ANDROGYNE |
BITTER-SWEET |
CHIAROSCURO
Chiaroscuro comes from Italian roots: chiaro is light, and scuro is dark. It is most often referred to in oil painting or art in general because it is a method artists use to create three-dimensionality. Leonardo da Vinci (1452) was one of the first to employ this technique in a somewhat dramatic way, but Caravaggio (1571) is one of the masters. He expertly accentuated figures with his almost pitch black background and nearly spotlighted people. The drastic difference between dark and light gives the viewer a dramatic sense of depth.
Our production plays with this contrast, trying to discover: How can contrasting concepts work together? In the image to the right, we see the way the darkness cannot exist without the light; just as tragic occurrences allow our characters to revel in moments in laughter, and masculinity cannot exist without femininity. Without the deep blackness in the background, the figures wouldn't look as pulled forward and prominent in the space, and without the bright light, the darkness wouldn't be so stark.
Our production plays with this contrast, trying to discover: How can contrasting concepts work together? In the image to the right, we see the way the darkness cannot exist without the light; just as tragic occurrences allow our characters to revel in moments in laughter, and masculinity cannot exist without femininity. Without the deep blackness in the background, the figures wouldn't look as pulled forward and prominent in the space, and without the bright light, the darkness wouldn't be so stark.
THE NAME GAME
If you have successfully read this entire "extra" page (hooray!), you have likely begun to notice the plethora of dualities we are setting up. We have the duality of gender, genre, characters, and even tone. I want to bring up other ways we see duality, twinning, doubling, pairing, contrast, comparison, etc. etc. etc. in Twelfth Night. Let's take another look at the names. I'll just go ahead and list a few and see if you can draw some connections:
Viola and Olivia
Olivia and Orsino
Orsino and Cesario
Orsino and Antonio
Are you seeing what I'm seeing? If not, I'll give you a few hints. At first glance, we can notice the similarity of letters. Viola and Olivia are the most similar, using nearly the exact same letters just in different order. Then we have Olivia and Orsino--six letters each beginning with "O". What about Orsino and Antonio? I'm starting to get the sense that Shakespeare enjoyed "O's." However, there is more to it than just their names. Viola and Olivia are drawn together, perhaps because of female traits? Olivia and Orsino are yearning for something they just can't seem to grasp. Cesario is also feeling the pangs of unrequited love, while Cesario and Orsino become closer "male" friends. Antonio is even feeling a little unrequited love himself, for Sebastian. Sebastian needed Antonio to survive as Cesario(Viola) needed Orsino to survive after their shipwreck in a foreign land.
We can get a sense of twinning amongst these characters that has nothing to do with biology. Shakespeare is employing doubling to explore relationship dynamics, perhaps even playing around to see what happens when characters share the same traits and/or goals.
Viola and Olivia
Olivia and Orsino
Orsino and Cesario
Orsino and Antonio
Are you seeing what I'm seeing? If not, I'll give you a few hints. At first glance, we can notice the similarity of letters. Viola and Olivia are the most similar, using nearly the exact same letters just in different order. Then we have Olivia and Orsino--six letters each beginning with "O". What about Orsino and Antonio? I'm starting to get the sense that Shakespeare enjoyed "O's." However, there is more to it than just their names. Viola and Olivia are drawn together, perhaps because of female traits? Olivia and Orsino are yearning for something they just can't seem to grasp. Cesario is also feeling the pangs of unrequited love, while Cesario and Orsino become closer "male" friends. Antonio is even feeling a little unrequited love himself, for Sebastian. Sebastian needed Antonio to survive as Cesario(Viola) needed Orsino to survive after their shipwreck in a foreign land.
We can get a sense of twinning amongst these characters that has nothing to do with biology. Shakespeare is employing doubling to explore relationship dynamics, perhaps even playing around to see what happens when characters share the same traits and/or goals.
THE BEAUTY OF TIME
Twelfth Night, or What You Will is a particularly exciting comedy that comes later in his life, meaning at this point in Shakespeare's career, he was a well seasoned playwright likely looking for ways to have a little fun. One luxury of working on Shakespeare is our ability to interpret his intentions and to reimagine how his words could work with a modern day audience (thanks to copyright laws and a lack of documentation and stage directions on Shakespeare's part). Shakespeare's brilliant body of work lets current day artists explore a plethora of meanings that he himself probably didn't even realize he'd created. After all, over 400 years of re-mounts encourages us artists to get creative.