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In the new Classical Theatre of Harlem's production of Twelfth Night, 2022 Tony-nominee Kara Young (Clyde's) plays the heroine Viola, who pretends to be a man after being shipwrecked and washing up on the shores of the lively city Illyria. Taking charge of her destiny, Viola works to navigate this new place, find her brother, and not become entangled in love triangles.  Artistic Director Carl Cofield has created a production that features virtual reality, afrofuturistic aesthetics, and music 鈥渦nlike anything Shakespeare could have imagined.鈥� 

Cofield and Young discuss how the production, now running (for free) in Harlem's Marcus Garvey Park through July 29, resonates with the neighborhood, and how it invites the community into Shakespeare鈥檚 comedy.

With its mission to bring theatre to underserved communities, how does Classical Theatre of Harlem invite audiences in with this production of Twelfth Night?
Carl Cofield: We think of ourselves as a service organization, in the best sense of the word. We鈥檙e bringing a service to the Harlem community. We all know that one of the main things during COVID, and even before COVID, was to reduce the arts. But, we believe that the arts are integral to everyone's education, growth, and development. The past few years being what they are, we felt that it was paramount to bring some joy, and some levity, and be in community again with one another. Twelfth Night is one of Shakespeare's greatest comedies鈥攊t's rich, thought provoking, heartbreaking, joyful, funny. Our production is going to highlight each of those themes with music, with dance...things that Classical Theatre of Harlem is known for.
Kara Young: Classical Theatre of Harlem has been doing incredible work for so long for Marcus Garvey Park and for access to free theatre uptown. When we talk about access to theatre, and this has been a big conversation for as long as I can remember, we ask 鈥淗ow do we pull different audiences to theatre?鈥� Having a free experience, it becomes, 鈥滱ll you have to do is show up and suspend yourself in this world. You don鈥檛 have to think about sacrificing a meal.鈥� And there are a lot of people that occupy that park, people without housing. It鈥檚 for them, too.

Kara, you鈥檙e returning to perform for your neighborhood. Can you tell me a bit about what your access to theatre was like growing up in Harlem?
Young: Harlem was always rich with great characters. I remember having access to the greatest theatre on the planet, because that was just stepping outside. I feel like, as an adult still living in Harlem pretty close to where I grew up, there鈥檚 something about what it has become that feels a little foreign to what I grew up with. Harlem is still obviously a very beautiful place, and what has been constant is the beautiful energy of Marcus Garvey Park and the cultural staples of Harlem鈥攍ike the Abyssinian Baptist Church, The Schomburg, and 125th Street. To return in this way feels like not only an offering, but like a gift to myself as well.

Carl, what do you think Twelfth Night can still teach today鈥檚 audiences?
Cofield: Illyria is a world where wit and music have a strong currency. I think that's pretty relevant throughout history, even in our Twitter day and age. If you can write a pithy statement on Twitter, you can get recirculated. [Twitter] is concise, witty, and on message.

I think there's always been something about music, that if you can really encompass and embody music, that gives you entree to so many different circles, so many different arenas. Illyria highlights that very specifically; Feste is the only character who's able to go to different houses and be welcomed, and I would say that that was largely in part because of Feste鈥檚 ability to captivate and to catapult through music.

Talk about some of the parallels between Harlem and Illyria, the world of the play, and how you highlight them.
Cofield: Illyria is one a coastal city which many different people have access to. We do know that music has a strong currency. We're setting this in the world of about 2050. What would that world look like? How would music sound? It was more interesting to me to put a modern 22nd century take on what that could be. I'm really always interested in saying 鈥淗ow can we make this ancient work more relevant, more alive to today's audiences?鈥� Whenever I have the privilege to direct, something always at the forefront of my thinking is 鈥淲ould the 13-year-old version of Carl want to come see this production?鈥� For me, that landed in an afrofuturistic zip code. Our music is going to be unlike anything, I think, that Shakespeare can imagine. We鈥檙e also introducing virtual reality into our production.
Young: The most interesting thing about this experience is it鈥檚 so foreign to me. It鈥檚 not a new play, but then you have a brilliant director and a brilliant visionary in Carl Viola鈥檚 overall objective is trying to figure out what happened, navigating this world re-gendering herself, but she鈥檚 also looking for her roots. I think that鈥檚 a very deep parallel, for me, to Harlem. There are changes that we go through when our communities are misplaced and displaced, moving and changing. And there are also beautiful changes. When I say Viola is trying to get to her roots, it鈥檚 like, 鈥漌here did I come from? Who am I? Where am I going?鈥� Obviously, I鈥檓 still digging, because Shakespeare is so meticulously complex, and every word means so much. It鈥檚 very Lynn Nottage. Every word, and every word met by another word, is a universe.

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