Andrea Love of Magnolia and Amanda Montoya of Queen Anne aren't best friends, but they've been bumping into each other regularly for nearly 18 years now. And it turns out they'll be close - as close as twins - for the rest of the summer as Viola and Sebastian, pivotal roles in the Young Shakespeare Workshop production of "Twelfth Night" in Ballard.
"When Darren told us we were double cast us as twins, we had to laugh," Love said. "We're about the same height, and we both have brown hair, and we've known each other since preschool, so the only thing that was sort of a stretch was that the twins are fraternal -- male and female."
Darren Lay, artistic director of the Young Shakespeare Workshop (YSW), was looking for young actors mature enough to handle the roles and who looked plausible as the aristocratic duo. Casting women as men and vice versa is not unusual in YSW productions.
As "Twelfth Night" opens Viola finds herself shipwrecked on a beach and presuming her twin brother drowned. To protect herself she adopts the persona of a young male servant to Duke Orsino.
"So even when we play a woman, we end up in pants for most of the play," Montoya said. "It's ironic - Viola is one of the strongest female characters in Shakespeare, but dresses as a man."
Montoya, 18, and Love, 19, both have had a strong interest in the theater for as long as they can remember. Along with a half a dozen other Queen Anne and Magnolia girls, they were members of a Camp Fire group that have meeting for 10 years. Several of the group's major projects revolved around the performing arts. Both recall a play called "The Princess Who Could Not Laugh" performed for an assortment of siblings and parents in the Love's living room. It starred Andrea as a fairy and Amanda as The Prince.
Montoya, the daughter of Ric Montoya and Lori Montoya of Queen Anne and Love, daughter of Pam and Steve Love of Magnolia, attended different elementary schools (Coe and Lawton, respectively) but were together again at Garfield High School. Both became active in the drama club, and worked on Neil Simon's "Rumors" in 2007 with Love co-directing and Montoya as stage manager. They both got back in front of the footlights again in Garfield's 2008 production of "Guys and Dolls" which featured Montoya as one of the Hot Box dancers and Love as Sister Sarah Brown.
"Usually in musical theater, the dialog is secondary to the musical content," said Love, soon to begin her sophomore year at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Ga. as music major. "But Shakespeare is pure poetry - so much about the words. And though our 'line load' is pretty intense, especially having to learn two parts, the language is classic and it really stretches us as performers."
Another local actor-student involved in this summer's YSW production of Twelfth Night is Jon Oles, 20, of Magnolia. He portrays the sour-tempered Malvolio, who true to his name makes every attempt, ultimately unsuccessfully, to spread a little ill will throughout the comic plot.
"Twelfth Night" has been called the most accomplished of Shakespeare's comedies, optimistic and energetic. It's one of the few Shakespeare plays that YSW director Darren Lay has never produced, up until this summer.
Now in its 18th year, YSW was recognized in 2004, 2005, 2007, and again in 2009, as a Coming Up Taller Semifinalist by the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities and its partner agencies. YSW was created in 1992 by Edward Payson Call to encourage young people to develop a love of the English language by immersing them in the words of its greatest practitioner. Since 1998 it has been directed by Lay, an actor, director and teacher whose scholarly research on Shakespeare has been published in the Times Literary Supplement (UK).
Open to Seattle area students, YSW is supported with grants and donations. Audiences of all income levels are encouraged to attend performances regardless of ability donate.[[In-content Ad]]A marathon performance of poetry will grace Seattle stages at the end of this month.
All 154 of William Shakespeare's sonnets -- short poems which he wrote for his friends and loved ones -- will be performed by the YSW students, friends and supporters on Saturday, Aug. 1 to mark the 400th anniversary of their publication.
Young Shakespeare Workshop's sonnet marathon is12:30 to 4:30 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 1 at the Chapel Performance Space in the Good Shepherd Center in Wallingford, 4649 Wallingford Ave. N. The audience is invited to not only "sponsor" a sonnet for $30 but to speak or read a sonnet aloud if they wish. The money will be used to support YSW, which is entirely funded by grants and donations and charges no tuition.
CONTACT: Darren Lay, 206-284-7580 or at youngshakespeareworkshop@yahoo.com
ALSO VISIT www.youngshakespeare.org
