SL Shakespeare Company’s Twelfth Night, Act 1: The Open-Ended Run

PRLog (Press Release) - Feb 23, 2009 -
SL Shakespeare Company’s Twelfth Night, Act 1: The Open-Ended Run


Shakespeare, Second Life: The virtual worlds performance of Twelfth Night, Act 1 unabridged, live and direct from the first folio returns and will play on indefinitely—as you will it! The SL Shakespeare Company’s long-awaited open-ended run premiers Sunday, March 1 at 1 PM PST, and will continue indefinitely every Sunday at 1 PM PST and every Tuesday at 6 PM PST at the SL Globe Theatre.

Artistic Director Ina Centaur is directing this play with a new cast and a rare vision in Shakespearean productions, “This production attempts to be as true and pure to the play as possible... This is the only one of the Bard’s plays that is not under suspicion from various bad quartos editions, so there might be some insights to be divined if we try to dramatize it based on a close reading—independent of the shackles of any era interpretation.”

Although the play is rich with references to Elizabethan England, Centaur has chosen to let more intrinsic elements define the visuals, “Avoiding the extraneous notions of modernity, the play looks like it’s from the ‘generic past’… The visual elements aren’t bound to a particular era or interpretation—but serve to help embellish the intrinsic elements of the play.”

Starting in April, the troupe will be trying several possible “Variations,” including an all-female production, a switched-genders production, and several more. Artistic Director Ina Centaur explains that despite the changes, the “Variations” will be related by a certain “unmoving pivot,” “Twelfth Night, Act 1 is about the formation of love triangles… There’s a salient love triangle that evolves through the act, connecting Viola, Olivia and Orsino, and a subtle relationship triangle that forms between Maria, Andrew and Toby in Scene 3. That’s like the unmoving pivot that connects the ‘Variations.’ Our goal is to be able to vibrantly convey these archetypal relationships in both our main ‘traditional’ production as well as our ‘Variations.’”

When asked why the troupe is performing just a single act, Centaur asserts, “We’re doing it in obsessive detail step-by-step, since we plan to perform the play unabridged in a way that’s not only worth your time to see, but may also delight and even enlighten you. It’s a bite-sized chunk of goodness each time. Come see Act 1 to get a glimpse of the SL Shakespeare Company magic before we move onto Act 2 this summer!”

The play stars Caliban Jigsaw, Ixmal Supermarine, Kerry Takashi, KeyKey Underwood, Mokey Mokusei, and Sensuality Cordeaux.

Premiering March 1, the performances will be held Sundays at 1 PM SLT (GMT-8) and Tuesdays at 6 PM SLT (GMT-8) at the SL Globe Theatre, in the virtual world of Second Life, accessible anywhere in the world with an Internet-ready computer. http://visit.SLshakespeare.com

Subtitles will be provided in English, French, German, Spanish, and Mandarin Chinese.

About Twelfth Night, Act 1
Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is the story of a shipwrecked girl named Viola, who chooses to go incognito as a boy eunuch. Act 1 establishes the love triangle that Viola, Duke Orsino, and Olivia become entangled in, and also introduces some of Shakespeare’s most memorable characters—Malvolio and Feste. Unlike the Bard’s other plays, Twelfth Night exists only in the folio editions.

About the SL Shakespeare Company
Set in the virtual world of Second Life (SL), the SL Shakespeare Company (SLSC) is the flagship project of sLiterary’s Virtual Reality Shakespeare Initiative (VRSI). SLSC is a resident-funded and resident-supported professional theatre company that embraces the best of what Second Life (SL) has to offer. While it is primarily known to provide quality live Shakespearean theatre available to anyone in any location, SLSC is also the curator of Second Life’s most historically accurate theatres and architecture relating to William Shakespeare.

About sLiterary
sLiterary, Inc. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to furthering literary and artistic endeavors in Second Life and other virtual worlds.

About Second Life
Second Life is a free online virtual world imagined and created by its residents.

Neither the SL Shakespeare Company nor sLiterary is affiliated with Linden Lab. Second Life is a trademark of Linden Lab. No infringement is intended.

Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/10187713/1