What You Will: A Queer Twelfth Night
Inspired by a year-long study of American and modern European theatre history and the formation of theatre companies, I co-wrote, co-directed, costume designed, and production-managed this queered version of Twelfth Night in the summer of 2018. This show was created and mounted by the Hayloft Players, a collective based in Walla Walla which worked to produce accessible theatre by and for queer people in a rural community. The Hayloft Players aimed to bridge the gap between the Whitman College and Walla Walla communities, and worked in tandem with the organization of Walla Walla’s first-ever Pride March, held that same summer.
In rewriting sections of the script to center queer love stories and redistribute agency between characters, we tied in recitals of selected Mary Oliver poems to provide chorus-like exposition and commentary. Guided most specifically by Grotowski’s ideas of a ‘poor theatre’, Brecht’s Alienation Effect, and the Barter Theatre Company’s original model of exchanging performances for food, our ensemble used community connections to collect resources, performed all shows were free of charge, with a visible green room and pre-show audience/ensemble potlucks. Each night of the performance, we offered transportation to the site for audience members; encouraged our audiences to bring a dish for the nightly potluck, and generally sought to disrupt the traditional barriers between audience and performers.
