Twelfth Night
by William Shakespeare
In designing Twelfth Night, I was drawn to how disguise reshapes not only identity but the spaces in which identity is performed. My goal was to create a world that could shift as quickly as the characters do — a place where social boundaries blur and transformation becomes inevitable. Rather than treating Illyria as a stable location, I approached it as a fluid construct, constantly redefined by desire, deception, and comedic misunderstanding.
To support this idea, I developed a system of modular scenic pieces that could be reconfigured throughout the performance. This allowed the environment to respond directly to the story: opening, collapsing, or concealing as characters reveal or distort their true selves. I was interested in how architecture can participate in the play, becoming a collaborator in both chaos and revelation. With each rearrangement, new sightlines, proximities, and power dynamics emerged — turning the stage into a visible rehearsal of identity itself.
CREDITS:
Cast
Sir Toby — Julien Arnold
Sebastian / Captain — Jordan Buhat
Clown / Valentine / Officer / Servant / Priest — Dave Clarke*
Malvolio — Alex Dawkins
Viola — Chayla Day
Olivia — Emily Howard
Duke Orsino / Officer — Marc Ludvig
Maria / Antonio — Jaimi Reese
Sir Andrew — Jake Tkaczuk
Creative Team
Director — Ashley Wright**
Set Designer — Reza Basirzadeh
Costume Designer — Stephanie Bahniuk
Lighting Designer — Robert Shannon
Composer — Dave Clarke
Sound Designer — Nicholas Juba
Assistants to the Set Designer — Kai Villneff, Elise Jason
Assistant to the Costume Designer — Liza Zenzova
Fight / Voice / Text / Movement
Fight Director — Patrick Howarth
Voice, Speech, and Text Coach — Betty Mouton
Movement Coach — Lin Snelling
Dramaturg — Alexander Donovan
Stage Management
Stage Manager — Ira Tuzlukova
Assistant Stage Manager — Linda Mullen
Faculty Advisors
Directing Advisor — Jan Selman
Design Advisor — Robert Shannon
Stage Management Advisor — John Raymond
Technical Direction Advisor — Larry Clark
Lighting Advisor — Jeff Oosterlin
Sound Advisor — Matthew Skopyk
* Participation arranged by permission of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association
** In partial fulfillment of MFA Directing thesis
Venue:
Timms Centre for the Arts,
Edmonton, Canada
November 2016
