Mistaken Identities, Misrepresentations, and Changes of Mind in Twelfth Night, Study notes of Theatre

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American Players Theatre

PO Box 819

Spring Green, WI

www.americanplayers.org

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2012 STUDY GUIDE

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TWELFTH NIGHT BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

2012 STUDY GUIDE

Cover Photo: Cristina Panfilio, Marcus Truschinski, Edgar Miguel Sanchez, John Taylor Phillips and Sarah Pickett. All photos by Zane Williams

For more information about APT’s educational programs, please visit our website.

www.americanplayers.org

MANY THANKS!

APT would like to thank the following for making our program possible:

Alliant Energy Foundation • Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission with additional funds from the American Girl’s Fund for Children, the Evjue Foundation and the Overture Foundation Dennis & Naomi Bahcall • Tom & Renee Boldt • Chuck & Ronnie Jones APT’s Children’s Fund at the Madison Community Foundation • Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region, Inc. Richard & Ethel Herzfeld Foundation • IKI Manufacturing, Inc. • Jerome J. Jagielski Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company • Performing Arts for Youth Sauk County UW-Extension, Arts and Culture Committee • Spring Green Arts & Crafts Fair Dr. Susan Whitworth Tait & Dr. W. Steve Tait • Sherman & Anne Wheeler

This project was also supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin.

American Players Theatre’s production of Twelfth Night is part of Shakespeare in American Communities: Shakespeare for a New Generation, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts in cooperation with Arts Midwest.

If you have any questions or comments regarding the exercises or the information within this study guide, please contact Emily Beck, Education Coordinator, at 608-588-9207, or [email protected].

AND OUR MAJOR EDUCATION SPONSORS

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Fabian (Steve Haggard)

A servant to Olivia, he joins in the mockery of Malvolio.

Sebastian (Samuel Ashdown)

Twin brother of Viola he is initially feared to have perished in a storm at sea.

Antonio (Eric Parks)

A sea captain and friend to Sebastian, his concern that Duke Orsino still takes him for a “pirate and saltwater thief” links the action in Illyria to a grittier past marked by naval war. He is arrested and, interestingly, simply forgotten.

Musician (Sarah Pickett / Tim Gittings)

A character added for the APT production, the Musician accompanies Feste in some of his songs, and provides live music on stage.

Who’s Who in Twelfth Night

(From The Essential Shakespeare Handbook )

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ABOUT THE PLAY

Act I

D uke Orsino of Illyria is in love with the beautiful Lady Olivia.

Unfortunately for him, his love is unrequited, as Olivia intends to MOURN the death of her brother for seven years, shunning all men in the process. Nearby, Viola has been shipwrecked and believes that her own twin brother, Sebastian, has also lost his life. Fearing for her

safety, Viola disguises herself as a young boy named Cesario, and, on the advice of the unfortunate ship’s captain, goes to work as a page for Orsino.

Back at Olivia’s homestead, her uncle, Sir Toby Belch, is profiting from Sir Andrew's wealth by persuading him that he has a chance of marrying Olivia. Maria fears this ludicrous scheme will get Sir Toby in more trouble with his niece. Meanwhile, Feste, the court fool, tries to reason Olivia back to the world of the living, annoying the house steward Malvolio – who is very easily annoyed – in the process. And so when Orsino decides to send his new favorite page “Cesario” to woo Olivia on his behalf, she promptly falls in love with CESARIO/VIOLA instead, causing both young women considerable stress, for very different reasons. Not the least of which is that Viola has herself fallen in love with Duke Orsino.

Act II

Viola’s TWIN brother Sebastian is actually alive, and has also arrived in Illyria with his rescuer, a sea captain named Antonio. Antonio is a wanted man in Illyria due to some past legal indiscretions, but regardless of danger the two decide to visit Orsino’s court. Meanwhile, on Olivia’s orders, Malvolio has followed “Cesario,” who wants to present him with a ring she claims the page gave her. Knowing that she hadn’t given the lady a ring, Viola realizes that Olivia has fallen for her, and rues her predicament.

That night, Sir Toby and Sir Andrew are up late drinking and making considerable noise. Maria comes to shut down their party, but they don’t listen to her, and eventually she gives up. MALVOLIO , on the other hand, is very angry and chastises all of them for their wicked ways. The reprimand leads the revelers to plot revenge against the steward by making him think Olivia is in love with him. The next day, Maria forges a letter to that effect, and leaves it in the garden where Malvolio whole-heartedly takes the bait.

MOURN: While Olivia’s mourning period may be a bit excessive, Elizabethans did take it very seriously. Black cloth for gowns was often provided to mourners by the family, and some would even blacken the soles of their shoes.

CESARIO/VIOLA : Girls dressing up like boys is a common occurrence in Shakespeare’s plays, with women dressing as men in 7 of them. Boys already played the women’s roles, and were pretty convincing as women dressed up like young men.

TWIN: Twins and mistaken identity play a central role in Twelfth Night and The Comedy of Errors. Scholars believe searching for a twin in these stories represents a search for lost identity. (Or maybe that it’s just a funny plot element.)

MALVOLIO: One of Shakespeare’s most complex characters, he goes through a number of transformations over the course of Twelfth Night. From officious guardian of the Lady Olivia, to her ridiculous would-be suitor, to pleading captive and finally, to wronged man seeking revenge. According to Shakespeare SparkNotes: “Malvolio’s misfortune is a cautionary tale of ambition overcoming good sense, and the audience winces at the way he adapts every event—including Olivia’s confused assumption that he must be mad—to fit his rosy picture of his glorious future as a nobleman.“

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APT’S TWELFTH NIGHT

E very production of a play is different, and being on an outdoor stage is different than most. So plays at APT come with their own unique challenges (rain, heat, bugs) and amazing benefits (moonlight, birdsong, summer breeze). And the outdoors is at the forefront of everyone’s minds, from designers to actors to patrons.

Twelfth Night is a labor of love on the part of director David Frank. David, who is also APT’s Producing Artistic Director, says “I love this play…it’s so rich in character, rich in event, rich in comedic sequence, I believe, if you don’t go chasing it desperately but let it happen. Because the story is wonderful, the relationships are wonderful, the poetry is sublime. And the whole play is precipitated by an event; by the death a bit ago of Olivia’s dad, and more recently of her brother. So suddenly this entire household is disrupted. People that were central to it suddenly don’t know where they belong. People who could rely on being important are suddenly terrified that they might be peripheral.”

David goes on to say that like all great plays, its “heart remains a mystery. But each director must choose a course that attempts to approach that mystery as best they can. In our case, we wanted to identify the ache, the yearning that character- izes this play as much as its robust comedy and selectively happy endings."

David continues “All of those people want something that they don’t have. Think whenever you’re longing for something and can’t get it, what’s the conflict? And then for us ache and danger became the two things we would try to go after for this. And hence the set, instead of being comforting Stratford, is eastern European and there are spikes. We begin not with the silly romanticism of Orsino, but with a funeral. We wanted to try to make it dangerous. But dangerous can be funny. Aches can be funny.”

Though Twelfth Night is considered one of Shakespeare’s greatest comedies, as David points out, there is an element of sad- ness that goes along with it. That’s something that Designer Robert Morgan had at the top of his mind while he was researching and designing the costumes for this produc- tion. According to Robert, “I do think that the characters yearn for things that seem lost to them. Most seem discontent with their lives, and I am always eager to try to understand where that discontent comes from. David and I shared this perception early on, and so the last thing in the world we envisioned was some carefree, idyllic world. We were eager to see these complex characters dressed in real clothing that helped us understand them as real people with complex behaviors and motivations. We wanted to see painful humor emerge from painful situations. And because Olivia is in protracted mourning, why shouldn’t her court? That means almost everyone in the play who lives in her household is in black.”

That leaves outsiders like Viola to bring in some color. Viola and her brother Sebastian are dressed in green – like spring – and the mourners that surround

Rendering of Olivia’s mourning costume by Robert Morgan.

Susan Shunk models the final product.

Christopher Sheard, Will Mobley and Cristina Panfilio shipwrecked in Illyria

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APT’S TWELFTH NIGHT

them enhance that choice. Robert continues: “Each costume is a touchstone for another, and then another. Viola’s light green costume means little unless it is surrounded by all the black ones. Would that same costume be interesting in another production where almost all the costumes were greenish?”

Set design is no less important than costumes in consideration, and for this production, Robert designed both. “It takes twice the time, and it’s twice the fun. But all design is simply the ordering of physical reality so that it assumes a shape that conveys meaning and helps tell the story,” he says. “When I design both scenery and costumes, I do love the depth of immersion in the story. With the scenery, one designs the larger world of the play and that is often a metaphor that appears to be real.”

The setting of Twelfth Night is Illyria, a name Robert sees as “musically poetic...but to imagine the locale of the play in only this way does not honor Shakespeare’s own knowledge of geography. He well knew that Illyria was, in fact, the Balkan area of Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia and Albania. Viola is shipwrecked on the Adriatic coast. To the Elizabethans, this was outlaw territory…it was a place of exoticism as well as danger.” This geography is reflected in the design of the set, in the flowers and colors, while the danger is evident in the spikes that line the walls.

Designing anything for outdoor theater is a unique challenge, one that Robert embraces. “The challenges are practical. The benefits are aesthetic. What fabrics must you use that can stand to be rained on? How thick do the soles of the shoes need to be so that the hot floor will not burn the actor’s feet?” he says. “The outdoor audience makes a silent pact with itself to believe what it is watching, even though the scenery is surrounded by woods, the text is interrupted by whip-poor-wills. The more the audience actively decides to believe—as opposed to being tricked into it by the technological marvels of indoor scenery and lighting—the more real the world of the play becomes. And that, to me, is everything.”

Equally important to set and scenic design are the actors interpretations of the characters they play. For example, Feste the fool, and more specifically John Phillip's interpretation of Feste, is central to APT's production. According to David “A major theme in our version is Feste's struggle to accept that he has been displaced in Olivia's household - first by Malvolio and finally by Olivia's new husband, Sebastian. He must learn that nothing stays the same, sometimes you must move on.”

The women—Olivia (played by Susan Sunk) and Viola (played by Cristina Panfilio) —are the hinges upon which Twelfth Night pivots. “Viola is one of my all-time favorite characters: she's smart, she's funny, and she has a great big full heart. She's patient, loving, open and passionate, and just about all of the things that I'd like to be on my best days,” says Cristina. “I think that great big heart of hers is absolutely her greatest strength as well as the thing that sometimes gets her into trouble. It's what makes everyone fall in love with her - which ultimately works out for her in the end, but not without first tangling her up along the way.”

Model by Robert Morgan

Mr. Morgan’s model in action.

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A storm at sea shipwrecks the Lady Viola, who fears her brother Sebastian drowned.

“And what should I do in Illyria? My brother he is in Elysium.” Viola, ACT I SC i

In court, Illyria’s Duke Orsino pines for Lady Olivia, who has sworn she would mourn her own brother for seven years and refuses to accept suitors during that time.

“If music be the food of love, play on.” Orsino, ACT I SC i

Twelfth Night

Photo Summary

Despite the mourning, Olivia’s uncle Sir Toby Belch schemes to set her up with his silly friend and patron, Sir Andrew Aguecheek.

“Your Niece will not be seen, or if she be, it’s four to one she’ll none of me” Sir Andrew, ACT I SC v

“I’ll do my best to woo your lady: yet a barful strife. Whoe’er I woo, myself would be his wife. “ Viola, ACT I SC v

Viola has both disguised herself as Cesario (a boy) to page for Orsino, and also fallen in love with him. Which complicates his plan to have “Cesario” woo Olivia for him.

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“Me thinks I feel this youth’s perfections with an invisible and subtle stealth to creep in at mine eyes. Olivia, ACT I SC iv

When “Cesario” arrives to woo Olivia, Olivia declines the Duke’s advances, and falls in love with his page.

Sebastian has been rescued by the outlaw captain Antonio, but he believes Viola has drowned.

“But you, sir, alter’d thee, for some hour before you took me from the breast? Of the sea was my sister drown’d.” Sebastian – ACT II SC i

She did commend my yellow stockings of late; she did praise my leg being cross-garter’d, and in this she manifests herself to my love.” Malvolio, ACT II SC v

Twelfth Night

Photo Summary

To get back at Olivia’s steward, Malvolio, for his general pomposity, Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, Maria and Fabian trick him into believing Olivia loves him by forging a letter for Malvolio to find.

When Olivia sends Malvolio after Viola with a ring she says “Cesario” left (but didn’t), Viola realizes Olivia has fallen in love with her.

“What will become of this? As I am man, my state is desperate for my master’s love. As I am woman (now alas the day) what thriftless sighs will poor Orsino breath?” Viola, ACT II SC ii

13 “I’ll be reveng’d on the whole pack of you!” Malvolio, ACT V SC i

While marriages are plotted for Viola and Orsino, and Sir Toby and Maria and Sebastian and Olivia already wed, it seems happily ever after. But Malvolio, released, curses them all for his disgrace.

The play ends with Feste’s bittersweet song, which also appears in King Lear.

“A great while ago the world begun, with hey, ho the wind and the rain: But that’s all one, our play is done, and we’ll strive to please you every day.” Feste, ACT V sc i

“Good fool, some ink, paper and light, and convey what I will set down to my lady.” Malvolio, ACT IV SC ii

Feste the fool, with Sir Toby and company, torment Malvolio while he’s locked in the cellar. Mavolio finally “convinces” Feste to bring him materials to write Olivia a letter.

“Do not embrace me till each circumstance of place, time, fortune do cohere and jump that I am Viola.” Viola ACT V SC i

Viola comes back to court to find Sebastian there, and the siblings are reunited.

Twelfth Night

Photo Summary

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The following guide is provided by Joseph R. Scotese through the Folger Shakespeare Lesson Plan Series.

Character Found Poems: Investigating Language in Twelfth Night.

The language that Shakespearean characters use is key to understanding their motivations, preoccupations, and desires. In this lesson, students will analyze and review the characters after reading Act 1 of Twelfth Night by creating a found poem from the character dialogue. Students will be able to identify, compare, and analyze key imagery and the kinds of language that the characters use.

This lesson will take 2 x 50 minute class periods.

What To Do

DAY 1

1. Ask students to choose (or assign), one of the following characters from Twelfth Night, Act 1: Duke Orsino, Viola, Sir Toby Belch, Maria, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Feste (Clown), Olivia, or Malvolio.
2. Explain the concept of a found poem: a poem composed of words and phrases that come from another text. Students will be creating a found poem on his/her chosen or assigned character.
3. Distribute the handout, "Character Key Words and Phrases". Have each student select and record 40- words from the dialogue of their chosen character. Encourage the students to find words or phrases that reveal something important about the nature of their characters.
4. Ask students to share the words/phrases they have selected with the class and allow some discussion.
5. Building on the discussion, challenge students to narrow down their word choices to 20-25 words.
6. Have students organize the words they have left in order to create a draft of their found poem on the hand- out. Encourage them to structure the poem with a clear beginning, middle and end. They may change tense, possessives, and punctuation as necessary to allow the poem to make sense.
7. Choosing a partner with a different character, have students read their found poems out loud to one another to test for "sound quality".
8. After reading aloud, students may add up to three words to improve the flow of their poems.

DAY 2

1. Have students who worked on the same character group up.
2. Have students share their found poems with their group and discuss similarities. Have them identify any words or phrases that appear in several or all of their poems.
3. Have each group share one representative poem with the rest of the class.
4. After each group shares a poem, have students discuss what they learned about their character's personality based on his/her language. For example, which words did many of the group choose in their found poems? What do we know about his/her character based on word choices? Can the students identify the kind of lan- guage (slang, formal, etc) the character uses? Does this fit or not fit with the character's class and background?

Activities

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The following lesson guide is provided by Rebecca Hrang through the Folger Shakespeare Lesson Plans. Folger Shakespeare Library

Not her Fool, but her corrupter of words.

Students will edit and perform selected scenes from Twelfth Night in order to analyze Feste, the Fool. Students will give two performances: they will perform the scenes once in their entirety, after which the class will edit the scenes into monologues that illuminate Feste as a character.

This lesson should take two fifty minute periods to complete.

What To Do

1. Divide the students into groups and assign each group a scene. To adjust for class sizes, 1.5 and 2.3 can be divided, or 4.1 and 4.2 can be combined.

Give students the following instructions:  You will have 20 minutes to prepare the scene

 Your performance should not exceed 4 minutes

 Every student in your group must speak at least one line

 You may stage the scene in any way you like

2. After the rehearsal period, have each group perform for the class.
3. Discuss all the performances as a class:

 What did the performances have in common?

 What specific choices were made regarding Feste?

 How did Feste interact with other characters?

 Was he always part of the action?

 What kind of person is he?

 Is he happy to be a Fool?

 What do other characters think of him?

Remind students that their answers must be justified by the text.

4. Ask the students to return to their groups.

Activities

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5. Distribute Handout #1-Quotable Feste.
6. Have students re-read their scenes, looking specifically at Feste and the lines that reveal his character and how/what he thinks about the world. Students should make notes on what we learn about his character

(e.g "Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb like the sun; it shines everywhere."-he is pointing out that everyone in the play is a fool, not just him, and he sees how ridiculous everyone is). Caution students against simply paraphrasing the action in the scene and encourage them to look for insights into character.

7. Have students select 5 lines which reveal the most about Feste's character, write these on paper and post around the classroom.
8. Have each group explain which lines they chose and why, and what they tell us about Feste.
9. Using the selections, have each group arrange the lines as coherently as possible into a monologue. They should use at least 20 of the lines posted round the room and only Shakespeare's words.
10. Have each group perform their monologue.
11. After the performances, have each group describe Feste based solely on their monologue. This can be done orally or as a summative assessment

Activities

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The following lesson guide is provided by Harvey Sadis through the Folger Shakespeare Lesson Plans, Folger Shakespeare Library

Mistaken Identities, Misrepresentations, and Changes of Mind in Twelfth Night

What’s On for Today and Why

Students will come to understand and identify the terms, Mistaken Identities, Misrepresentations, and Changes of Mind as they exist in Twelfth Night.

What To Do

After the class is well-acquainted with the story of the play and has had ample opportunity to listen and read the script, perhaps even before students are given parts to learn, the teacher writes three headings on the board: Mistaken Identities, Misrepresentations, and Changes of Mind.

The teacher defines and clarifies each of the headings with the class, giving an example of each from the script. (See Resource Sheet #1 for definitions and examples of each heading). Explain to the class that each example of a mistaken identity will inherently have elements of a misrepresentation and a change of mind (See Resource Sheet #1).

All of these deceptions in the script have causes, which should be entertained for discussion -- Why do you think s/he did that? Who was s/he trying to fool? If you were a that character, what would you have done?

The teacher might also ask students to talk about a time when they pretended to be someone they were not, or felt that they had to misrepresent themselves to win a friend or impress family members.

The teacher might also ask students to talk about a time when they were firmly set on a point of view but be- came dislodged from that stance because of a friendship or the promise of some reward or eventual new friendship.

How Did It Go?

Were the students able to differentiate among the terms ( Mistaken Identity, Misrepresentation, Change of Mind ) and share examples as they are found in the script? Students might be asked to write about their find- ings or discuss them in class. Were students able to identify an example of any of the three terms from their own lives?

Activities

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Twelfth Night, or What You Will Resource Sheet

Mistaken Identities: These will include instances when a character has purposely or unwit-

tingly created the deception as well as the instances when a character (or characters) has been

deceived. For example, Viola has transformed herself into a male servant who has defrauded

everyone else in the play, except perhaps Feste, who chooses to remain silent on the matter.

Misrepresentations: The most flagrant of these may be the supposed love letter left for Mal-

volio in the garden. A misrepresentation might use a mistaken identity as a vehicle to fulfill

that goal, but it could also be achieved without a change in appearance.

Change of Mind: A good example of this is Olivia’s decision to forego the cloistered life of a

mourner when Cesario comes to her house. Changes of mind may be on display or hidden ac-

cording to the intent of the character.

Activities