For Immediate Release: January 31, 2007
Media Contact: Christine Barbush, People's Light & Theatre Company, 610.647.1900 x103

People's Light & Theatre Company presents TWELFTH NIGHT, running February 28 to April 7, 2007 on the Mainstage. TWELFTH NIGHT, one of William Shakespeare's great comic masterpieces, is directed by Artistic Director Abigail Adams. People's Light & Theatre is located at 39 Conestoga Road, Malvern. For tickets call 610-644-3500 or visit www.peopleslight.org. TWELFTH NIGHT is part of Shakespeare for a New Generation, a national theater initiative sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts in cooperation with Arts Midwest. ACE INA Foundation is the sponsor for this production.

In TWELFTH NIGHT girls will be boys and everyone is a fool for love in a tale of mistaken identity and passions run amok. Set in a Mediterranean land of romance, a shipwrecked Viola dresses as a boy and falls in love with Orsino, but Orsino loves Olivia and Olivia longs for Cesario (who is really Viola in disguise!) This heartfelt love triangle with a "twist" unfolds with passion, surprise and song.

People's Light has produced 15 shows written by Shakespeare in their 32 year history, and this is director Abigail Adams's third TWELFTH NIGHT production for People's Light. In the first, she played Viola in a production directed by Charles Conwell in 1978. In 1991, Adams directed a production using members of the younger "Stone Soup" company for free performances that were presented to school audiences from the surrounding area. Adams also directed TWELFTH NIGHT at the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival.

This TWELFTH NIGHT production, set during the late 1700's to early 1800's, will whisk audiences away to a romantic island in the Mediterranean.

"Deciding where and when to place TWELFTH NIGHT continues to be an emergent and exciting process," says Adams. "In Shakespeare's time lights, costumes and sets were not used to support time and place. Shakespeare set his action in Illyria, in the western part of today's Balkan Peninsula. With the designers' help and a lot of research, we found this to be a very exciting part of the world in the late 1700's and early 1800s. It was a cultural melting pot as sea travel became more of a regular way of life. With that in mind, our production of TWELFTH NIGHT is very multi-cultural - we have an Asian-Pacific Feste, a North African Viola and Sebastian and a composer who is creating a score that combines classical romantic forms with eastern European and Asian folk tunes."

Costume designer Marla Jurglanis adds, "I had a wonderful time exploring this time period. It fit so beautifully with each of the characters and we were able to make sense of where each of them came from and their role in society. The costumes support this and will be a mix of military influences from the Napoleonic era, and influences from the Orient and Neo-Classical eras. It is a very unique and unusual time period from a costumer's point of view."

TWELFTH NIGHT previews on Wednesday, February 28, 2007. Opening night is at 8pm on Friday, March 2, 2007. The show runs through April 7, 2007. Tickets are now on sale and range in price from $28 - $48, with discounts available for groups of 10 or more.

KEY BIOS

William Shakespeare (Author) (1564 - 1616) -was an English poet and playwright widely regarded as the greatest writer of the English language, and the world's preeminent dramatist. He wrote approximately 38 plays and 154 sonnets. Already a popular writer in his own lifetime, Shakespeare became increasingly celebrated after his death and his work has been acclaimed by prominent cultural figures throughout the centuries.

Abigail Adams (Director) is Artistic Director of the People's Light & Theatre Company. During her 30-year association with the Theatre, she has directed more than 50 plays. Recent productions include Something You Did, Fabulation, The Member of the Wedding, The O'Conner Girls, The Miser, String of Pearls, In the Blood and The Little Foxes. Abbey served for ten years on the faculty at Swarthmore College and has also taught at New York University, Bryn Mawr College, Carnegie Mellon University and the Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario.

Kevin Bergen (Malvolio) has been a member of the Resident Ensemble of Artists at People's Light for five years. Previous PLTC appearances: The Man From Nebraska, Fabulation, The Miser and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Other area credits include I Am My Own Wife and Shakespeare in Hollywood at The Wilma Theatre, A Prayer for Owen Meany at the Arden Theatre Company, Holiday, The Skin of Our Teeth and Hamlet at Bristol Riverside Theatre, and Reinventing Eden at InterAct Theatre Company.

Lenny Haas (Sir Anthony Aguecheek) was most recently seen at Act II Playhouse in Every Christmas Story Ever Told. Other area appearances: The Arden, The Wilma, Cheltenham Center for the Arts, Bristol Riverside, Hedgerow, Luna and 1812 Productions. He has been a member of the Resident Ensemble of Artists at PLTC since 1988, and has performed in over 30 productions. Favorites include The Foreigner, Born Yesterday, The Memory of Water and The Fantasticks.

Andrew Honeycutt (Sebastian) received his degree from the North Carolina School of the Arts and now resides in Washington, DC. Most recently he was seen as Schlemmer in the Kennedy Center's production of Mr. Roberts. Andrew is also a choreographer, an SAFD certified actor-combatant and can be seen later this year in the PBS feature film Prince Among Slaves.

Miriam Hyman (Viola) was last seen here in Man from Nebraska. Locally, she's has appeared in Big Friendly Giant (Arden Theatre Company), Merchant of Venice and the Linny Fowler Tours of Taming of the Shrew and Romeo Juliet (Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival), The Story (Philadelphia Theatre Company), Resurrection Blues (The Wilma), Skin of Our Teeth (Bristol Riverside Theatre), An Artist's Workshop (Azuka Theatre Collective), Live and In Color (Black Theatre Festival) and Black Nativity (Freedom Theatre).

Mark Lazar (Fabian) has spent the last three Holiday Seasons as our "Resident Dame" in the Panto Productions of Robin Hood, Jack & the Beanstalk and Sleeping Beauty. Other PLTC performances include The Foreigner, The Crucible, The Miser, Arthur's Stone, Merlin's Fire, Born Yesterday, Once in a Lifetime, The Little Foxes, Hearts and Camping With Henry and Tom.

Jason Ma (Feste) has performed on Broadway in Sly Fox, Miss Saigon, Prince of Central Park and Chu Chem. His Off-Broadway credits include Hamlet at CSC, Antony & Cleopatra at NYSF/Public Theater, The Merchant of Venice at the Pearl Theatre, Falsettoland at the National Asian Actor's Theatre Company and Wilderness at Pan Asian Rep. Regionally, Jason has appeared at the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston, The Cincinnatti Playhouse, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, the Kennedy Center and the Westport Playhouse.

Christopher Patrick Mullen (Orsino) is a member of the Resident Ensemble of Artists at PLTC, where he has appeared in Robin Hood, The Crucible, Jack & the Beanstalk, The Miser, Julius Caesar and The Tempest, among other productions. Regional credits include: As You Like It, Around the World in 80 Days, The Imaginary Invalid, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Richard III, The Glass Menagerie.

Mary Elizabeth Scallen (Olivia) has been a member of the Resident Ensemble of Artists since 1991 and is currently an Artistic Associate at PLTC. Recent appearances here include The Imaginary Invalid, Fabulation, 30FEST, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Sleeping Beauty and String of Pearls. Mary Beth has also worked with PlayPenn, The Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival, North Carolina Shakespeare Festival, Weston Playhouse (VT), Gretna Theatre (PA) and Mill Mountain Theatre (VA).

Graham Smith (Sir Toby Belch) has been in more than 180 plays and 10 films. His history includes a B.A. (Davidson College), M.F.A. (Hilberry Classic Theatre), ten years with the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival (NCSF), plus 24 seasons with the Charlotte Repertory Theatre. A member of the Resident Ensemble of Artists at PLTC since 1999, his recent work includes Danforth in The Crucible, Owen in The Foreigner (at PLTC), Van Helsing in Dracula (Actors Theatre of Louisville) and Gremio, Lord Capulet and Bob Cratchit at NCSF this past fall and December.

Elizabeth Webster Duke (Maria) was last seen as Catherine in The Foreigner. As a ten-year member of the Resident Ensemble of Artists at People's Light, she has performed in over thirty productions, including A View from the Bridge, Sally's Gone, She Left Her Name and The Skin of Our Teeth. Liz has performed with the Kennedy Center, Ford's Theatre, The Wilma Theatre, The Walnut Street Theatre, InterAct Theatre Company, The Eureka Theatre Company, The Bay Theatre and the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival.

Robert Wu (Antonio/Valentino) received his Bachelor's of Arts in Theatre from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, with a minor in Chinese Language, and his Master of Fine Arts degree from New York University's Graduate Acting Program. Some of his credits include: Take Me Out (Joe Mantello's West Coast Tour), The King and I (Downtown Cabaret Theatre, CT), and Cyrano de Bergerac (Hangar Theatre). Robert has also appeared on the daytime soaps As The World Turns and All My Children.

TICKET INFORMATION
For information or to purchase tickets, visit www.peopleslight.org. Or contact the Box Office, open daily from noon until 6pm, at 610-644-3500. Group discounts for parties of 10 or more are also available. For more information on group tickets, call 610.647.1900, ext. 191 or group@peopleslight.org.

Audiences are encouraged to join the artists after each Thursday night performance to discuss the production.

The remaining People's Light & Theatre Company 2006/2007 Season includes The Giver, April 26 - May 20, 2007; Splittin' the Raft, May 9 - June 10, 2007; and Humble Boy, June 20 - July 15, 2007.

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