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fJtfSffff.tf.f..tffffff.fffJfJt.ffFf.tfArS.f.tf?f.tW Page 10 DTH Omnibus Thursday April 16, 1992 AH Director Twelfth Nisht presented by PlayMakers Repertory Co. Wednesday, April 15 through Sunday, May 10 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday 2 p.m. Sunday Paul Green Theatre Tickets: $12.50 students, $17.50 adults For information, call 962-PLAY 1 illiam Shakespeare's ro mantic comedy, Twelfth Night, completes the sea son schedule at PlayMakers Repertory Company (PRC). With a plot that unfolds around a series of mistaken identities, Twelfth Night could very well be the prototype for every episode of Three's Company. In the play, Viola and her twin brother, Sebastian, are shipwrecked in a foreign land where they meet the wealthy countess Olivia and the self important Duke, Orsino. Twelfth Night director, Martin Piatt , is a veteran of the Shakespearian welfth 00 by William Shakespeare April 15-May 10 A shipwreck, laughter, love and disguise in the enchanted world of lllyna. Tickets: 962-PLAY Subscribe Now to Our 1992-93 Season! THE LITTLE FOXES by Lillian Hellman PRELUDE TO A KISS by Craig Lucas TARTUFFE by Moliere SOME AMERICANS ABROAD by Richard Nelson HAMLET by William Shakespeare Subscribers may also purchase tickets now, at a special reduced price, to our encore presentation of THE NUTCRACKER: A PLAY by David Hammond based on the stories of E.T. A. Hoffmann REPERTORY COMPANY PuKQiMnTtiMlr CraptfHH Piatt returns for MondyLamb ill theater. Here he answers a few questions about illusion, setting and the up coming play: OMNI: This is your fifth timedirect' ing "Twelfth Night. " What do you find so exciting about this play.' Piatt: I think that Twelfth Night, with so many different kinds of love romantic love, illusions of roman tic love, love of servant for master and all the cross themes of sexual ambigu ity, like the woman disguised as the man, seems very modern and still interesting. OMNI: There isalotof confusion in this play, mistaken identity, mistaken love . . . How do you separate the illusion from reality? Piatt: It's not much different than other plays. All you really do is play the reality of the situation at that moment. Although the confusions are al ways apparent to us, to the actors they always think they know who they are talking to. They're trapped in a Night Produced by WCHL Radio, 1360 AM ' V through-the-looking-glass world. Es pecially late in the play, the charac ters don't quite know how they got there and don't understand why they're being mistaken for other people. OMNI: You've set this play m a Mediterranean resort to give it a roman tic, sun-lit feel. Where did this idea come from and have you ever been to the Mediterranean? Piatt: Yes I have, and it's almost as nice as Chapel Hill, but they don't speak English. The idea really evolved when talk ing to the set designers. The Edwardian era was the last great ro mantic era before World War I changed the world. We wanted a FlorenceVenice type place. Any th ing Italian, except we do have palm trees and pyramids so it's hard to tell where we are. OMNI: Pyramids? Piatt: Yeah, we have a little bit of everything. OMNI: Do you think this play is more realistic than fantastical or more fantastical than realistic.'! Piatt: I think it's more realistic ... in a funny way. And I think it has more to do with the director than it does with the play itself. As you get older you look at plays differently. When I did this play the first time, I was in my 20s half a lifetime ago and it tended to be very jokey, with a lot of slapstick. I think as I've gotten older I've begun to realize that the kind of life and death situations in Shakespeare's comedies are much more serious. If there is one little plot turn one way it would be a tragedy rather than a com edy. It's very easy for them to switch over. Whenyou think of it like that it's more serious. OMNI: Is that how the play has changed for you over the years? Piatt: Yes, you realize if everyone doesn't believe that the character is angry enough to actually kill and cause serious injury then the play doesn't really make any sense. If the stakes aren't that high, why should we be I rH!TO 1 I Because your Thursdays would suck without us. a 'twelfth night' 'Twelfth Night' interested? The comedy is a kind of relief that things do work out. OMNI: What was your single most challenging moment directing this play? Piatt: I think its coming up this weekend. It's a peculiar challenge here at PRC because you have a lot of expe rienced older actors and you have graduate students who are really just opening up into their careers. One of the challenges is getting these two groups to balance out into a unified company. It's very different than di recting at other places where every one starts from about the same place. OMNI; If you could do any play at o "&XL Ycti Can Eat" O popcorn shrimp white fish clam strips deviled crab includes: coleslaw, hushpupples, french fries, or baked potato l I SEAFOOD RESTAURANT N lunch: n:30-2:00SurKkw-rridoy Dinrw: 5:00-9:00 Sundoy-Thunday 5:00-10:00 Friday & Saturday Hwy. 54 at 1-40, Chapel HillDurham, 493-8096 967-8227 -V' , " - director Martin Piatt PRC using any actors, what play would you perform? Long pause. Piatt: I don't know if they've done it here but something like Beggars' Opera which is very big it's a clas sic. It's the kind of show that could blend students and professionals very well. OMNI: But this is ideally, yow don't have to use students, you can chose anyone. Piatt: Oh, but we could always use a few students. OMNI: Well... Piatt: OK, you'd have to do it with Kevin Kline ... and it would be fine. $S9
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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April 16, 1992, edition 1
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