TWELFTH NIGHT to Open Sacramento Shakespeare Festival's 60th Season

Sacramento Shakespeare Festival will present Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare from July 3 - July 26. Twelfth Night opens Friday, July 3 at 7:30 pm, and also performs on July 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 23, 24, 25, at 7:30 pm, and July 5, 12, 19, and 26 at 2:00 pm. All performances will be held in the Art Court Theatre in the Performing Arts Center on the campus of Sacramento City College at 3835 Freeport Blvd. Ticket prices for Twelfth Night are $20 General Admission; $15 for Seniors, Veterans/Military Personnel, and Persons with Disabilities; and $10 for Students. 

After an historic run outdoors in Land Park, because of changing climate and increasing summer heat, we moved indoors in 2019 for Shakespeare in Love and Twelfth Night on our Auditorium stage. We were dark in 2020 due to the pandemic. In 2021, we performed Hamlet live in the Art Court Courtyard, and live-streamed our performances to an audience at home; along with zoom productions of three original Shakespeare-inspired plays. In 2022, we did a full production of Romeo and Juliet, and a fully staged reading of another original play. In 2023, we moved into the Art Court Theatre still live and in person with Macbeth, and we sold out. The following year we did Julius Caesar in the Art Court and found that we love the intimacy of the smaller space. So we are still there.

Twelfth Night is a fast-paced romantic comedy with several interwoven plots of romance, mistaken identities and practical jokes. Separated from her twin brother Sebastian in a shipwreck, Viola disguises herself as a boy, calls herself Cesario, and becomes a servant to the Duke Orsino. He sends her to woo the Countess Olivia on his behalf, but the Countess falls in love with Cesario. 

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet and, actor. Born in Stratford-upon-Avon, he moved to London, where his plays were produced as early as 1592. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories, and are regarded as some of the best works produced in these genres; and his Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth are considered to be among the finest works in the English language.

Twelfth Night is directed by Lori Ann DeLappe-Grondin and Christine Nicholson. The Festival's artistic team includes Wiley (Scenic Design), Nicole Sivell (Costume Design), and Katie Alba (Lighting Design).