TVT hosts Shakespeare’s ‘Twelfth Night’

Although Shakespeare is not the usual cup of tea for Tennessee Valley Theatre patrons, board president Harry Landreth said he hopes people will support the “excellent production” of the Bard’s comedy “Twelfth Night” on Sunday.

The production by members of the Drifting Theater Company and the Uncovered Theater Company includes both Bryan College graduate Katie Fridsma and Tennessee native Alaska Vance.

“He’s a good writer,” Landreth said of Shakespeare, “but he isn’t the kind who (usually) appeals to our audience. We’re not looking to make money. We just want to round out or offerings and punch that Shakespeare ticket.”

He said the members of the production companies are all undergraduate or graduate theater majors at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va.

“They all do excellent work,” he said.

Shakespeare’s comedy, which usually has 17 roles and extras, will be played by six actors in a full-length adaptation.

The companies did the same thing when TVT hosted Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” in 2008.

In “Twelfth Night,” set on the earthy island of Illyria, where impulse and instinct are all the rage, various characters search for — sometimes blunder toward — love despite mischief and misunderstandings.

The comedy, according to information from TVT, “reminds us that everything always works out for the best.”

In addition to Fridsma and Vance, the cast includes Katie Cheely, Rob Arbough, Chad Rasor and Rachel Arbough.

Fridsma, Vance and Rasor were in the troupe that performed “The Tempest” at TVT a year ago.

Fridsma, a 2007 graduate of Bryan College with a degree in musical theater, also portrayed Aldonza in TVT’s “Man of La Mancha” in 2006.