Conservatory ends semester with ‘Twelfth Night’

Nicholas Direso and Audra Qualley tend to live in the moment, cracking jokes and making life as fun as possible.

It is no wonder then that the pair works so well on stage, plotting fake love letters and even locking someone up in a basement as a practical joke.

The scheming duo can be seen as the leads in "Twelfth Night" from Dec. 9-18 at the Conservatory Theater.

"[Qualley's character is] someone who is willing to have as much fun with you that you can relate to and fall in love with," Direso said.

Direso's character, Sir Toby, falls in love with Maria, played by Qualley. Together, Direso and Qualley dominate the subplot of "Twelfth Night" in their scheming to pull pranks on another servant named Malvolio, like writing fake love letters to him and even going as far as tying him up and locking him in a dark room.

According to various cast members, "Twelfth Night," the production the Conservatory Theater's last show "Illyria" is based off of, is set in the country of Illyria, a place of lavish, rich lifestyles and carefree attitudes. A shipwreck washes Viola (Haley Nielson) up on the shores of Illyria, separated from her twin brother Sebastian (Chase Kinney). Believing her brother to be dead, Viola poses herself as a man to save herself and goes to work for Duke Orsino. A love triangle begins between Orsino, Viola, who calls herself "Cesario" as a man, and Olivia.

Through various subplots of Olivia and Orsino's servants, who have a knack for pulling pranks and deceit, "Twelfth Night" is not just one single plot, but many plots that centralize around a common theme.

"It's more of an ensemble piece," Direso, a senior acting major, said. Direso describes "Twelfth Night" as a menagerie of different people living in Illyria who have different goals but who all follow the same theme - in this case, love.

Both Direso and Qualley can relate to their characters, who live life in the "here and now."

"You only live once, so you might as well do anything you can do to make every moment as fun as possible," Direso said about the shared attitude between actor and role.

Qualley loves her character Maria, who she said she may not be as smart as, but shares the same playful mocking tone sometimes and the love of being able to "bro out" and chill with friends.

While Sir Toby and Maria do not have any obstacles to overcome in their love story, many other characters have hoops to jump through to truly achieve their happy ending. Viola has to reveal her true self before she can really love Orsino, and Olivia, played by senior acting major Jana Mahany, has to overcome the loss of her brother and father before she can find happiness again.

"All of these people go through these experiences to find love," Mahany said, who found it hard at first to portray a character who has lost so much.

Audiences who went to see the show's counterpart "Illyria" will experience a sense of déjà vu with its similar story and events and will be able to recognize concepts in "Twelfth Night," but the experience of the show will be very different than that of "Illyria."

"Twelfth Night" will be on the same stage as "Illyria" two weekends before its debut on Dec. 9, and the structures of the sets will also be the same. The crew of "Twelfth Night," however, have gutted the sets and made them their own. "Twelfth Night" is set in the rich Hamptons community in the 1920s and thus the scene is designed to reflect that as well. As "Illyria" had a tilted, uncomfortable scenery, "Twelfth Night" is designed to depict a setting reminiscent of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Great Gatsby," with straight, decorative walls that represent a rich, lavish lifestyle.

While the costumes in "Illyria" were stylized with bright, vivid color, "Twelfth Night" costuming includes umbrellas, hats and elegant dresses. The main difference between "Illyria" and "Twelfth Night" is the style of speech, according cast members Qualley, Direso and Mahaney.

The show will consist of all five acts, and in true Shakespearean style, the cast of "Twelfth Night" memorized poetic lines of the original 1600s text. Mahany found her monologues to be easy to learn because many of the words rhymed, but an overall challenge became memorizing the order of the monologues.

"One thing about Shakespeare is that you can't make it up," Mahany said. "You look like a deer in the headlights if you don't know what you're doing."

Qualley also found her lines to be easy to memorize once she learned the various play on words that the text presented. She noted a line where she said "nature" in a sentence and then that triggers someone else's line with the word "natural" in it. In learning little tricks of the trade, Qualley learned a lot about Shakespearean text.

"I've learned how to take the language and let it be in my emotions," Qualley said. "You have to let the words do the work."

"Twelfth Night" will open on Dec. 9 and run through Dec. 18 at the Pittsburgh Playhouse. Show times are Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets can be purchased by calling (412) 392-8000 or online at www.pittsburghplayhouse.com.

Published: Monday, November 28, 2011

Updated: Tuesday, November 29, 2011 14:11

Article on The Globe's website

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