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Summer/Fall Season, 20 June-8 Nov. Twelfth Night, Measure for Measure, Devil's Advocate, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Toad of Toad Hall
This season brought Shakespeare & Company its largest ticket sales as well as the Eliot Norton Award for actress Elizabeth Aspenlieder and the Distinguished Arts Educator Award for Kevin Coleman.
Poignant strains of a violin ushered in Twelfth Night. Suddenly amidst thunder and lightning behind a scrim, shadows of sails billow and sailors lurch, forming the illusion of a shipwreck. Director Jonathan Croy deftly balanced the somber and comedic aspects of the play. Robert Biggs's Feste is a smiling yet philosophic clown who treats Malvolio tenderly. On first view Olivia is dressed in black mourning. She begins to shed her melancholy when she laughs as her women tease Orsino's messenger, the disguised Viola. As the production progresses, Olivia's mood brightens and her costumes (designed by Govane Lohbauer) reflect her change, going from black to lavender. Elizabeth Raetz plays Olivia stately at the start and later comedic with her unladylike straddle of a bench as she pursues Viola. Croy designed the topiary where Malvolio is tricked. It consisted of carved plants in the shape of Disney-like bunnies and birds. The actors tiptoe in behind Malvolio to the tune of "Dance of the Toy Soldiers." Antics abound: Corrina May (Maria) crawls under Malvolio's bench to tie...