Shakespeare Under the Stars: Women's Club Hosts One of a Kind Performance

The was the site of a frolicking tale of frustrated love and hidden identity this past Saturday night, as well as a playground for a mischievous drunk, a crabby steward, and a wise and witty fool who shepherds them all.

This wasn’t Monty Python, however, but Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” a romantic comedy romp put on by PiPE DREAM theatre LLC and attended by over 80 spectators in the Women’s Club courtyard.

PiPe DREAM, which specializes in “steampunk” theater, aims to bridge the gap between amateur and professional performance, and according to director and founder Liz Muller, “maries the industrial era with the Victorian times with World War II with old western.” Muller, who is a professional actress and played the part of “Olivia” Saturday, emphasized that the troupe’s “old-timey” yet futuristic style broadens the its scope and audience base.

“Twelfth Night” centers on Viola, a young woman who is shipwrecked in the opening scenes of the play and believes her twin brother, Sebastian, is dead. Viola spends most of the play disguised as Cesario, and eventually falls in love with Duke Orsino, who himself pines for Lady Olivia, who is smitten with Cesario. Shakespeare at his finest.

Composer and pianist Collin Simon wrote the musical score for the production, and was accompanied by Michael Macagnone and Marissa Brozier, both on acoustic guitar.

“It’s a shame that ‘Twelfth Night’ isn’t done more often,” Simon said. “The characters are really extreme and there’s so many of them that all have really wide characterizations that people can play in so many different ways. It’s really fun.”

Simon, a White Plains resident, said writing the musical score to the play was an enjoyable and free flowing exercise, and pointed to the script itself as the inspiration for the music.

 “The lyrics are in the play so you get into it and just start to feel it,” he said. “It kind of just gives you the rhythm.”

Audience members at Saturday’s performance came from all corners of the Tri-State area, including Long Island resident Nia Stevens, there in support of her brother Michael Stevens in the role of the uptight steward.

 “My brother is [playing the part of] ‘Malvolio,’ so I’m here to support him and to support Collin and Liz, because they’ve done a lot for me in the past,” she said. “I’m really excited to see the show.”

Actor Kevin Hurley, who played the part of ‘Orsino,’ had four family members and numerous friends at the event, including his grandmother and Carmel resident Maureen Richer, who said she “looks forward to every, every play they do,” and hasn’t missed one yet.

Other cast members included Vanessa Price (Feste, the fool), Brian Mark (Toby), Leah Cornish (Maria, Olivia’s feisty maid), Aaron Souza (Sebastian), Joe Murtagh (Sir Andrew), Kate Murphy (Antonio), Morgan Maclearie (Fabian), Michael T. Kopplin (the Captain/Priest) and Daniel J McCormick (Valentine).

Actors performed on a sparse set, which included only a couple of chairs and a small table, and were illuminated by subdued decorative lights wrapped around a number of trees in the courtyard of the Women’s Club. The evening’s biggest round of laughter was awarded to ‘Malvolio,’ who despite the despair caused to him by fake love notes purported to be from Olivia, was an audience favorite throughout the show.

Seats to Saturday’s performance were free, however a suggested donation of $5 per attendee helped raise over $300 to benefit the Bronxville Women’s Club. PiPE DREAM and its players will be back at the Women’s Club again in October, in a performance Director Liz Muller said local theatre enthusiasts will not want to miss.

“We have an Oratorio which is like a musical short,” Muller said. “It’s based on Washington Irving’s ‘Sleepy Hollow.’ It’s awesome. It’s told very campfire-style. It’s got some scary, some funny, some really cool dancing, and some excellent singing.”

As for the mayhem of love and disguise in Saturday’s “Twelfth Night?” Well, Orsino wound up with Viola, who was also reunited with her brother, Sebastian. Olivia and Sebastian became a pair, as did Toby and Maria, and the long-suffering Malvolio didn’t get anything but a hard time.

In the words of proud father Kevin Hurley of Olivebridge, NY, “Smashing show!"