UA LITTLE ROCKS PRODUCTION OF “TWELFTH NIGHT” WAS AMBITIOUS, BUT AT WHAT COST?

Starting Mar 3, a group of UA Little Rock students began touring an adaptation of “Twelfth Night” by William Shakespeare. The production came to fruition from the new theatre course, Theatre on the Road, taught by Ms. Stacy Pendergraft, the co-director of UA Little Rock’s School of Literary and Performing Arts.

The performance was meant to educate middle and high schoolers around central Arkansas about theatrical arts through the abbreviated play. The play was adapted by Chad Bradford, the Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre Managing Director.

“Twelfth Night” has toured to libraries and schools in central Arkansas and even Our House, a homeless shelter in Little Rock.

Before I divulge into my criticisms of the play, I would first like to praise the actors, costume and prop department, and the set designers.

The actors did an excellent job with what they were given. Acting out a complicated play such as “Twelfth Night” in such a short time is a serious undertaking, made even more intense by the fact the cast and crew only had about five weeks to put the production together.

It was immediately clear that each student put an immense amount of effort into each of their performances by how intensely they played up their characters’ playfulness, dread or sorrow.

Given the complicated nature of speaking Shakespearean English at such a breakneck pace, I was amazed at how they were able to get a lot of the message through their tone of voice and actions alone.

The costumes, props, and set were another fabulous aspect of the play. The costumes, which were mostly assembled from clothes the actors already owned or costumes from past plays didn’t come off as amateur. It had an eclectic and campy vibe with mismatched colors and idiosyncratic patterns, made even better by the professional theatre masks the actors wore during certain parts to act as the ensemble.

The set was another delightful touch to the play. Given that the play is a traveling production, I had quite low expectations for the set design. However, the use of the set was extremely innovative. Though the base of the set, a curtained podium with two connected flag poles, was quite basic, the cast and crew managed to use it in creative ways like moving the curtains back and forth to illustrate the undulating waves you would see while traversing the sea.

I was surprised by how many set pieces were included in the production, such as couches, cushions, and fake plants.

Considering the fact that the cast were also the crew (and vice versa) they did well moving the set pieces in a way that did not distract from the action going on on stage.

Although the students did their absolute best to provide an amazing performance, there is still a large disconnect between the goal of the play (to educate children about theater) and the play chosen, “Twelfth Night”. Not only was the play entirely in Shakespearean English, but the plot and dialogue flew by at a breakneck pace.

Honestly, if I had not seen the original two and a half hour long play beforehand, I would have no idea what was going on.

I feel the choice of using “Twelfth Night” was a misstep, as it is one of Shakespeare’s more dense, complicated plays.

Since the story deals with cross-dressing and a multitude of miscommunications, I can only imagine how hard it would be for a child or teenager to piece together the plot, as many beats went by so fast it felt like if you blinked you’d miss them. Furthermore, every character except for Viola, the main protagonist of the play, had such a quick introduction that it was hard to keep track of who’s who. Additionally, when the story shifts away from Viola and to Sebastian, Viola’s twin brother who was lost at sea, the shift comes out of no where.

When Sebastian and the man that rescued him from the shipwreck, Antonio, appeared I remember thinking “who are these people?” It wasn’t until the later part of the play when I realized that those two random characters were Sebastian and Antonio.

There was even a child who asked “what was the play even about?” At the end Q&A session. That, combined with the many confused faces I saw in the crowd solidified that it wasn’t just me who thought the play was a bit confusing.

There’s only one change I would make to the play to make it more accessible, though: change it to modern English. I feel that this change would have made a drastic difference in the audience’s understanding of the play. The use of modern language would make it more palatable to the younger audience, and would let the actors talk as fast as they were without being incomprehensible.

Though this play wasn’t perfect, I’m still hopeful and excited for future productions. The cast and crew definitely carried this production, which makes me more excited to see a production with a better script.

WOMEN IN FILM: WHERE ARE THEY?

For International Women’s History Month, I asked people about their favorite films that are empowering to women.

The most popular answer was “Hidden Figures.” If you haven’t seen it, “Hidden Figures” is based on the true story of Katherine Goble Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson – three AfricanAmerican mathematicians who worked at NASA during the Space Race. It’s a very good watch.

It is not only empowering in the story it tells, but by the people behind the camera as well.

There are a lot of women on the crew. The cinematography is done by Mandy Walker, the screenplay is co-written by Allison Schroeder and half of the producers are women. There are still a disproportionate number of men working on the movie, but at least they are making an effort towards equality.

Women are severely underrepresented in film. According to Forbes, in 2022, women accounted for 24% of directors, writers, producers, editors and cinematographers of the 250 top grossing films.

gone up since 1998. On screen, only 33% of movies in 2022 have a female protagonist.

The on-screen representation that women receive is not particularly flattering.

There’s wildly offensive stereotypes about women of color, like “sassy black woman,” “spicy latina” and “lotus flower.” If you happen to see a woman over 40 in a film, she’s likely stuck in the “dirty old woman” stereotype.

Women in film are arm-candy, crazy ex-girlfriends, damsels in distress, manic pixie dream girls, gold-diggers, “disposable women” (wives, girlfriends, etc. that are killed off so the male protagonist is propelled into his story) and “cool girls.” All of these media stereotypes about women are roles that support male protagonists and the male gaze.

Despite all this, I have hope for the future of women in film. There is attention being brought to the lack of diversity on and off camera, and there has been more attempts to tell empowering stories about women.

BY SKYLAR BOONE

These numbers have barely

BY EMILY WELLS