Throughout July and August, the Lethbridge Shakespeare Performance Society presents “Twelfth Night” with opening night Thursday at Galt Gardens at 7 p.m.
“Every summer, we perform one of Shakespeare’s comedies or tragedies in various locations,” says Kate Connolly from the Society.
Performances will be held in Galt Gardens, CASA Rotary Square, Legacy Park and Nikka Yuko at various times and dates. The group will also travel this summer for a few out-of-town performances in Fort Macleod, Nanton and High River.
According to Connolly, the Society was founded as a non-profit organization in 2012, with the aim of bringing high-quality and lively performances of Shakespeare’s plays to audiences of all ages in southern Alberta. “Many of whom will never have seen a live Shakespeare performance before.”
“Our actors, designers and crew are all local – drawn from current and graduated University of Lethbridge Theatre students and from community theatre,” adds Connolly. “We have a fantastic cast. A nice mix of returning actors and those new to us.”
Connolly notes the Society is supported by small grants from the City of Lethbridge, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the Allied Arts Council, donations from several small businesses and by audience donations at the end of each show.
“This year, we were given a much-appreciated grant from the Lethbridge Community Foundation to enable us to buy our own speakers and microphones, so we no longer have to rent these. The great majority of our funding goes towards paying modest honoraria to our very talented and hard-working actors, design team and crew – most of whom dedicate over 200 hours of work to each Shakespeare season,” says Connolly.
Audiences can expect one of Shakespeare’s loveliest and most popular of his comedies, says Connolly. “It’s not at all a tragedy. It’s a romantic comedy and many of the usual things take place,” which includes mistaken identity, identical twins and people falling in love with the wrong people. “But ending up with the right ones.”
“This play has a lot of good secondary characters in it,” adds Connolly. “It’s fast moving. It’s 90 minutes. It’s just a lot of fun to watch.”
