The Gryphon Gazette

By Julia S. ‘24

“Have you ever wondered if Shakespeare is gay? Wonder no more – come see the play!” said Mr. Fisher. 

This year, the Upper School fall play is Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare. For most people, Shakespeare is the dreaded name that resurfaces every year in English class; it’s the unit during which you spend an hour every five pages, looking up every other word of the text, and averting your eyes when the teacher asks for someone to read aloud in class. But performing Shakespeare is very different; the play lets us blow the dust off of a centuries-old text with themes that are still relevant. 

Mr. Fisher, one of the ninth grade English teachers and our director, often talks about his infatuation with Shakespeare. Hearing Mr. Fisher discuss the lasting relevance of the characters and themes in Shakespeare plays provides one with an entirely different perspective on Shakespeare than can be gained just from reading in class. In addition to the brief insight that began this article, when asked about the show Mr. Fisher said, “In all seriousness I think that Twelfth Night is a charming and unexpectedly nuanced exploration of the nature of love and infatuation that challenges accepted ideas about why we fall in love and who we should fall in love with.” Although Mr. Fisher is adept at summarizing the plot of a play, Shakespeare was not so sparing in his word count and, as such, there is quite a bit of text to work through. 

For the first two weeks of rehearsal, we read through each scene once, went over any specific words that we didn’t know the meaning of, and talked through our interpretations of each character to gain a strong understanding of the show – while not the most invigorating, this part of the process sets us up for success later on. With this foundation, we progressed to the fun part: putting the scenes on their feet (staging them). The bulk of the rehearsal process involves staging, running, and practicing scenes, figuring what works and what doesn’t, adjusting as the actors learn more about their characters as individuals and the dynamics they have between them, etc. When asked, one of our sophomore actors, Adam Bartov, described the rehearsal process as “Fire. It’s been really fire.” While we are currently still in this part of the process, we are starting to look ahead to a more polished product that we will see through to tech week, arguably the funnest part of all. 

Throughout our rehearsal period, the directing team (Mr. Fisher, Rohaan Iyer, and myself)  meet with the production team to talk about the vision for the show. We take notes during rehearsal about potential ideas for sets, props, costumes, lighting and sound design, etc., and present them to the respective department heads so they can prepare for tech week as well. The final, and most exciting, part of the rehearsal process is tech week. This is the last week before opening night during which all of the elements come together. During this week, we spend hours meticulously going through the entire show and adding in lights, sound cues, working in transitions, and adding all other tech elements (costumes, makeup, etc.). My favorite part of tech week is watching everything come together; seeing the show truly come to life as a result of such a large group effort is always a reminder of how much of a true team we are. 

The cast doesn’t have a show without crü, and crü doesn’t have a show without the cast. No one can do their job without everyone else involved which is the most special part of theater. With sports, you can practice on your own with a ball on the court or the field. But in theater, you truly can’t “play” without the whole team together, and we are so lucky to have such an amazing team.