NEW YORK, N.Y. — Weston Theater Company’s May 29 invitation-only reading of The Twelfth Night Show brought together industry professionals and Weston stakeholders at ART/NY Studios for a preview of a new production headed to the Weston stage this fall.
“Weston Theater Company has a long history of ‘celebrating the classics and nurturing the new.’ The Twelfth Night Show is a beautiful marriage of these two facets of our theater; this is exactly the kind of inventive new work we’re excited to premiere in Weston,” says Susanna Gellert, Artistic Director. “It’s a celebration of what theater can be and that it developed out of an idea born at the theater in 2021 makes it all the more special.”
Megumi Nakamura (Mary Jane) directed a cast that featured Seth Eliser (Beau), Allie Seibold (NSMT’s Beautiful), Eileen Doan (The Lord of The Rings – A Musical Tale), and Jacob Brandt (STC’s Comedy of Errors). Rachel Kaplow stage-managed the reading.
The actor-musician riff on Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, features music and lyrics by Jacob Brandt and a book by Megumi Nakamura. It follows four pit musicians who are charged with staging a one-of-a-kind production of Twelfth Night to save their beloved theater when their entire 16-person cast comes down with food poisoning.
Brandt’s shows have been seen at Ars Nova and NYTW (1969: The Second Man), Joe’s Pub (HANG ON), and his music has been featured on CBS, NYTimes, and Playbill.com. Nakamura most recently directed the World Premiere of Isaiah Stavchansky’s Anne Frank in Mt. Vernon, OH at JACK in Brooklyn and is set to direct the Off-Broadway premiere of Rishi Varma’s Sulfur Bottom this summer.
The Twelfth Night Show will play at Weston Theater Company from Sept 26 – Oct 12.
Weston’s New Works programs are grounded in the belief that the voice of the author is central to shaping our cultural conversation locally, nationally, and internationally. When we nurture new writing, we nurture new points of view and foster connections within our community and beyond. The musical was originally developed at the Weston Writer’s Retreat and at Artistree Community Arts Center in Vermont.
Learn more at westontheater.org.