Twelfth Night

Directed by Kristina McCloskey & Associate Directed by Stephanie Mattos

Original music composed by Elizabeth Rentfro and Alex Mauney, with additional composition by Grant Brown, Caroline Kidwell, and Lexy Hope Weixel

December 4 – December 19, 2021
Lincoln Park Conservatory

Reviews

Midsommer Flight’s Unabashedly Queer, Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Twelfth Night is a Delightful Feat of Whimsy. Everything, from the friendliness of the actors to the play’s DIY aesthetic, creates a welcoming environment which makes the production’s material and novel concept accessible. The cast steers away from overindulgently delivered verse and speaks Shakespeare’s words with the comfortable, casual cadences of 21st century English—even ad-libbing conversations with audience members as we walked from room to room. The actors wear vibrantly-colored outfits, many of them made up of layered items which would seem at home in a thrift store haul. All of the music and sound effects are created in-house by crew or cast, who sometimes recruit the help of the audience-members to sing along. … With its vibrant, immersive production, Midsommer Flight does more than just breathe life into a script: it breathes life into a city. The production removes the literal and figurative distance between Shaksespeare’s characters and the audience, filling all four showrooms of the Lincoln Park conservatory with camaraderie, laughter, and music.
– Alisa Boland, Rescripted

This production taps into the company’s mission to lay bare the beauty of Shakespeare’s language and the sheer, silly joy of his wonderfully human characters to an audience filled with members who are entering into the experience at different levels.
– Christine Malcom, Talkin’ Broadway

Cast and Crew

John Payne (they/them, Viola), Amy Malcom (she/her, Olivia), Polley Cooney (they/them, Orsino), Sonia Goldberg (she/her, they/them, Malvolio), Kathleen Mitchell (she/her, Antonio), Audrey Napoli (she/her, Sebastian), Grant Brown (he/him, Sir Toby Belch), Tatiana Pavela (she/her, Maria), Lexy Hope Weixel (they/them, Sir Andrew Aguecheek), Izis Mollinedo (she/her, they/them, Feste), Jillian Leff (she/her, Ensemble), Kristen Alesia (she/her, Ensemble).

Kristina McCloskey* (she/her, they/them, Director), Stephanie Mattos* (she/her, Associate Director), Cindy Moon (she/her, Costume Designer), Nina D’Angier (she/her, they/them, Scenic and Props Designer), Elizabeth Rentfro* (she/her, Music Director), Meredith Ernst* (she/her, Text Captain), Hannah Beehler (Stage Manager), Amy Rappa (Assistant Stage Manager) and Jacob Shaffer (he/him, Assistant Stage Manager), Thomas Russell (he/him they/them, Fight Director), Jyreika Guest (she/her, Intimacy Director), Ben F. Locke (he/she/they, Casting Director), Beth Wolf* (she/her, Producing Artistic Director), Dylan Roberts* (he/him, COVID Safety Officer).

Original music composed by Alex Mauney and Elizabeth Rentfro with additional composition by Caroline Kidwell, Grant Brown, and Lexy Hope Weixel.

*denotes Midsommer Flight Ensemble Member

Midsommer Flight is partially supported by the Illinois Arts Council Agency, by a CityArts grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, by The MacArthur Funds for Arts and Culture at The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, and by the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation.