T
A revealing day for Douglas’ ‘Twelfth Night’

By Angela Espinoz, Arts Reviewer

s the semester gradually draws

to a close, the doors to another

Douglas College theatre
production open. This time, one of
Shakespeare’s many classics: Twelfth
Night ‘or What You Will’ . In anticipation
for the play, I got to sit down with director
Thrasso Petras. Thrasso takes the time
to discuss a brief history of his previous
work, what Douglas students put into
this rendition of Twelfth Night, and the
complexities of love that are tangled
within. 3

Angela Espinoza: What previous shows
have you directed for Douglas?

Thrasso Petras: Lysistrata about two
years ago, that was the first show I
directed. Apart from that I did some
movement coaching for a show called

A Macbeth—directed by John Cooper
(Dir. The Rimers of Eldritch). That was
great because I got to work with the same
students [from] a movement class the
term prior. We just kept building on all the
stuff we'd been working on for the past
year. Then I got to do coaching and then I
got to direct.

AE: What’s it like working with student
actors compared to professionals?

TP: Pluses and minuses. Students are
great because they’re prepared to try
anything. Sometimes professionals or
more experienced actors are wary because
they know what works for them. They’re
not as [willing] to jump off the cliff
because they’ ve already [built] their own
reputation and style.

Like, right now we’re doing
Shakespeare, and Shakespeare’s hard
for anybody. The students are doing ten
different things at once; trying to figure
out their body and their voice, what the
text means, how to deliver that meaning

to the audience—they’re being asked to
do a lot. So when I’m working with them,
I have to be careful not to let my own
Utopian ideas of what this show might

be get in the way of what their needs are.
They’re here for training, and that’s true
of any show, of any group of actors—
especially students.

AE: Is this a traditional take on ‘Twelfth
Night’?

TP: It’s fairly traditional, but we’re
placing it in a more contemporary setting.
The thing about Shakespeare is, though, I
don’t know if he was traditional. There’s a
lot of dirty stuff in there, and people will
try to ignore it. It’s like the bible; people
interpret it anyway they want, which is
great because then you can have these
discussions and arguments. But if you’re
going to change something up just to be
funny or to be contemporary, then you’re
putting something on top [of the story]
instead of weaving it in and making it
stronger. I think with every age, we take
Shakespeare and we adapt it to what our
traditions are, and we’re doing that [here].

AE: Why ‘Twelfth Night’?
TP: Partially because I wanted to
challenge myself by doing a full-length

Shakespeare, and it’s also kind of a classic.

[post-secondary] thing to do. There are a
requisite number of people in the cast, so
everyone gets a part, and it’s a fun play.
The interesting thing about it though is
it’s a comedy, and then there’s this one
cruel bit where they take this guy and
basically torture him. So unlike a lot

of Shakespeare’s comedies, in the end
there’s this weird feeling of ‘what was
that about?’

It’s a romantic comedy with an
underlying hint of cruelty. Which, you
know, if you pick at love a little bit too
long, that’s right underneath the surface
potentially. That’s all blended in there, but

a lot of times I’ve seen Twelfth Night done

where people try to ignore that aspect, and
it just feels weird. It’s a [great] play for
that reason, because it combines things.
It’s this examination of all the different
kinds of love; love of power, selfless

love, selfish love, indulgent love—all the
different reasons of why we do this thing
called love.

AE: What can we expect to see in this
rendition of “Twelfth Night’?
TP: I don’t know yet [laughs], I keep
thinking it’s going to be one thing, and
then it shifts on me. The primary aspect
that I think I’m interested in is this idea
of the underlying cruelty. We’re exploring
the question, “What is the nature of
love,’ and once you drop that bomb you
can go in so many directions. There are
characters that love for almost every
reason, and that was kind of the centre
point for me— to explore that question
and not ignore that some of it is very
shallow, some of it is very deep, and some
of it is a little bizarre or perverted.

I tried coming in with a very planned
out idea, but then you have to contend
with a cast of people who all have their

 

own ideas about what love is, so they
bring that in and it’s fantastic. But the
overall question that we keep asking is
the same, and we try to define it. We say
we’re in love, but then you ask, ‘Why

are you in love with that person?’ I’ve
never heard an answer that was so unique
to one person that it couldn’t be shifted
to another. So then it begs the question,
“Are we in love with that because of that
person, or are we in love with an idea
that we have?’ Everyone has a slightly
different idea of what that is or what love
is. There are a lot of questions and no
answers, and I kind of like it that way.
Questions move you forward and answers
are the end.

Twelfth Night ‘or What You Will’
opens this Friday, March 11, at the Laura
C. Muir Performing Arts Theatre, and
will run until Saturday, March 19. The
show will be playing at 7:30pm for the
majority of its run, along with several
matinees. Tickets are $8.00 for students
with valid ID and during matinees, while
general admission will be $15.00. You can
purchase tickets at the door (cash only) or
online through the Massey Ticket Centre.

 

Where have all the Twi-hards gone?

By Aleisha Husolo

uring the filming of Eclipse, the

third instalment of the Twilight

series, a sizable gaggle of tweens
gathered at both ends of Gilley’s Trail in
Coquitlam to try and catch a glimpse. The
old barn house that’s been there upwards
of thirty years was repainted to become
Jacob’s barn, and the interest of many
teenage girls. During the days of filming,
residents on the street would have to
show ID to get to their driveway, and girls
stayed for hours in lawn chairs behind
police blockades. Many of them filmed

6

themselves walking past the site and
posted them on Youtube. At one point,
someone with a good quality camera even
tried climbing a tree to get a glimpse of
the actors.

As the filming has resumed for the
fourth instalment, Breaking Dawn, one
would assume the girls would be there
again. The Other Press was eager to
interview these dedicated girls and ask
questions like... “How many times have
you read the books?” or “did you skip
school to be here?” or “have you seen
anything yet?” and “team Edward or
Jacob?”

And, although there were two girls
there on Monday, Thursday when we
went to interview, there was no one. Is it
possible the tweens are in school at 11am?
Is it possible the police blockade scared
them off this time? Is it possible they
grew up and got a life? Well, whatever
the case may be, Taylor Lautner was seen
running around in the rain with no shirt
on Thursday afternoon with no tweens
to ogle over him. For all you on Team
Jacob, you missed your chance to pull out
your lawn chairs and tree climbing skills
to have possibly caught a glimpse of him
shirtless. But for the rest of us, we can
leave them well enough alone to film it

and see it in theatres.