Herman LeVern Jones, co-founder of Cary Players, theater veteran and director of "Twelfth Night," as well as the group's first-ever show earlier this year, "Our Town." "There's a lot of unity."

Jones, also the show's producer, then picked up a broom to sweep sawdust off the stage in another example of the dual roles evident throughout the production.

Kurt Benrud plays the role of Feste, the professional jester (or fool) -- accompanied by his jester scepter, "Junior, playing himself," and likely to break into song at any moment. He is also serving as assistant director, helping with everything from blocking details to fabric purchase for costumes.

"After rehearsals every time I was talking with Herman about this and that," Benrud said. "He said he was making me assistant director. It's a chance to help make sure rehearsals start on time and things like that, and to give input. I have a master's in English with a concentration in Shakespeare, so I'm always telling the other actors, 'This means such and such' and 'This should sound like this.'

"I'm also just trying to take some of the weight off the director."

The play "Twelfth Night" -- considered by many critics to be Shakespeare's most complete and polished comedy -- is a tangle of mistaken identity, love, silliness and occasional melancholy.

Twins Viola (played by Lynne Guglielmi) and Sebastian (Brian Graves) have been shipwrecked in the land of Illyria, where Count Orsino (David Bland) pines away for the love of Lady Olivia (Jennifer Lukas Joyner), who has sworn off all men as she mourns her brother's death. Orsino sends his new manservant Cesario (who happens to be Viola in disguise) to Olivia with messages and tokens of love.

But Viola -- who thinks her lookalike brother dead -- is in love with Orsino and Olivia falls in love with Cesario. Olivia's uncle Sir Toby spends his time drinking with Sir Andrew (Thom Haynes), who wants to marry Olivia. Maria (Debra Grannan), Andrew and Toby convince Olivia's servant, the conceited and malevolent Malvolio (Matt Schedler), that Olivia is in love with him.

Got that? There will be a "cheat sheet" for the audience to try to keep those and other basics straight.

It's a bit ambitious for a company founded in late 2001, with its first show completed earlier this year. Jones hopes it's the first of an annual Shakespearean production by Cary Players.

"It's fun, it's educational, it's a comedy -- after all the drama of 'Our Town,'" Jones said. "It's a classic and it's universally well-liked. It also brings a nice-sized company, a good wealth of actors together. As a concept and a philosophy, when we looked at other community theater companies, the classics is where you should start.

"That's the natural place to start. Over the next 33 years, I'd like to see the Cary Players do every Shakespeare play."

Under consideration for next year, for example, is "Othello." There are discussions under way about other shows in the near future ranging from "Miracle on 34th Street" to "Driving Miss Daisy."

"'Twelfth Night' also fits this setting, Sertoma Amphitheatre," Jones said. "It's also a challenge because most of the individuals here have had a little taste of Shakespeare, but they haven't done much of it. We get to twist our tongues a little."

Being outdoors offers its own challenges, including airplanes passing overhead, bugs and sunsets.

"I want diction, enunciation, projection," Jones said at one recent rehearsal. "We do have more time here than we had at Green Hope [High auditorium] before the last show, which is good."

Rehearsals, up until May 19, took place at Jones's agency's studio in west Raleigh. That's where Williamson built parts of the set -- likely the most elaborate done at Sertoma to date, with several doors, a large arch and a scallop-edged extension that juts out several feet from the permanent stage. He dodged raindrops to reassemble and paint its plywood sections at the amphitheater, bringing in another artist to paint a village street scene backdrop.

This "Twelfth Night" is the uncut version, with 18 scenes at settings including Orsino's house, Olivia's house, the street and the coast.

Several women, including Kathryn Jenkins Smith as Fabian, play men in this show, partially because more women than men auditioned, Jones said, and partly to embellish the play's idea of gender disguises.

All the actors are being transformed by period costumes and headdresses created by a crew led by David Serxner. Jones initially thought about setting the show in some other time, but stuck with its initial period, 1601.

Stage manager Susan Berry and other crew members have stayed busy trying to find the right benches, food, glassware, music and other details, all of which is more of a challenge for a new company with no collected inventory of props, costumes and scenery, and even less budget than more established groups.

"This ship would've sunk without her," Benrud said.

The Town of Cary co-sponsors "Twelfth Night," which brings Cary Players some materials, equipment and people power. The same lighting and sound system used for Applause! Cary Youth Theatre's "Alice in Wonderland" production in mid-May, for example, stayed in place for this show. Publicity for "Twelfth Night" also has been distributed through regular town channels.

About half of the actors and production crew members for "Twelfth Night" were involved in "Our Town" earlier this year. For some who have worked with other Triangle companies such as Raleigh Little Theatre, Theater in the Park, Raleigh Ensemble Players and various local colleges, the new company offers a chance to work closer to home.

"I'm real tickled to have our own company," Benrud said. "That was another reason to be so involved, to try and help things get done right."

For other actors, such as Graves, Bland and several participating high school students, this is a stage debut or close to it. Others, like Pietzsch, did a lot of theater back in college and years ago, and the timing seemed right to get involved again.

"I have two boys and didn't do anything for a long time, but they're a little older. It seemed like the right time to do it and it seemed like a great way to be part of the Cary community," Pietzsch said. "We do it because it's fun."

The Players

Cast: Mark Anderson, Kurt Benrud, David Bland, Lorah Bond, Christy Cassas, Debra Grannan, Brian Graves, Lynne Guglielmi, Thom Haynes, Kathryn Jenkins Smith, Jennifer Lukas Joyner, Wilson Pietzsch, Matt Schedler, Betsy Stables, Kat Thompson, Ramona Traynor, Steve Whetzel

Production staff: director, Herman LeVern Jones; assistant director, Kurt Benrud; stage manager, Susan Berry; assistant stage manager, Nicola Lefler; musical director, Penny Drew; marketing director, Catherine Campbell; costumes, David Serxner and Diana Waldier; prop master, David Merritt

Details

What: William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night or What You Will," presented by the Cary Players, co-sponsored by the Town of Cary, and directed by Herman LeVern Jones.

Where: Sertoma Amphitheatre, Bond Park, 801 High House Road

When: opened May 28.
Shows Thursday through Saturday, May 29-May 31, at 8 p.m.;
Sunday, June 1, 3 p.m.;
Wednesday, June 4, through Saturday, June 7, at 8 p.m.;
Saturday, June 7, at 2 p.m.; and Sunday, June 8, 3 p.m.

Tickets: $12; $10 groups and $8 seniors/students.