Oh, what a 'Night'

 Entertainment, Brattleboro Reformer, Thursday, January 10, 2008

To borrow from the Bard, "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, some have greatness thrust upon them" ... and some have all three all at once.

So it is, for Rosa Palmeri and Allie Bliss, two veteran New England Youth Theatre actresses, who have embarked on a unique and downright daunting venture -- to play all the parts of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night."

In their capable hands, Viola, Orsino, Olivia, Malvolio, Sir Toby Belch, Sir Andrew Aguecheek and some of Shakespeare's other favorite characters come to life, thanks to wild jump cuts, changes of accent, hats, body posture and facial expressions.

Performances are Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., with matinees on Saturday and Sunday at 3 p.m., at New England Youth Theatre, 00 Flat St. Tickets are $10 for adults, $8 for students. The production is sponsored by Windham Family Vision Care. For reservations, call 802-246-NEYT, visit www.neyt.org or e-mail michelle@neyt.org.

It is believed to be the first time two teenaged girls have undertaken this. But history is not the only reason to come see it. Two young actresses have been pouring their hearts and souls into this endeavor -- each has had to learn some 900 lines of dialogue and keep command of all the various characters -- and their many props, costumes and mannerisms.

"This production really empowers them and stretches them," said director Peter Gould, who conceived of the project when Bliss and Palmeri approached him after seeing Ian Mahoney and Jacob Lepkoff achieve similar success in 2006 with "Stones in His Pockets."

"I really did some homework. I thought 'what would be a good play for two girls to do?' I just couldn't come up with anything," said Gould. "Because I knew 'Twelfth Night' and 'Twelfth Night' is dealing with situations where a girl goes into disguise as a boy, we thought it would work."

Palmeri and Bliss have thrown themselves earnestly into the play since "A Night at the Opera" closed at NEYT in November. And they've been dedicated.

So dedicated, in fact, that they spent two nights sleeping on the stage.

"We just needed to be here," said Palmeri, who did admit, "I was scared."

Sleeping on stage wasn't as crazy an idea as it seemed since one of the set pieces is a comfortable bed. To launch into the play the basic premise is that Rosa is studying "Twelfth Night" in AP English, and Allie is staying over, and as it grows very late at night in Rosa's messy room, the whole play comes bursting out of the pages that Rosa's reading.

Gould said about 75 percent of the script has been retained for the production.

That's plenty. The monumental nature of the undertaking was in evidence Tuesday evening as Bliss and Palmeri ran the final scenes of the play, still mastering difficult lines and working hard to keep all the quick character changes in mind.

Even as a work-in-progress, there were times when you could see is all come together, that it would work and that it would be very funny.

Gould said productions like these reveal something about NEYT, too. "This is the kind of professional-level, thesis-level, challenge only available at precious few youth theaters in the world."

But beyond that, it should be both fun and fascinating for audiences. If that's the case, play on, give me excess of it.

-- Jon Potter