Shakespeare In the Park promises 10 wonderful nights and two magnificent matinees as they present Shakespeare's A Twelfth Night this summer. There are a lot of familiar faces, some new faces, a new vision and a new director.
John Poulsen, who is co-directing the production, which runs in Galt Gardens most Thursday and Fridays with producer Kate Connolly, is excited to bring one of Shakespeare's beloved comedies to life.
The cast includes University of Lethbridge stud
ents, community members and members of several local community theatre groups.
“I’m on the (Shakespeare in The Park) board and I value cultural activities and I value Shakespeare and I like Kate,” said Poulsen.
“I think that it is important for the community,” he continued.
“ I really like Shakespeare. He is one of the most prominent writers in the English language. His plays have a lot of depth and breadth,” he enthused.
“ And I wanted to honour Kate's beginning and move the play forward. I want to clarify the comedy,” he said noting he took over from Connolly a couple of months ago.
He has taken an educational approach to the show, involving the cast and getting them to explore their characters and note where they can improve their performances.
“I guess I believe the director is intimately connected to teaching. I want to get the actors thinking of self
improvement through self reflection. I believe actors are perfectly capable of that,” he said.
He is enjoying the show.
“ It’s about love and music. It’s about how characters can instantly fall in love,” he said praising the cast.
“ I hope people will come away laughing and I hope that they have a greater appreciation for Shakespeare and for local talent,” he said.
Actor Mike Rolfe has been involved in all three Shakespeare in the Park productions and because they have been so successful, the group is able to hire some of the cast and crew as paid interns through government grants.
But Rolfe is enjoying the role of Count Orsino.
“He’s a poet and he really like the idea of falling in love,” he said.
“The play is like a most of Shakespeare's comedies in that there is lots of mistaken identities, misinterpretations and it ends with many wedding,” he described.
“ I feel there is a lot more conflict in the story and that changes everything,” he said.
He has enjoyed working with John Poulsen as a director.
“We had the same director for the last two plays (Andrew Legg) and he was doing it as part of his Master's thesis, so it was like he was learning how to do his craft while we were learning how to do ours,” he said.
“ John approaches it more like a teacher, so he wants us to see what we are doing wrong and how to improve it,” he continued.
He is enjoying the extra responsibility as an intern which means Rolfe is m involved with more of the public relations for the play.
The show includes several cast members from the University of Lethbridge’s Spring production of a Country Wife including Aimee McGurk, who plays Viola, who is shipwrecked outside of Illyria and separated from her twin brother. She ends up being disguised as a eunuch Cesario and going to Count Orsino's court to woo Countess Olivia on behalf of her new master. Her brother also washes up on shore which leads to lots of humourous misunderstandings.
“Her purpose is to woo Olivia on behalf of Orsino while she is disguised as Cesario,” she said.
“ I’m really enjoying this character and I get to act with some of the same cast who were in the Country Wife with me,” she continued.
“It has been an interesting experience playing a man or eunuch from a woman's perspective,” she said.
“ It (A Twelfth Night) is a classic. Shakespeare is great at creating really strong characters for women. So I was glad to be cast,” she enthused.
Cameron Loman, who plays Viola's 
presumed dead brother Sebastien, is excited to play the straight man in a story full of colourful characters.
“There is a lot of craziness around him and he's in the middle of it all, ” Loman observed.
“ But still a lot of crazy things happen to him,” he continued.
“ I like that he is the straight man,” he said.
Loman is also one of the interns for Shakespeare In the Park this summer. He is enjoying the promotional duties that go along with the position. He is also enjoying working with the cast, especially Aimee McGurk.
“ It’s been great getting to work with all of these great people like Aimee. She was my wife in A Country Wife and now she's my sister,” he said.
Tristan Gilmour returns this season to play one of the more over the top characters— Olivia's pompous steward Malvolio, who falls prey to a practical joke played by several of the other characters.
“ I think he has lofty goals for himself. He's the servant but he wants to be Count Malvolio,” he said.
I actually auditioned for Orsino, but didn’t get it,” he said adding he is glad to be back.
“ I had so much fun last year. I love to do a lot of theatre so I wanted to be involved for purely selfish reasons too,” he said.
Garrett Bishoff, who played Silvius in last year’s Shakespeare In The Park production of “As You Like It,” is enjoying being back in “A Twelfth Night” as the fool Feste.
“ This is my first larger role. It's been a while since I played a big role like this one,” he said adding playing the fool is a lot of fun.
“ He’s kind hearted and is a good friend to everyone,” he described.
“ It has been a lot of fun,” he continued.
“He gets involved with a plot, but he sees it all as a game,” he said.
A Twelfth Night runs in Galt Gardens at 7 p.m., July 4,10,17,18,24,25,31, Aug. 1,7 and 8. There are also matinees at CASA, July 12 and Aug. 2.
Admission is free, though a silver collection will be taken.
