It’s crazy to think that seeing William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night was the last event we would attend as a class. However, I think it brought everything full circle. Art does not get more classical than Shakespeare, but what the Fiasco Theatre Company was able to do with the production really shook things up. Ironically, I am actually pretty familiar with Fiasco’s production of Into The Woods. In this production they eliminated the spectacle of set and costume and did the show with minimal instruments and actors on stage. While I’m not sure how I felt about this concept of Into The Woods, I truly enjoyed what Fiasco did with Shakespeare’s work.
One of the things I really took away from the talk back with the director was how he said he did not want to have an established place and time for the play. This reminded me of an interview I read with Damien Chazelle, director of La La Land, in which he said he wanted all of the scenery to be so perfect and almost fictional, and that he wanted the movie to appeal to the modern audience while also paying homage to traditional movies and theatre. I really liked that this was a major factor in developing the play because I feel like I would have over analyzed it had I known where it was taking place and during what time period.
Notably, another defining factor that made this production is that it is done in the round instead of a typical theatre setting. Speaking from experience, staging a production in the round can be quite complicated, as it is so easy to only play to one side of the audience instead of all of them. It is so easy for a show in the round to become a complete disaster, especially Shakespeare which has such a uniform way of performing it. Yet, Fiasco defied the odds and did not let the challenges of doing a show in the round intimidate them. I must say, the risk truly payed off.
Overall, I thought the performance was great. But ‘m really going to miss this class! We have had so much fun going to art galleries, the opera, dance performances, watching RENT, and so on. Also let’s be real we were the best IDC class (I mean look at out bomb Wikipedia page). Before this class I thought I was already really immersed in art, I had been to the Louvre, the Shakespeare Globe Theatre, I loved music of an extremely wide variety, and I was really well informed in Musical Theatre. However, now I’ve been exposed of arts of all kind, I have been to my first art gallery, I learned about modern artists right here in my city, also did I mention I edited a couple of wikipedia page? I cannot wait to continue explore the extensive forms of art that all live in my city. The center of the world.
