Northern Stage's Summer Musical Theater Intensive Returns With TWELFTH NIGHT, August 1-6

Northern Stage's Summer Musical Theater Intensive (SMTI) participants are featured this summer in Shaina Taub and Kwame Kwei-Armah’s jazz-funk hit Twelfth Night, a 90-minute musical adaptation of the beloved Shakespeare romantic comedy.

Seven performances of this fun and funky rendition of the classic coming-of-age story, appropriate for all ages, take place on Tuesday, August 1 to Friday, August 4 at 8:00 p.m., Saturday, August 5 at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., and Sunday, August 6 at 5:00 p.m. in the Courtyard Theater at the Barrette Center for the Arts in White River Junction, VT. 

Northern Stage’s Summer Musical Theater Intensive (SMTI) is a celebrated professional-level theater training program for students ages 12 to 18. Local young actors go through several rounds of auditions to be selected for the program itself and cast in the production. Over the course of five weeks, students rehearse and perform a musical at the Barrette Center for the Arts, fully supported by a professional creative and design team from around the country. This program is designed to extend the professionalism of Northern Stage’s main stage to local young actors, giving them the opportunity to collaborate with industry veterans on an adventurous, joyful and exceptional theatrical experience.

This summer, SMTI will expand the local youth theater canon by bringing Vermont native Shaina Taub’s musical genius to the Upper Valley. Originally a part of The Public Theater’s free Shakespeare in the Park series in 2018, Kwei-Armah and Taub’s Twelfth Night was called "irresistibly tuneful” and an “ideal summer getaway” (The New York Times).

“When I first saw Shaina Taub’s adaptation of Twelfth Night, I felt it captured the quintessential summer experience of a raucous, joyful celebration where everyone is invited and no one leaves without a smile,” says the play’s director and Northern Stage’s Director of Education Robert David Grant. “Add in the lively jazz/funk score and Taub’s original lyrics, both bursting at the seams with humor and creativity, and you’ve got the perfect play for this talented and audacious group of young actors.”

This cast of 25 area youth includes Paul Ashton (Hanover, NH), Ava Bucci (Norwich, VT), Elizabeth Chambers (Etna, NH), Reese Cullen (Lyme, NH), Anna Flaherty (Quechee, VT), Anna Gnodde (South Royalton, Vermont), Reeve Green (Plainfield, NH), Lia Hammond (Hanover, NH), Sam Harrison (Hanover, NH), Alex Hoyt (Tunbridge, VT), Alexis Husband (Hartland, VT), Liam Kelly-Thompson (Hanover, NH), Bebhinn Knudsen (White River Junction, VT), Gillian Lenihan (Enfield, NH), Max Loveland (Enfield, NH), Daniel Mello (Hartland, VT), Tate Mosenthal (White River Junction, VT), Grace Munroe (Lyme, NH), Maria Munteanu (West Lebanon, NH), Beatrice Raiken (Sharon, VT), Madeline Reed (Norwich, VT), Emmett Smyth (Orford, NH), Skylar Spiro (Norwich, VT), Mohini Walters (Hanover, NH), and Emily Wilson (Enfield, NH).

The professional creative team, led by Grant, includes Kevin David Thomas (Music Director), Alexis Sims (Choreographer), Mia Irwin (Scenic Designer), Oriana Lineweaver (Costume Designer), Germán Martínez (Sound Designer), Xotchil Musser (Lighting Designer), Anthony Feola (Production Stage Manager), Peyton Otis (1st Assistant Stage Manager), Julia Egizio (2nd Assistant Stage Manager), Kevin Charles Curran (Assistant Choreographer), and Theodore TOJ Marceau (Youth Performer Coordinator).

Northern Stage’s 2023/24 Season will open in October with the gripping political thriller Selling Kabul (October 11 - 29) by Sylvia Khoury in Northern Stage’s Byrne Theater. More information on Northern Stage's 2023/24 Season and subscriptions can be found at https://northernstage.org/2023-24-season/.

The Northern Stage 2023-24 season is sponsored by Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital, our season underwriter since 2018. 

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