“Twelfth Night, or What You Will”

Sequim High School, 533 N. Sequim Ave.

7 p.m. Dec. 5-6, 13-14; 2 p.m. Dec. 14

Tickets: $8 or $6 for students with ASB card

Cash or check at door.

Play presented by SHS Operetta Club

Sequim High Schoolers bring a love of Shakespeare’s language and comic mischief to town this December with “Twelfth Night, or What You Will.”

Director Ashley Kramer said most of the cast features females in gender-bending roles for what historians believe served as the foundation of the romantic comedy genre.

“It’s just so full of mischief and madcap confusion with all the people in disguise,” Kramer said.

“It ends up being this interesting commentary on identity and about freedom to be yourself or not to be yourself.”

The play runs for five shows at 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday, Dec. 5-6, 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Dec. 13-14, and 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 14, in the auditorium, 533 N. Sequim Ave.

For those unfamiliar with the Bard’s tale of mixed up identities and love triangles, “Twelfth Night” focuses on twins Viola (Payton Sturm) and Sebastian (Kyle DeSumma) separated after a shipwreck. Viola disguises herself as Cesario and becomes the aide to Duke Orsino (Kenzie Camp).

Through their time together, Cesario (Viola) falls in love with Duke Orsino while he falls for Olivia (Meg Vander Velde) and Olivia falls for Viola’s fake identity Cesario.

For family and fun

Vander Velde, an SHS senior, said this is the first time she’s acted since eighth grade and that “Twelfth Night” is her mom Melee’s favorite play.

“I want to make her proud,” she said of her performance.

As for the play, Vander Velde said the plot is “weird but interesting” but “all the characters have some depth” including her Olivia.

“She swears she wouldn’t marry but falls for Cesario after she meets him,” she said.

Erin Quintero, a new 11th grader from Los Angeles this year, plays Feste the Fool, and said she adores Shakespeare and has been reading his works since fifth grade.

This is her first time reading and acting “Twelfth Night,” Quintero said, and her character serves as the comic relief “telling a lot of truths throughout the play.”

Camp plays two roles as Duke Orsino and Sir Toby and said she’s mostly played males as an actor.

“It’s unique and gives me a chance to explore other aspects,” she said.

Camp wasn’t planning to act this school year to focus on the school’s color guard team but learned the fall play would be a Shakespeare play.

“(He’s) one of my favorites,” she said. “It’s easily the most fun Shakespearean play I’ve read.

“This one has such a unique spin on it that’s still relevant by pretending to be someone you’re not to impress someone else.”

Language

Kramer said one of the reasons she chose a Shakespeare play was because she saw it as a “natural extension of the classroom.”

She first shared Shakespearean insults where students could combine words to “combine all of the things together just to get the richness of the language.”

“I wanted students to see the fun behind Shakespeare and the sort of naughtiness and multi-layered it is,” she said.

“It was meant to please a great variety of audience members in his time period. You’d have the groundlings who were there for the comedy. The upper classes who were there for the poetry. All of those things end up kind of combined.”

Students said they’ve worked together on the language with rehearsing lines at home and on stage.

Camp said the language is difficult and cryptic at times, but “when you take time to analyze it, the meaning of words is shown through how we can express them.”

The language can be difficult for students, Kramer said, but the “story reveals itself once the difficulty of the language sort of falls away.”

Music and cast

“Twelfth Night” has been a play Kramer has wanted to stage for awhile because Feste the Fool sings three songs but no music is given. So she composed two songs while student Chloe Corbin composed the third with collaboration with Quintero and Kramer.

The cast includes Angel Servin, Brii Hingtgen, Corbin, Quintero, Gloria Barrera Reyna, Jennessa Robinson, Kaylee Dunlap, Camp, DeSumma, Vander Velde, Nicolo Zingaro, Sturm, Sierra Abner, Tatiana Vidals and Carina Weiss. Crew includes Cas A. Morton, Enya Griffin, Wren Fierro-Burdick, Nicholas D’Amico, Lili Lebatteux and Niels Suchy.

For more information, call Sequim High School at 360-582-3600.

Reach Matthew Nash at mnash@sequimgazette.com.

Duke Orsino, played by Kenzie Camp, pines for Olivia (Meg Vander Velde) in “Twelfth Night” at Sequim High School. Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash

Brii Hingtgen as Maria consoles Meg Vander Velde as Lady Olivia after she is separated from her brother Sebastian. Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash

Gloria Barrera Reyna as Antonieta helps Kyle DeSumma’s Sebastian regain his footing after he was thought lost at sea in William Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night.” Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash

Chloe Corbin , as Malvolio, scorns Fest the Fool (Erin Quintero), Sir Toby (Kenzie Camp), Sir Andrew (Kaylee Dunlap) and Fabian (Jennessa Robinson) for making a ruckus in Sequim High’s “Twelfth Night.” Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash