Corona Cold Reads: Twelfth Night

These are crazy times and we’ve all taken on a bunch of new projects as we socially isolate in order to help stop the spread of Covid-19.

We’re donating where we can, we’re cleaning the pantry, we’re organizing the 2300+ title dvd library. We’re still working on the Nominee Interview Series even though the live event for our yearly Critics’ Pick Awards had to be cancelled (we’ve still got winners to announce and, eventually, trophies to give out). We started the Corona Movie Club to help curb our boredom and constant need to talk about movies with other human beings. I’m even watching network procedurals and actually writing about them.

But what we all really need is comfort. We need our favourite things and our favourite people and right now those are hard to come by so we have to do everything we can to bring them together whenever possible. For me, there’s nothing quite so comforting and joyful as Shakespeare. Luckily, I know a lot of people who also love Shakespeare- a few old friends from my alma mater’s Shakespeare Society and a few of my favourite Toronto theatre artists, all of whom just so happen to be talented and generous and responsibly socially isolated enough to want to join a nearly 3-hour 19-person Zoom call for the purposes of livestreaming Shakespeare on YouTube.

We knew we wanted to tackle Twelfth Night in the first batch or readings. It’s a rich and rewarding comedy that’s every bit as substantial as it is fun, marrying deep melancholy and dark themes with lively music, charming romance, and goofy antics. The script features some of Shakespeare’s loveliest poetry and cleverest wordplay from what you could easily argue is his greatest set of characters. A true ensemble piece, Twelfth Night has so many great roles that it demanded our best cast yet.

Check out Twelfth Night in audio form below (or on iTunes) then tune into our YouTube page on Saturday and Tuesday nights at 7pm EST to catch our live readings.

A huge thank you to the cast of Twelfth Night:

Viola- Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster
Duke Orsino- James Graham
Sir Toby Belch- James Wallis
Maria- Christina Bryson
Sir Andrew- Laura Hubbard
Olivia- Rachel Cairns
Malvolio- Nicanor P Campos
Antonio- Eli Ham
Sebastian- Alex Franks (Act I), Torey Urquhart (Acts 2-5)
Feste/Musician- James King
Fabian/Musician- Gaby Grice
Valentine/First Officer- Torey Urquhart
Captain/Servant/Second Officer/Priest- Hilary Wirachowsky
Curio- Grace Ham