Shakespeare's Twelfth Night Gets Jazzy - A Candid Conversation With Becca Kidwell Explains

To say that I am well versed in the plays of Shakespeare would be a stretch, though I have read two books, MacBeth and the Merchant of Venice.

I do like it when I find some interesting twists on the norm. Like the one I found the other day. Imagine Twelfth Night a Shakespeare play done to a jazz theme. A very interesting twist on a classic and to speak more about this I am happy to welcome Becca Kidwell from Swiftly Tilted Theatre Inc., the company bringing this show to the stage in New York.

Cliff T.: Becca, a Shakespeare play done in a jazz bar setting that is very different indeed.
 
Becca K.: Twelfth Night is one of Shakespeare’s most musical plays; it had more songs in it because the new actor in Shakespeare’s company that played the Fool in many of his later plays had a musical background. Also, we are dealing with drowning in one of the first scenes of the play and that most of the characters are drowning in their own sorrows or passions or in drink and that a jazz bar is actually a logical choice for the show. 

Cliff T.: I Agree it is unique and very logical. As I mentioned I am not versed in Shakespeare. But from what I have read this is a story about love gone amiss, would that be accurate? Or to put it another way can you explain what Twelfth Night is about?  

Becca K.: Twelfth Night is about a group of relatively wealthy folks who spend their time longing after what they don’t have or what they’ve lost. The twins, Sebastian and Viola have lost their family and each other in a shipwreck and are really looking for life after their loss; they find love by accident. Sebastian is saved by the sailor Antonio and wanders around unsure of what his next move will be. Viola dresses up as a man and joins Orsino’s court as a servant. Orsino has seen a beautiful woman named Olivia whom he has never talked to himself, but he is lovesick for her and keeps sending his servants to court her, but she wants nothing to do with him. She falls for Viola (dressed as a man), and Olivia begins to pursue him (her). Toby, Olivia’s uncle, lives off of Olivia’s money and spends his time getting drunk and playing pranks on anyone he can. He has his friend, Andrew Aguecheek, court Olivia, but as the plot unfolds, it becomes evident is around largely for his bankroll for Toby. By the end of the play, all the lovers have found the partners they are meant to be with: Orisino with Viola, Olivia with Sebastian, Toby with Maria. Most of Toby’s pranks are unraveled and forgiven with the exception of the extremely cruel one played on Olivia’s Puritanical servant Malvolio, which more or less is forgiven in the text, but not in my production.  

Cliff T.: Can you explain why you decided not to forgive the prank in your production?

Becca K.: I have always thought it is an extremely cruel prank (they lock him away and make everyone thinks he's mad). They remember him as an afterthought. Malvolio is so uptight and thinks that he was more virtuous than everyone else that in my view, this prank would be the final straw. In his own way, he's going to drown himself in his own rage and look for ways to make others miserable.   

Cliff T.: I can see how this play could lend itself to a jazz theme given that many jazz tunes are about love lost. Yet this play is considered to be a comedy. In your adaptation of the play are you mixing humor with the theme of love gone wrong or are you planning on staying true to the original plot of the play? 

Becca K.: Shakespeare’s comedies actually tend to lend themselves to more dramatic—or at least melodramatic interpretations. (Much Ado About Nothing is one step away from being a tragedy, if the timing had been only moments off). These characters are highly choleric. Sebastian thinks Viola is dead and Viola thinks Sebastian is dead so they’re not too keen on carousing and partying, which is all the rest of the characters do. I’ve compared Orsino to Gatsby and Olivia to Daisy. These two characters love being in the depths of their own despair, which lends itself to comedy if you know they’re not going to have tragic endings. The other characters such as Toby, Maria, and Andrew provide the “low comedy” with the various pranks and drunken carousing.

Cliff T.: Ah I understand. What prompted the choice, why this play? What about the Twelfth Night caught your interest? And what kind of message do you want the audience to get and take away with them after they see the play?

Becca K.: My first reason was that I wanted a non-holiday play for the holidays. While the play is called Twelfth Night it is rarely played on or around this time. By it playing around Christmas and New Year’s, it has given me the opportunity to set the show between New Year’s Eve party and a Twelfth Night party (for US people, that is approximately the equivalent of Mardi Gras). I was looking to do a lighthearted piece after our production of Radiance, The Passion of Marie Curie by Alan Alda. I love Shakespeare and love sharing it with others. It’s fun and one of Shakepeare’s easier plays to understand, and I thought it would be a good place for our company to start with Shakespeare. I’m not really looking to send a “message,” but if I was to send one with this production it would be: to not take life to seriously and take time to enjoy all the little moments life provides. With the exception of the twins, everyone else’s misery in this play is mere hubris.    

Cliff T.: I also noticed that you are hosting some events, Twelfth Night Music Jam and a workshop. Both sound really interesting can you describe what people attending each will experience?   

Becca K.: The class will be an introduction/ re-introduction to Shakespeare using the text of Twelfth Night as its basis. This will hopefully add an additional level of appreciation for the production, which is why participants in the class get discounts on tickets and a copy of the text. At the music jam, they will hear the original jazz music composed for the show performed by the cast and composer in a small casual coffeehouse/bar atmosphere, QED Astoria. Additional music by Jenni Lark and Zac Pierce-Messick will also be performed. Both of these events should provide additional excitement to see the production.    

Cliff T.: Becca, how long have you been with Swiftly Tilted?

Becca K.: I created Swiftly Tilting Theatre Project, Inc. in 2013. I was a high school teacher encouraging students to go after their dreams, and I realized that I was not going after my dreams, directing theatre.    

Cliff T.: I know what you mean, I work in a call centre, not my dream but, doing interviews like this one is. Can you describe the mission of Swiftly Tilted?    

Becca K.: Our passion is To impact a small corner of the world and leave it a little better than before. To search for truth and to share love. To share our knowledge and skills in order to build a theatrical community, that provides affordable, quality, professional theatrical productions for the public through participation as artists, audiences, and students.    

Cliff T.: From the sound of it this is not just a job for you but a labor of love. How did you get involved in theatre and with Switly Tilted Inc.?

Becca. K: I wanted to be a theatre director since I was in high school, but took a long, circuitous path to end up working “in” theatre. I got my undergraduate degree in drama, but then I spent time in the business world, got my graduate degree in teaching, and taught high school for five years and starting the company. My husband and I moved to New York from Boston. He has been incredibly supportive of me getting the company going. I do not have a “day job”, but I really wouldn’t have the time or energy for one. This company takes my heart and soul into all of its work. 

Cliff T.: If I am not mistaken show times for the play run from December 27th to January 3rd. With a debut on the 24th, where and at what times are the performances going to be held at?

Becca K.: Due to the holidays, the schedule is somewhat irregular. The dates and times are: 12/24/2015 - 2:30pm – Preview, NO SHOW DECEMBER 25,12/26/2015 - 7:00pm, 12/27/2015 - 4:30pm,12/28/2015 - 7:30pm, NO SHOWS DECEMBER 29, 30, 31, 1/1/2016 - 7:30pm, 1/2/2016 - 7:00pm, and 1/3/2016 - 4:30pm. The performances are all held at The Secret Theatre, 4402 23rd St, Long Island City, NY. 

The Shakespeare class is being held on 12pm on 12/6/2015 and The Twelfth Night Debut Music Jam is being held at 7:30pm. Both of these events are being held at QED Astoria, 2716 23rd Ave, Astoria, NY.  Both of these locations are a short trip on the subway from Midtown Manhattan. 

Cliff T.: Excellent thank you so very much for taking time in your busy schedule to chat with me and my readers by email.

Becca K.: My pleasure. Thank you for your interest!

Becca Kidwell is the Director and the person who has adapted and directed Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night a play that will be presented by Swiftly Tilted Project Inc.

As mentioned the play will be held at The Secret Theatre, 4402 23rd St, Long Island City, NY. For dates times and tickets visit http://swiftlytwelfth.brownpapertickets.com, or call 1-800-838-3006. 


BIO: Becca C (Rebecca Cecilia) Kidwell, Artistic Director is directing Twelfth Night, and directed Swiftly Tilting Theatre Project’s other productions: Radiance, The Passion of Marie Curie; Don’t Speak Cabaret; and Priscilla Dreams The Answer (staged reading). 

Some of her favorite directing projects are: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, Julie Johnson, and Measure for Measure. She also sings in cabarets such as Seth’s Talent Show & Metropolitan Room’s Kiddie Kabaret. 

She is the author of Feeling Pain Is Normal: An Analysis of Parental Grief in Next To Normal and the original author and editor of The New England Theatre Geek Blog. She has a BA in Drama from The University of Georgia and a MAT in English Education from Boston University. http://beccackidwell.glump.net

To learn more about Switly Tilted Project inc. visit swiftlytiltingtheatre.org. Becca Kidwell wrote to us from New York, NY.

BBW Art, via Artist Ian Ianardo

BBW, it’s a term that has empowered many women it stands for Big Beautiful Women.  Most men with the exception of a few like me don’t openly identify as being interested in the larger sized women.  In society one is viewed as weird or kinky if they like women who are plus sized.  Often BBWs are linked to porn, which is to say the least unfair, absurd and honestly quite inaccurate. 

In my teen years I became aware that I was really interested in the fuller figure.  I also remember how hard it was for people to accept that I liked a woman who was plus sized.  There were a number of instances where I was thought to be some sort of weirdo.  As time has gone on I have openly asserted that there is nothing wrong with the idea of wanting a plus sized woman in fact I am married to one who has been my wife for 18 years.   

  

There is a lot of art depicting BBWs in a very positive way.  I found a really interesting site run by Ian Ianardo.  The site has dozens of drawings of BBWs, none are overtly pornographic, but many are cheeky and quite cute. 

  

Now just as another note Ianardo also does connect to sites that have plus sized clothing, but he is an artist at heart, Ian thanks for taking time out in your busy schedule to do a quick Candid Conversation 

  

Ian I.:  Pleased to meet you, Cliff. 

   

Cliff T.:  I have to say I am delighted to meet you.  Like you I believe in the concept of fat acceptance.  As stated on the site BBW art is a specialty, when did you begin to take interest in BBWS? 

   

Ian I.:  I've admired plus sized beauty since childhood, and that preference became stronger as an adult. I've since found that a lot of larger ladies have a very understanding and accepting nature. 

   

Cliff T.:  I see that you began posting your work in 2001.  What prompted the decision to begin putting your works online?     

   

Ian I.:  I had a career change and also first went online in year 2000.  I discovered the world of BBWs and size-acceptance and decided to set up in business as a portrait artist, using the internet for promotion. 

   

Cliff T.:  There are some really nice drawings on the site.  How did you go about selecting which works would be posted on the site?   

   

Ian I.:  Initially, I asked a few ladies who had a lot of photos online, if I could draw them, to build up a portfolio to show my work.  Then customers commissioned subsequent portraits.  I nearly always dreamed up the clothing for them. 

   

Cliff T.:  Are you planning to add more?   

   

Ian I.:  I rarely do customer portraits any more, but when I get the time, I like to add to the gallery in my own time. 

  

Cliff. T.:  What has been the reaction from BBWs and the public in general to your work?   

Ian I.:  It has been almost all positive, mostly from ladies who have found my art to be uplifting.  For that reason, I intend to keep the gallery on display, regardless of any new career path. 

Cliff T.:  As I mentioned in my intro a lot of people seem to think it odd, out of place to want to be with a plus sized woman.  Has there been some of that directed at you? 

Ian I.:  Some folk find it hard to grasp such a preference.  Some don't fully believe it. Others think I must be attracted to all large women, with no other criteria! My attraction has far more depth than that. 

Cliff T.:  Interesting, thanks for sharing that insight.  I could go on but I know you have a busy schedule to tackle.  In closing what would you want people visiting the site to understand or appreciate and if a BBW wants to be drawn how would she go about contacting you to be a model? 

Ian I.: I hope that those viewing my portraits will see more than just images of large ladies.  I try to convey confidence and character in each drawing, and maybe a little of myself shows as well.  A few ladies have commented that they can interpret my character too.  Time permitting, I can still do the occasional commissioned portrait for a fee, for any lady who is interested.  There's a page on my site for portrait fees/procedure. 

Excellent Ian, thanks so much for doing a Candid Conversation. 

Ian Ianardo, artist, specializing in BBW art wrote to us from the U.K.  To view the works go to www.ianardo.com.

Police Shootings Happen Fatal Enounters Staff Document Them D. Bian Burghart Explains In This Edition of Candid Conversations

Only once in my life have I ever been stopped by the police.  I was walking home from a bar late at night.  The encounter was brief, but still a bit unsettling.  Most encounters with police are not happy ones.  We call them when we are in trouble, never when we are in a happy mood. 

  

Imagine having a gun pointed at you and the holder of the weapon is an officer that is even scarier than the usual encounter.  Sadly in the U.S. and Canada people do die at the hands of police officers.  The most famous in my mind is Robert Dziekansky a polish immigrant with no ability to communicate in English trying to find his mom in Vancouver’s international airport back in 2007.  He was tasered by police and died.  The incident sparked a huge backlash against the RCMP and the four men involved.  One is now facing 30 months in jail and no doubt the loss of his job for lying to the inquiry that followed the incident. 

  

Save for the few videos that capture events like the one mentioned above few stats are really kept, especially in the United States where hundreds of people have been killed by police.  One man hoping to change that is D. Brian Burghart the man behind fatalencounters.org he joins us to do a Candid Conversation about his work. 

  

Welcome sir 

  

D. B Burghart:   Hi, thanks for having me. 

    

Cliff T.: I was listening to a podcast called Day 6, from CBC radio and when I heard you speak I was immediately thinking I want to speak with this guy.  I find it absurd to think that there are no real statistics on deaths linked to police encounters, when you started to take a look did you have the same feeling?  

    

D. B Burghart:    I was naïve when I started. Even when I was looking at the Department of Justice's data, I thought I must be doing something wrong.  I felt it was beyond absurd.  It was offensive.  Our government tracks anything it considers important, bearing any expense.  The fact that it was not tracking the people its employees killed suggested pretty strongly that those deaths didn't matter.  

    

Cliff T.: You also mentioned in the interview with Brent, that you had an encounter of sorts, you passed by a scene where a shooting had culminated in a death, what was that like for you when you realized someone was killed by a police officer?      

    

D. B Burghart:   It wasn't shocking or surprising, particularly when I read about the guy afterward.  The local media just repeated the police narrative that he was a dangerous criminal, a meth addict.  I did a little research afterward, and found out he was more three dimensional than that.  He didn't have a gun.  He was a father, a leader in his church, the lead singer for a very popular Christian rock band.  Jace Herndon was an addict, but he was also a human being who'd committed no capital crime. 

    

Cliff T.: I think that we can agree that in most cases police civilian contact is largely routine, even when arrests are made the bulk of these are with no incident.  That said it is the incidents that are that the most shocking if they are captured on film, problem is most are not and even the media reporting in some cases is scant.  Do you have any real difficulties getting the data even in the current context of social media?    

    

D. B Burghart:   Yes, getting public records from law enforcement agencies can be extremely time-consuming and expensive.  Sometime agencies can be very helpful and just supply the records. Other times, they refuse to follow the law and dare you to sue them for it.  As far as social media, it's not really a factor for us.  We do most of our research using the internet, particularly news organizations, then blogs and activists, then probably court documents. 

    

Cliff T.: Another point that caught my ear was that many if not most of those who die at the hands of police are mentally ill, and POOR!  That almost suggests that it is easier for police to get away with, well murder or are we barking up the wrong tree with this assumption after all most police do not go on duty looking to kill anyone?    

  

D. B Burghart:  Police don't go on duty looking to kill someone.  The numbers are huge, more than three people a day killed with guns and cars, but it's not a 1-in-a-million interactions occurrence.  That said, check out the second map on the Our Visualizations page on FatalEncounters.org.  The vast, vast majority of these killings happen in the most poverty-stricken areas of the country.  It makes sense, though.  Police patrol areas where they're most likely to find street-level crime--that whole "broken-window policing" concept.  Even the mental illness aspect makes sense, since the mentally ill often act in unpredictable ways, and that's what scares cops and makes them defensive and aggressive.  In those volatile situations, bad things happen. 

  

Cliff T.:  The purpose of fatalencounters.org is to document incidents where someone dies at the hands of the police.  Is the site contained to U.S. stats or are you looking at international data as well? 

  

D. B Burghart:  We're focusing on U.S. data right now.  A university professor in Canada asked me to set up a spreadsheet for her, but I don't know if she ever used it for anything.  In any case, it only took me a couple hours because you have groups up in Canada who are keeping track. Does your government keep accurate statistics?  Also, we've started a Spanish-language project, EncuentrosMortales.org that focuses on people killed on the southern U.S. border. We've already got some records of people killed by U.S. law enforcement who died on the Mexican side of the border. 

  

Cliff T.:  That is a great question I do believe the Canadian government does  However I have to say I Have not actually looked into that myself, but, as a starting point Google does serve up some links that may be of interest to you and also to readers of the blog.  That said.  Are you noticing any trends and if so what are they? 

  

D. B Burghart:  I think we were the first ones to spot the relationship between mental illness and being killed by police.  It's pretty common knowledge now.  Also since there was no data about race, people had suspicions but couldn't prove the racial disparity.  The race data is still pretty bad.  About a third of the time, the media doesn't report it, but this is improving, particularly in the area of officer-involved homicides. 

  

Cliff T.:  I would assume that most deaths are gun related, which other ways do people end up dead while in custody? 

  

D. B Burghart:   I might be misunderstanding your question, but police kill people with vehicles, Tasers--all manner of less-lethal methods--they beat people to death, asphyxiate them … there's a pretty long list.  Also, these stressful situation also tend to cause things like heart attacks and strokes.  To be clear, though, most of these deaths don't happen when people are in custody, but when an officer is trying to make an arrest.  Also, we don't track deaths after someone is booked into jail.  Some 5,000 people die each year in local jails and state prisons; if we include some but not all, it inflates our numbers while making them less accurate.  If we were to only track the incarcerated deaths that make the news, it makes it look like the number of incarcerated people who die is much smaller than it actually is. 

  

Cliff T.:  No you got the last question bang on.  Brian I have to ask, why, why do this kind of work.  What do you want to see come out of this research? 

  

D. B Burghart:  I want people and law enforcement agencies to have as much information as possible so they can track trends across regions and time.  This will enable agencies and governments to change policies, training and protocol to get the best outcomes for everyone and have fewer police killed and have fewer of the policed killed. 

  

Cliff T.:  How will you know if you have been successful or better that I put it this way, what is the ultimate goal of the project and how will you know you have achieved it. 

  

D. B Burghart:  Well, we've already informed the national dialog so we've achieved a measure of success.  We proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that the numbers our government was broadcasting were wildly inaccurate.  I'll know the first part of our job is finished when we consider all 50 states and D.C. complete.  We've calculated that day will come in August 2017. 

  

Cliff T.:  In the interview on Day 6 you said that it takes about a day to work on the project.  You probably are getting some help on this.  Is there a volunteer group helping you build the database and who are they? 

  

D. B Burghart:  I actually put in about 25-30 hours a week on the project.  Most of our helpers are paid for their research--there are about 10 really solid researchers.  There are only four volunteers, including me, who've put in more than a couple of hours without payment. 

  

Cliff T.:  Brian if anyone wants to participate what can they do to help the Fatal Encounters project? 

D. B Burghart: A certain percentage of our work still comes from crowdsourcing--people add records through our form, and it all gets verified before it gets published into the database.  The main way people can help is with donations, as it all goes to the researchers.  

Cliff T.:  Besides media attention has there been any response by policing agencies to what you are doing, have they come on board or are they not as willing to open up to you about the stats? 

  

D. B Burghart: Hard to say. I did see a story where an FBI representative said they look at sites like ours to improve their own data-collection methods.  We have quite a few police officers who've sent data or even donations.  The individual men and women seem to get that we're neutral, but getting an agency "culture" to change is different.  It's usually the lawyers and the bureaucrats who block our access to records.  

  

Cliff T.:  Before we close I want to ask so far what is the biggest impact you feel you have had since developing the Fatal Encounters site? 

  

D. B Burghart:  There are three.  First, when I started this project, nobody knew how many people were killed by police in the United States.  Now they have a pretty good idea, about 1,200 a year.  We're up to about 8,000 records, with an expected endpoint of about 19,000.  Second, nobody knew the government wasn't counting and analyzing this data.  Now, it's pretty common knowledge and people are demanding change.  The third is the protocol.  Our method of collecting the data was really unsophisticated, but it has now been applied to many different issues.  For example, https://puppycidedb.com is using our protocol to document incidents of pets and animals killed by police, and http://data4justice.org/ is tracking people arrested for child pornography. 

  

Cliff T.:  I think it is an absolute and important job that needs to be done.  I bet it can be gruesome to document these things.  That said it is important to keep going, thanks for sharing some time and insight with the Candid Conversations readership much appreciated. 

  

D. B Burghart:  I always say it's the most depressing hobby ever conceived. Thanks for having me.  

  

D. Brian Burghart, created the fatalencounters.org a page, a database that documents thousands of deaths of people, at the hands of the police.   

  

A special note to readers of this post:  As mentioned most if not the vast majority of police never go on patrol looking to kill anyone during the tour of duty.  Sadly many do die at the hands of police most are justifiable shootings.  The concern is the few that are suspect.   

  

Edmund Burke stated the following.  “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”  As bloggers, reporters and database managers we are all expected to operate at a level where open honesty is the first and most important goal, even when the truth bears ugly facts.  In this case the fact is that some police officers have behaved badly and people have died while in they’re care and custody. To stop or keep this fact from seeing light is an injustice to the victims and to those officers who perform they’re jobs at the highest level of professionalism. 

  

D. B Burghart wrote to us from Las Vegas NV U.S.A.  His website is fatalencounters.org.