MANKATO — Theater troupes tend to be close. They also tend to be hard-working. Long hours and the pressure of putting a big show together by opening night make sure of both.
Heather Hamilton’s Minnesota State University theater students proved to her during the past several months that they certainly fit into those categories.
Hamilton’s father became ill last fall and died on Thanksgiving. The rehearsal schedule for the upcoming production of “Twelfth Night” already was tenuous because it straddled two semesters with Thanksgiving break and winter break in between. With Hamilton needing to be away in New Hampshire with her family, the students were left without their director for a little while.
“Those kids were amazing,” Hamilton said. “It’s really an inspiration for the rest of my life.”
As Hamilton was preparing for a 25-hour drive home, the students packed bags of junk food for her long car ride. While she was away, they got together and ran scenes on their own.
Kaija Pellinen, a senior who plays Viola in the play, said having an assistant director helped while Hamilton was away. And luckily, most of the play was blocked (choreographed) before her father got sick.
“Everything just kind of came together,” Pellinen said of the play, which opens Jan. 28. “She apologized to us a lot, and none of us thought we needed an apology.”
Certainly no apologies are needed now as “Twelfth Night” comes to fruition these last few days of rehearsal. Pellinen is excited to take the stage in her first Shakespeare play, and Hamilton is excited to stage one of her favorite Shakespeare works.
Hamilton said she’s not doing any gimmicks. The play will be traditional Shakespeare in many ways, including lavish costuming and original text. But some minor details won’t be period, such as having the actors present the proper Elizabethan period posture.
The play, the first of three comedies to be staged by MSU Theatre & Dance this spring, is one of Shakespeare’s “transvestite comedies,” in which female protagonists disguise themselves as men. According to the MSU Theatre billing: Orsino, Duke of Illyria, loves the Countess Olivia, but she refuses him. Orsino sends his page Cesario to plead his case. Olivia falls for Cesario. Viola’s twin, Sebastian, feared drowned, arrives in Illyria. Olivia mistakes Sebastian for his disguised sister, and he falls for Olivia.
And so on. Shakespeare plays are never simple. But this one, at least, ends happily.
“It’s going to be a really fun show,” Hamilton said.
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Related Photos
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Olivia (Stacy DeGolier) takes the men to task for their public drunkenness. They are, from left: Fabian (Andy Gullikson), Sir Toby (Joel Partyka), Feste (J. Alexander Coe) and Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Craig Daniel Stastny) in William Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night.” Photo courtesy of Mike Lagerquist
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