In The News: No prior knowledge needed for 'Two Gentlemen of Verona'

Written by: Seth Gordon, Newberg Graphic 

Newberg High School troupe will stage Shakespeare classic starting Thursday

As one of Shakespeare's earliest works, "Two Gentlemen of Verona" rings a bell for even casual theater goers, but Newberg High School theater teacher Mike McConaughey has found that only a small minority remember the plot.

Already burdened with the task of helping the audience extract meaning from the legendary bard's dense language, that unfamiliarity may add another level of challenge for the cast, which will present its production at 7 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday at Drea Ferguson Auditorium.

If the troupe is successful, however, any ignorance of the comedy's plot could prove beneficial in producing laughs this weekend and next.

"I hope that we engage the audience enough that they can catch some of these really witty lines that make me laugh every time I read them," senior Kendelyn Thomas said. "I've been working with it for five months and I still laugh at it."

Thomas (along with Molly Cox in one of the double-cast roles) will portray Silvia, one of the two female lead characters caught in a love quadrangle that explores many of the themes that Shakespeare would go on to master in later works, including mistaken identity, forbidden love, unrequited love and the conflict between friendship and love.

Silvia eventually becomes the object of desire for best friends Valentine (Braedon Sunnes/Chandler Everett) and Proteus (Braden Dredge/Sammy Duffin) after the former ventures off from Verona to Milan.

Proteus is left behind because of his love for Julia (Tatianna Lessaus/Tess Hartley) before being forced by his father to follow his friend to the court of the Duke (Christian Jones) in Milan, where he immediately falls for Silva, setting off most of the tension, betrayal and fun in the process

Heartsick for Proteus, Julia dresses as a man (in the first instance of this in a Shakespeare play) in order to safely make the journey to Milan and eventually acts as servant (as Sebastian) to Valentine, which gives her a front row seat for a lot of the action.

"It's comedic conflict with Julia because she has to pretend to be a guy and gets in to all these situations," Everett said. "It's the conflict between Proteus and Valentine that sets everyone else up for comedy."

Following the long-held Newberg tradition of letting students in the year-long Shakespeare class lead nearly all aspects of the production, McConaughey has been impressed with the choices the troupe has made, led by student directors Jordan Johns and Megan Creighton, which includes the choice of play itself last May.

That includes making "A Storm at Sea" the directing theme for the production, which, aside from the artistic license taken to transform the two landlocked cities into port towns, the students felt fit quite well with the text. It's a pretty smooth transition from the play's traditional outlaws to 17th and 18th century pirates, after all.

That choice also made for some fun choices by the costume committee, chaired by Lessaus, which also help the audience follow along subliminally.

"In costumes, every color means something," McConaughey said. "So if certain groups of people wear colors that clash with others. We try to give a visual cue, when folks come on, to where they come from or belong to."

McConaughey said the set committee was especially ambitious in opting for some affects that switch the setting back and forth between the two cities.

"It's been fun to have them dream a little bit bigger," McConaughey said. "They incorporated flying scenery and revolves. The lighting is pretty cool. They've done research on how to make some special lighting effects, like lightning and water reflections."

While the production is the first Shakespeare play for many of the seniors in the production, and therefore an exciting challenge, the soon-to-be graduates have also been trying not to focus on the stress of preparations and instead enjoy each moment as they embark on their final major performance at NHS.

"You want to make it the best one," Thomas said. "That always plays a part in my attitude, really. I just don't want to negative. I don't like hating it, so I might as well have a blast and pull everything out of it you can because it's the last one."