Shakespeare Comes to the Palace

For a brief time this holiday season, the grand ballroom at the Governor’s Palace will be transformed into a Shakespeare theater for the very first time.

William Shakespeare comes to the Historical Area with a production of “Twelfth Night,” which opens Dec. 17.

The setting is very “time-specific to Colonial Williamsburg,” said Director Dan Crane of the Enlightenment Theatre Project. “It’s not a historical re-creation … it is a celebration of the times.”

The production, which is set in the 1780s, has taken a year to put together. The majority of costumes come from Colonial Williamsburg’s existing inventory and hair styles rise a bit higher and hang looser than the norm.

The setting and timing of the play explore possibilities and embody the word “if,” Crane said. What if, for example, the Governor’s Palace hadn’t burned down in December of 1781?

“If this play had been produced in the late 18^th century, what might it have looked like? If the original magnificent building had survived just a few more years, what evening entertainment might it have hosted?” Crane writes in the play’s introduction.

The introduction also stresses that the actors are “not interpreters of the Murray-Kean or Hallam Companies,” both of which performed in a Williamsburg theater building in the mid-18^th century.

The setting “pushes the envelope for the Governor’s Palace,” Crane said. It’s the “idea of what might have been if the theater had stayed around,” Crane said.

The idea for the production came after Sloan and Crane, partners in the Enlightenment Theatre Project, did a reading of “Cymbeline” in 2010 in Williamsburg. Last year, the pair staged a reading of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” at Historic Jamestowne.

“So I thought it would be fun to do something in the ballroom – akin to chamber piece or masque,” said Erin Sloan, the manager of educational marketing for the foundation’s Educational Outreach efforts.

“The idea took off from there,” said Sloan, who also plays Olivia in “Twelfth Night.”

And it became a labor of love.

“Twelfth Night” is a “perfect fit” for the historic area, said Crane, a faculty member at Howard University and teaching artist at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. “It’s a beautiful play. It’s very accessible.”

“Twelfth Night,” also known as “What You Will,” is one of Shakespeare’s most popular romantic comedies and often is produced around the holidays. The plot and subplots run the emotional gamut from mourning, unrequited love, love at first sight to mistaken identity.

Ultimately, the play is about the characters’ transformations, Crane said. It’s like ending the old year and starting the new with hope of what the future has in store, he said.

Casting began in April with an open audition in Williamsburg.

Roughly half of the actors are from the Williamsburg area with others coming from Washington, D.C., and one from New York.

To go along with the late-18^th century time period, Crane and Sloan chose costumes already a part of Colonial Williamsburg’s repertoire. A couple pieces had to be made specifically for the play, though, including the fool Feste’s “patchwork” jacket to set him apart from the servants and gentry, Sloan said, and steward Malvolio’s yellow stockings.

“It will have a luxurious feel,” Sloan said.

The play also will feature Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s music performed by a flautist and violinist with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

And when it comes to the scenery and props: “Basically we have a chair,” Sloan said. “Anything more would get in the way of the language.”

Tickets for the twice-daily production are going fast; the ballroom will hold up to 80 patrons.

“We are thrilled to be doing this, in this gorgeous space with these beautiful costumes, with live musicians,” Crane said. “What a beautiful, fantastic, exciting way to celebrate what Colonial Williamsburg has to offer.”