2018 Twelfth Night - Play Guide

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The Play Guide for Twelfth Night was created by:

Jamie Tymchuk Learning and Engagement Associate

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Twelfth Night runs from January 30 to February 24, 2018.

For tickets, visit theatrecalgary.com or call (403) 294-7447 Front cover art direction and graphic design by Punch & Judy Inc. featuring actors Tristan D. Lalla and Bruce Dow. Photography by David Cooper.

Table of Contents THE BASICS Cast and Creative Team 1 Who’s Who? 2 Time and Place __________________________________________2 The Story 3 EXPLORATIONS Meet the Playwright: William Shakespeare 5 Y2K To Today: Interview with Judd Palmer ___ _____ 7 Terms to Know __________________________________________11 Words Worth Quoting_____________________________________12 Shakespeare’s Language _______ _____ 13 CONVERSATIONS Conversation Starters Speak Shakespeare________ Movie Night Recommended Reads from Calgary Public Library

14 14 15 16

LEARNING A Summary in Verse ______________________________________17 Learning Exercises________________________________________19 Answer Key _____________________________________________22 Sources

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THE BASICS

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Cast and Creative Team

Twelfth Night

By William Shakespeare

THE CAST

Ryan Allen Kira Bradley Janelle Cooper Tyrell Crews Anna Cummer Bruce Dow Christopher Hunt Kayvon Khoshkam Doug McKeag Julie Orton Graham Percy Eric Wigston

THE CREATIVE TEAM

Sebastian Maria Viola Orsino Olivia Malvolio Sir Andrew Aguecheek Feste Sir Toby Belch Fabienne Antonio, Malvolio understudy Antonio understudy

Jillian Keiley Bruce Dow The Old Trout Puppet Workshop Cimmeron Meyer John Gzowski Jane MacFarlane

Director Associate Director

Patti Neice Sara Turner

Stage Manager Assistant Stage Manager

Set, Costume, and Puppet Design Lighting Design Sound Design Voice Coach

THE BASICS

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Who’s Who? Viola: Twin sister of Sebastian, disguises herself as Cesario Sebastian: Twin brother of Viola Orsino: Duke of Illyria Olivia: Countess of Illyria Maria: Olivia’s maid Feste: A jester and musician in the household of Countess Olivia Malvolio: Olivia’s steward Sir Toby Belch: Olivia’s Uncle Sir Andrew Aguecheek: A friend of Sir Toby’s Fabianne: A member of Olivia’s household Antonio: A sea captain

Time and Place Twelfth Night is believed to have been written around 1601, with the first recorded performance on February 2, 1602. The setting of Twelfth Night is Illyria, the ancient name for the coastal region off the Adriatic Seat. Today, this area takes up areas of modern Slovenia, Croatia, Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia, and Herzegovina. The time period is not obvious, and, with the exception of the name, the setting is completely fictional.

2012 Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. https://kids.britannica.com/kids/assembly/view/87299

THE BASICS

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The Story Viola and Sebastian, twin brother and sister, are separated after a storm causes them to be shipwrecked off the coast of Illyria. Viola is swept onto shore, unsure of her surroundings and assumes her brother has drowned. She enlists the help of a friendly sea captain who tells her of Duke Orsino, who governs the land. Viola learns of Orsino’s attempted courting of Countess Oliva, who mourns the deaths of her father and brother, and so refuses all visitors. Viola would prefer to serve Olivia but under the circumstances decides to disguise herself as a eunuch named Cesario, and, with the help of the sea captain, goes to seek a position in Orsino’s household.

Orsino quickly becomes fond of Cesario and entrusts him to persuade Olivia to marry him.

This becomes a regrettable situation for Viola as she finds herself falling in love with Orsino, but is unable to act upon it as Orsino believes her to be a man. Still, with promises of a handsome reward if successful and wanting to gain more affection from Orsino, Viola agrees to visit Olivia. When Olivia reluctantly meets Cesario, she is won over by his passionate messages of love and instead falls in love with Cesario, making this miserable love triangle complete.

Meanwhile, we are introduced to members of Olivia’s household, who in a comic subplot, devise a plan to make Olivia’s pompous steward, Malvolio, believe that Olivia is in love with him. Sir Toby, Olivia’s drunk and disordered uncle, and his rich and foolish friend, Sir Andrew, aid in conspiring with Maria, Olivia’s chambermaid and Feste, the house jester, to forge a letter from Olivia to Malvolio. Within it, she directs him that should he wish to accept her proposition, he should dress in yellow stockings with garters tied in a bow around the knee, quarrel with relatives, grumble at servants, smile constantly, and refuse to explain himself to anyone. Upon receiving the letter, Malvolio happily obliges her requests and consequently is seen as a madman by Olivia.

Elsewhere, Sebastian has survived the shipwreck and mourns the death of his sister. He rationalizes that he is cursed with bad fortune and departs his companion and rescuer, Antonio. Sebastian leaves to seek out Orsino’s court, and though wanted for crimes against Orsino, Antonio journeys with him. Sebastian’s presence in Illyria proceeds to cause constant confusion as Sebastian and Viola’s Cesario are nearly identical in appearance. Sir Andrew, jealous after overhearing Olivia’s profession of love for Cesario/Viola, challenges him/her to a fight. Antonio, sees this and believing that it is

THE BASICS

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Sebastian, intercedes on his behalf. Antonio is then arrested for his previous crimes and is hurt that “Sebastian” does not defend him. Later, Sir Toby and Sir Andrew engage in a fight with the actual Sebastian, mistaking him for Cesario, and lose. Olivia enters and confusing Sebastian for Cesario, asks him to marry her. Perplexed, but elated by the offer, Sebastian agrees and they marry in secret.

Eventually, Orsino and Viola, still disguised as Cesario, arrive at Olivia’s house. Olivia, mistaking Cesario as Sebastian, welcomes her new husband and Orsino, feeling betrayed, turns hostile towards Cesario. However, Sebastian enters and all is revealed. The siblings are reunited and relieved to learn each has survived; Orsino, realizing his attraction to Viola, asks for her hand in marriage. We also learn that Sir Toby and Maria have married, and Malvolio has been tormented by the farce’s orchestrators in a dark room and is finally released. The full joke is revealed and Malvolio threatens revenge as he exits, leaving the rest to celebrate the joyous outcomes.

VIOLA (Cesario)

siblings

SEBASTIAN

ANTONIO ORSINO

loves

OLIVIA

FESTE MALVOLIO

SIR TOBY

SIR ANDREW

MARIA

CONVERSATIONS

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Meet the Playwright: William Shakespeare William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest writer of the English language and often referred to as The Bard of Avon and The National Poet of England. But, behind the writing of 37 plays and 154 sonnets, who was William Shakespeare?

There are few, whose lives are as largely debated as that of Mr. Shakespeare. We do know that he was baptized on April 26, 1564, the third child of John Shakespeare and Mary Arden, in Henley Street. His official birthday was most likely a few days prior, on April 21st, 22nd or 23rd, though, it has been usual to celebrate his birth on St. George’s day which falls on April 23rd. Later, the same year of his birth, Shakespeare’s family was fortunate in escaping a plague that hit Stratford-uponWilliam Shakespeare Avon, killing nearly one seventh of the population.

William went on to presumably enroll in the local grammar school, regularly attend church, and perhaps started seeing theatre, as early as 1572, when the first official theatre company in Stratford was recorded.

Little else is known about Shakespeare’s adolescence until his marrying of Anne Hathaway in 1582, at age 18. Six months after the marriage, Anne gave birth to a daughter, Susanna, followed by twins, Hamnet and Judith, nearly two years later. From 1585 to 1592 the records of Shakespeare’s life are almost silent, until a published pamphlet identified Shakespeare as an actor, poet and playwright in the London theatre scene. By 1594, it is clear that William Shakespeare belonged to the theatre troupe, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, producing an average of two plays a year for them, until his retirement around 1610.

One cannot discuss Shakespeare without bringing up the biggest literary conspiracy: was William Shakespeare indeed the author of his attributed works, or was someone else responsible? Some question Shakespeare as the playwright due to the limited information about his life, but this was not uncommon for the time. Others question how he could have known such extensive information about the royal court, when he was not a nobleman himself, or if he was even literate. Documentation of his six surviving signatures are barely legible and don’t coincide with an author who penned over a million words. Those who

CONVERSATIONS

The six purported signatures of Will Shakspere

-6question his authenticity use these as proof that Shakespeare was simply a pseudonym for someone else, and not the Will Shakspere of Stratford-upon-Avon. No, that was not an error, but rather the possible correct spelling of William’s surname as indicated by his signature in his will. Shakespeareans agree however, the signature is very difficult to read, and today we recognize Shakespeare as the standard spelling. It should be noted that the true identity of Shakespeare’s plays was not brought into question until the 19th century and no one disputed the true author for hundreds of years. Though nearly all scholars and Shakespearean academics today agree that Shakspere/Shakespeare, regardless of the spelling, wrote the poems and plays.

Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night first appeared on February 2, 1602, in the middle of his career.

It is, however, the only one of Shakespeare’s plays to have an alternate name with the full title known as Twelfth Night, or What You Will. Twelfth Night is a Christian holiday marking the Feast of the Epiphany, celebrating the day the Three Wise Men brought gifts to the newborn Jesus. It was also the end of great celebration where people danced and indulged in food and drink. This association is shown in Sir Toby’s and Sir Andrew’s partying ways, and Feste’s singing and jesting as well as the play’s overall tone of comic foolery. Some have theorized the second part of the title was simply an afterthought that accidently made its way into the title, while others believe it captures the characters’ behaviour. Whatever the case, the play encompasses comedy, deception, misdirected love and mistaken identity, making it a rather fitting title.

Malvolio and the Countess Painting by Daniel Maclise in 1859 depicting a scene from Twelfth Night

CONVERSATIONS

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Y2K to Today An Interview with Judd Palmer of The Old Trout Puppet Workshop For those who are not familiar with The Old Trouts, please introduce who you are and what you do.

We are a group of old friends who formed a puppet theatre company together. Mostly we make puppet shows for adults, but sometimes for children as well; we tour our shows around Canada, the US, and Europe. We generally follow our inspiration wherever it might lead, though, so sometimes we make sculptures or films or books or music together as well; and sometimes we design the sets and costumes for a show without really any puppets in it at all, like this one.

The Old Trout Puppet Workshop has been around for almost 20 years. How has it evolved and what have you learned along the way?

Judd Palmer

We founded the company back in the strange apocalyptic winter of 1999, on the eve of Y2K, which people who were alive back then will remember was the date that all the computers in the world were expected to fritz out because nobody had thought to design them so they could tell the difference between the year 2000 and the year 0000 because they only had the last two digits of the year in their computer brains. I’m not sure I explained that very well, and it’s true that could be because I didn’t really understand the situation very clearly even back then, but, for real, everybody sat staring at their clocks on New Year’s Eve of 1999 thinking that when the clock struck midnight the whole electronic world would go haywire and everybody’s high scores and bank accounts would be erased and nuclear missiles would randomly launch at random places and CD players would play the wrong song over and over again or I don’t know what: point is, the end of the world was expected, and so we set up the company on a family ranch in southern Alberta; we figured it would be a good place to defend ourselves if society collapsed and we were under attack by roving cannibal motorcycle gangs, because we knew the hiding places and we had lots of guns and a couple thousand cows to eat if we ever got hungry.

To everybody’s surprise, the computers were fine. Maybe they didn’t really care what year it was.

I don’t know. But, strangely, everything turned out okay. In the meantime, however, we had established our workshop in an old barn, and had our sleeping bags all set up in the coal-heated shack where we lived (plus an old derelict school bus in the woods, with a chimney sticking out the roof), so we stayed on at the ranch, feeding the pigs and collecting the eggs and dragging around big frost-covered bales of hay for the horses and various other beasts to pay our rent. We premiered our very first show in the bunkhouse for an audience of cowboys and Hutterites from the colony across the river, with a couple of cows out in the endless frozen prairie night peering in through the window.

So to make a long story short: a lot has changed since then. For one, Theatre Calgary is a much more comfortable place to work. I don’t know who’s feeding the pigs, but it’s not us. We moved into the city, because when it comes right down to it, it doesn’t matter how much you like your

CONVERSATIONS

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buddies, living in a coal-heated shack through an Alberta winter will make you want to strangle each other, so for everybody’s sanity we decided to get our own houses near places where you can get a good cup of coffee without having to drive for two hours. And unless you count a hot glue gun as a weapon, we are pretty much defenseless against roving cannibal motorcycle gangs.

Puppetry has been thought to have originated 3000 years ago and some historians claim they pre dated actors, though it is not widely seen in Canada’s theatres today. Why do you think that is?

Puppets are way older than that; well, depending on how you define “puppet.” For us, any time you imagine that an object is a character, you’ve got a puppet. The object could be anything: a stick, a stone, a Star Wars figure, a peculiar cloud, a sound, even a bit of air. It’s a puppet if somebody brings that thing to life. Sometimes that person gets a bunch of other people to pretend that the object is a character, and now you’ve got puppet theatre. There’s another sort of situation, too, where someone or a bunch of someones believe that an object ACTUALLY is a living thing, like when Cro-Magnons thought that the stone god they kept in the back of a cave would get up and move around when they weren’t looking. But the earliest example of a puppet, if you ask us, is earlier even than Cro-Magnons – apparently archaeologists found a rock that a pack of Homo Ergasters had been lugging around for generations, which happened to look quite a bit like a Homo Ergaster’s face – which was somewhere between a monkey’s face and a human’s. They must have found the thing and realized it looked like one of them and then decided it was a god or just that they could wave it around and make weird noises and then everybody would laugh at the stupid guy with a floating rock for a head.

But puppets could be even older than that. Who knows what a lizard sees in a moss-covered log, or an ant sees in the way the light flickers through the grass. Who knows what bacteria are really up to most of the time.

All this being said: what about a bunch of pixels on a screen? Isn’t that a kind of puppet? I don’t even mean a CGI monster – I mean actors, too. That’s not actually Colin Firth for example. It’s an object that we pretend is Colin Firth. And then you have to ask yourself: if Colin Firth was physically in front of you, playing a character, is he puppeteering his own self, in a way?

Yep. That’s what he’s doing. Puppets can be made out of sticks and stones but also meat and bones. And so, to answer your question: puppetry is seen all the time in Canada’s theatres. It’s just that people don’t realize it.

What attracted you to Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night as a story into which you could integrate your work?

Actually the reason we’re doing Twelfth Night is because Jill Keiley, the director, called us up and said she was directing it and wanted to know if we’d design it. But here’s the thing: she actually said: hey guys what if you designed the show but it didn’t have any puppets in it?

Which is to say: what if you take your weird puppet designer brains and made them think about actors (see question above) and see what happened?

What happened is that we thought of the actors as puppets and then dressed them up like puppets and made a set like a puppet set. And we stuck a couple puppets in there anyway.

CONVERSATIONS

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Thematically-speaking, Twelfth Night is driven by confusion about appearances and reality. Who’s a girl, and who’s a boy, and who’s a noble, and who’s a servant? The actual tradition of the Twelfth Night was all about the world being turned upside down for a night – the poor become rich, the ugly beautiful, the strong meek; it’s an ancient human custom across many cultures to have a night like that every year – maybe Hallowe’en is our closest example, although it’s got way more ghosts and ghouls in it than other masquerade traditions around the world. But the point is: that’s what it’s like every night in the theatre, for the people who work in theatre, and for the audience that comes. It’s a bit of dark magic, of voodoo, that we’re all allowing into our lives when we come to the theatre, and puppets are all about the shadowy, the dreamlike, the strange.

That being said mostly Twelfth Night is funny, not magical; it’s not The Tempest or [A] Midsummer Night’s Dream. So really what attracted us to it was that it was a chance to dress actual human beings up in ridiculous outfits.

There are themes of identity, gender, and love in Twelfth Night. How do puppets and your design help in the telling of the story and building those themes?

Our design is all about the world onstage and the world offstage. You can see what’s happening in the play, but you can also see off into the wings, with the actors getting into costume or waiting for their entrances or what-have-you. It’s all about what’s on the outside, what we show to the world, and what we conceal. In many ways as a society we’re really starting to realize on a mainstream level that identity and gender are constructs more than destinies – even our bodies are characters in a play that in some ways we can change like costumes. The actual person inside might be completely different than the meatsack of muck they’re walking around in. On a digital level, it won’t be long before we can Snapchat filter ourselves into any shape we like and present ourselves to the world that way without ever leaving our basements where nobody ever comes to see who we really are. We’re all going to be brains in vats soon, interacting as virtual avatars of the most fantastic variety – dinosaurs and peacocks and multi-armed goddesses and puffs of pink smoke or whatever. Whether that has anything whatsoever to do with our design or not I’m not sure, but still it’s pretty mind-blowing to think about and it’s sort of vaguely in the same thoughtzone, anyway.

Think of this play and our design as being a super old-fashioned, totally anachronistic version of Second Life.

How long did it take to create the set and stage design?

Not sure. We worked on it off and on for a few months that’s for sure. There’s a story about Picasso doing a sketch on a napkin at a restaurant and then giving it to some friend. The friend said “it’s stupid but this thing took you 2 minutes to draw and I’m going to be able to sell it for a crazy amount of money.” And Picasso said “it didn’t take me 2 minutes. It took me 48 years.”

(I’m paraphrasing a bit. I’m not sure of the numbers. Point is, whatever age Picasso was at the time was the number of years he said the drawing took him to make.)

Town set design by The Old Trout Puppet Workshop

Not that we’re Picasso or anything, but the point is that it’s really hard to answer that question. When did we start working on it?

When we saw the Baroque theatre in the castle in the Czech Republic that inspired the design? Or when we heard about the Baroque theatre in the castle and decided to go there? Or when we first heard about Baroque theatres and wished we could see

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one? On the bus on the way to the castle, or buying the ticket, or when we decided to go into theatre, or when we were born?

That’s getting stupid. Sorry. Maybe the easiest way to mark it would be the moment Jill called us up and invited us in. That was in 2015 I think. Actually it’s a bit of a blur.

Twelfth Night was believed to have been written in 1601. Why is this story still so widely admired by audiences as one of Shakespeare’s finest comedies?

I’m no Shakespeare scholar, but I think it’s because the characters are so memorably hilarious. To me it can be hard to catch the punchline to some of the jokes because the English language has changed quite a bit since 1601, and so has the sense of verbal wit, but the actors can find some really deep comedy in their characters and express it in a way we all grasp because they’ve done the work of translating the sense of it for us. That wouldn’t be possible if there wasn’t deep stuff to be mined, and that part is what Shakespeare gave us to work with.

Which character in Twelfth Night do you most identify with? Why? I guess I feel most like Sir Andrew Aguecheek. He’s trying really hard, but he’s mostly just not quite grasping what is actually going on around him. I feel like that most of the time. Like there’s something really important that everybody else knows that I’m missing.

What plans do the Old Trouts have for the future?

We are currently working on a puppet opera about ghosts, a puppet circus about a lion tamer, a puppet ballet about Norwegian goblins, a couple of ideas for films, and getting ready to tour our latest show, Jabberwocky, to Spain and France this summer.

“Puppets can be made out of sticks and stones but also meat and bones.”

-Judd Palmer of the Old Trouts

CONVERSATIONS

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Terms to Know Ducat:

A gold coin used as European currency up until the 20th century.

Eunuch:

A man who has been castrated. Referred to by Viola when she decides to disguise herself as a man to Duke Orsino’s household.

Quinapalus:

A fictional philosopher quoted in the fool’s monologue before meeting with Lady Olivia.

Misprision in the highest degree:

The worst of misunderstandings

Vouchsafed:

To reveal or disclose information.

Maugre:

Although now quite rare, this was a common word in the English language for over 700 years meaning “in spite of”.

He will not now be pacified:

He won’t give up the challenge

Beshrew his soul for me:

Forgive him for my sake

Beguiled:

Deceived

“We can say of Shakespeare, that never has a man turned so little knowledge to such great account.”

-T.S. Eliot

CONVERSATIONS

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Words Worth Quoting Famous Quotes from William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night “If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die.”

Duke Orsino – Act 1, Scene 1

“I am a great eater of beef and I believe that does harm to my wit.”

Sir Andrew – Act 1, Scene 3

“Better a witty fool, than a foolish wit” Feste quoting Quinapalus – Act 1, Scene 5

“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ‘em” Malvolio reading a letter – Act 2, Scene 5

“Love sought is good, but given unsought is better” Olivia to Viola – Act 3, Scene 1

CONVERSATIONS

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Shakespeare’s Language Words and Terms created by William Shakespeare William Shakespeare contributed greatly to the English language that we speak today. It is said he created over 2000 words, coined phrases, and slang. Take a look below at some of the most common Shakespearean language you use without knowing it: PHRASE

PLAY IT ORIGINATES FROM

For goodness’ sake

Henry VIII

Knock, knock! Who’s there?

Macbeth

Wild-goose chase

Romeo and Juliet

Good riddance

Troilus and Cressida, though ‘fayre riddance’ was used in The Merchant of Venice

All of a sudden

Taming of the Shrew

As good luck would have it

The Merry Wives of Windsor

Come what may

Macbeth

Fair play

The Tempest

In Stitches

Twelfth Night

WORDS Addiction Bandit Bump Cold-blooded Deafening Frugal Jaded Mimic Puking

Advertising Bedroom Cater Countless Elbow Generous Laughable Moonbeam Rant

Amazement Blushing Champion Critic Excitement Gossip Lonely Negotiate Skim milk

Assassination Bet Circumstantial Dawn Eyeball Hint Metamorphize Obscene Torture

CONVERSATIONS

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Conversation Starters 

What do you think the significance is of the secondary title of this play, “What you Will”? How does it relate to the play?



Imagine you woke up tomorrow the opposite sex. How would you react?

How would your actions change? Stay the same?



Discuss the difference between infatuation and love. Do you believe in love at first sight?



How does Twelfth Night portray love? What are the types of love seen from the characters?



Twelfth Night’s plot is propelled by lies and assumptions. Have you incorrectly assumed something before? What was the outcome?



Is lying ever proper behaviour? In what situations?

Speak Shakespeare Have you ever wondered what it would be like if we spoke today how they did in Shakespeare’s plays? Try out this Shakespearean Translator to find out! https://www.shmoop.com/shakespeare-translator/ Examples: Today: Whoa, dude, pass that pizza over here. I'm going to starve.

Shakespeare: Heigh-ho, broth'r, passeth that 'zza ov'r hither. lest I waste away.

Text me later if you want to hang out.

Text me anon if 't be true thee wanteth hang out.

Roses are red, violets are blue.

Shakespeare is awesome and so are you.

Roses art red, violets art blue.

Shakespeare is like a silver bow and so art thee.

CONVERSATIONS

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Twelfth Night Movie Night She’s the Man Directed by Andy Fickman, 2006. She’s the Man modernizes the story as a contemporary teenage comedy set at the Illyria Prep School campus.

Viola disguises herself as her twin brother Sebastian in order to play on the boys’ soccer team and falls in love with the team’s captain, Duke Orsino.

Shakespeare in Love Directed by John Madden, 1998. Although not a direct parallel story, we do see many references to Twelfth Night. Shakespeare’s love interest in the film is named Viola, who disguises herself as a man to become a stage actor. The film also includes a scene where Viola survives a shipwreck, and near the end of the movie, Shakespeare is asked to write a comedy for the twelfth night holiday.

Motocrossed A 2001 Disney Channel Original Movie directed by Steve Boyum. A loose adaptation centered around the world of motocross. Andrea races in place of her twin brother, Andrew, when he injures his knee and is unable to compete. Disguising herself as her brother, she registers in the motocross race under the name “Andi”.

“Speaking as a completely third party objective, with absolutely no personal interest in the matter, I’m not really sure that you and Olivia really mesh well together” -Amanda Bynes as Viola in She’s The Man

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Recommended Reads from Calgary Public Library

By Julia Keefe Elizabeth I by Margaret George Fiction. 2011. England’s greatest monarch has baffled and intrigued the world for centuries, but what was the Virgin Queen really like? A captivating tour de force filled with intimate portraits of personalities (including Shakespeare) that made the Elizabethan era so exceptional.

How to be a Tudor by Ruth Goodman Nonfiction. 2015. What was life really like for a commoner in Tudor England?

As “the queen of living history,” Goodman has slept, washed, and cooked as the Tudors did–so you don’t have to! She takes you back to the time when soot was used for toothpaste and the “upper crust” of bread was served to the wealthier members of the house.

Shakespeare on Love edited by Stephen Brennan Nonfiction. 2014. “If music be the food of love, play on.” (Twelfth Night -Act I Scene I). Discover more classic quotations and content from the Bard on the universal theme of love. This collection includes the lyrical, the funny, and the lewd.

Twelfth Night by Richard Appignanesi Fiction. 2011. Shakespeare’s comedy of mistaken identity and thwarted love is brought to life in this Manga interpretation. Fresh ideas and thoughtful settings introduce this classic play to a new audience of Shakespeare fans.

Why Can’t a Woman Be More like a Man? By Lewis Wolpert Nonfiction. 2014. Gender ambiguity abounds in Twelfth Night. So how different are men and women, really? Lewis Wolpert, distinguished scientist, joins this controversial debate and makes some surprising discoveries along the way.

Click on the book covers to check availability at Calgary Public Library!

LEARNING

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A Summary in Verse A Guide, Or, What you Will

By Lucy Bell Sellers

Twelfth Night’s plot is hard to follow, (Not to mention hard to swallow), Thus, we thoughtfully provide For your enlightenment, a Guide.

A set of twins were almost drowned In shipwreck, but were later found, Though neither knew his twin was saved; The play’s about how they behaved.

The girl, one Viola by name, In Boyish clothing straightway came To wait upon the local lord, Whose habit was, when he felt bored, To wallow deep in songs and verseWhich was exceedingly perverse, Since she for whom his love was deepOlivia-thought him a creep.

Olivia had her problems too.

Her brother’s death made her so blue She’d sworn off seeing men at all And snubbed them when they came to call.

The Duke, who wouldn’t take her “no,” Dispatched his Viola to go, (Disguised still, you ought to know, And answ’ring to “Cesario”).

Now Viola in manly clothing, Inspired anything but loathing.

Imagine, then, her inward stir To have the lady fall for her!

While she (we say without rebuke)

LEARNING

- 18 Had fallen madly for the Duke.

So far so good, though we have not As yet begun the other plot, Which now we’ll undertake at once: Sir Toby Belch was not a dunce, But though Olivia’s uncle, he Was into drunken revelry, To pay for which, he (being broke) Brought around a wealthy bloke, Sir Andrew A., to woo the niece, While Toby skinned him of his fleece.

Now learn, because this isn’t trivia, The dour steward to Olivia, Malvolio, both prim and proud, Was out to get the Toby crowd, For partying, he gave them hell, Sir T., Sir A., and M. as well.

Maria, sep’rate from their riot, Had only tried to keep them quiet.

Thus, sore at being scolded so, She plotted ‘gainst Malvolio To make him seem a perfect ass.

What subsequently came to pass Seems suddenly beyond out scopeAnd so, farewell, we’ll let you cope.

LEARNING

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Educational Exercises Twelfth Night Trivia Complete the crossword below (Answer key on page 22)

LEARNING

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Educational Exercises 1. Talking about “What If” Organize the class into small groups. Give each group a card with one of the following “What If” situations written on it. 

What if all the students became teachers and all the teachers became students?



What if there were three people with this situation: Person A loves Person B who loves Person C who loves Person A?



What if everyone woke up one morning and found they had turned into the opposite sex?



What if everyone in this room looked exactly alike?

Give each group ten minutes to brainstorm a list of things that would happen if their “What If” situation took place. If desired, give more time for the groups to come up with a skit to portray each scenario.

2. Terms to Know: Have students match up the correct meaning to each of these terms found in Twelfth

Night (Answer Key on page 22): 1.

Quinapalus:

a.

Forgive him for my sake

2.

Maugre:

b.

A man who has been castrated

3.

Misprision in the highest degree:

c.

A gold coin used as European currency up until the 20th century

4.

Beguiled:

d.

The worst of misunderstandings

5.

Ducat:

e.

To reveal or disclose information

6.

Vouchsafed:

f.

Deceived

7.

Eunuch:

g.

A fictional philosopher

8.

Beshrew his soul for me

h.

In spite of

LEARNING

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3. Personality Choose a character from Twelfth Night and think about their personality traits. How does the script prove these traits?

PERSONALITY TRAIT 1.

QUOTES FROM TWELFTH NIGHT LINE NUMBERS/PAGE 1.

2.

3.

2.

1.

2.

3.

3.

1.

2.

3.

4.

Imagine that same character was alive today. Answer the following:         

Name: Age: Physical Description including height and weight: Clothing: Favourite Hangout: Favourite TV Show: Favourite Song: Favourite thing to do on the weekend: Top three things on this person’s mind:  1.  2.  3.

LEARNING

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Answer Key Twelfth Night Trivia

Terms to know: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

g h d f c e b a

LEARNING

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Sources Shakespeare, William and Snodgrass, Mary Ellen (Translator). Shakespeare on the Double!

Twelfth Night. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley Publishing, Inc. 2008. Print.

Holland, Peter. William Shakespeare. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2007. Print.

Ellis, David. The Truth About William Shakespeare: Fact, Fiction and Modern Biographies.

Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press Ltd. 2013. Print.

Shmoop Editorial Team. "Twelfth Night, or What You Will: What's Up with the Title?" Shmoop.

Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 13 Dec. 2017.

Bostock, Sarah. “Twelfth Night Setting” Study.com Mountain View, CA. 2003-2018. Web. 13 Dec. 2017.

SparkNotes Editorial Team. “Twelfth Night”. SparkNotes LLC 2017. Web. 13 Dec. 2017.

Ridgway, Claire. “11 July 1564–The Plague hits Stratford-upon-Avon”. The Tudor Society. Web. 19 Dec. 2017.

History.com Staff. “William Shakespeare born”. A&E Networks, 2009. Web. 19 Dec. 2017.

History.com Staff. “10 Things You Didn’t Know About William Shakespeare”. A&E Networks, 2013. Web. 19 Dec. 2017.

Whalen, Richard F. Shakespeare-Who Was He? The Oxford Challenge to the Bard of Avon.

Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. 1994. Print.

Biography.com Editors. “William Shakespeare Biography.com”. A&E Networks, 2017. Web. 21, 22 Dec. 2017 Wikipedia Editors. “Twelfth Night”. Wikimedia Foundation Inc. 2017. Web. 22 Dec. 2017.

Mabillard, Amanda. “Words Shakespeare Invented”. Shakespeare Online. 2000. Web. 22 Dec. 2017 Daniels, Tiffany. “15 everyday words and phrases created by Shakespeare”. Metro.co.uk. 2016.

22 Dec. 2017 Shmoop Editorial Team. "Shakespearean Translator?" Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 2018.

Web. 3 Jan. 2018 Teaching Shakespeare Institute. Shakespeare Set Free: Teaching Twelfth Night and Othello.

Folger Shakespeare Library. Washington, D.C. Washington Square Press 1995. Print.