Imagine taking a 17th-century play that was written for the English court, setting it on the soundstage of a boozy TV show on New Year鈥檚 Eve 1969, and then staging the whole shebang at 乐播传媒 when everyone is masked and standing 6 feet apart at all times.
This literal flight of imagination (the idea took hold on an airplane) belongs to Deon Custard 鈥�21, a double major in theater and English who took Shakespeare鈥檚 Twelfth Night, added a dose of glam rock, and shook it all into something fresh, but also vintage, for the 乐播传媒 stage.
Sure, as Hamlet said, 鈥渢he play鈥檚 the thing.” But in directing Twelfth Night as part of his thesis work in theater, Custard needed to make the play more than a thing, a noun: It had to move, become a verb, where 鈥渆veryone is really able to lean into the spirit and move loosely, to turn 鈥榩lay鈥� from being a thing we’re going to see, to the verb: playing on stage.鈥�
The idea to stage Twelfth Night on New Year鈥檚 Eve in 1969 came to Custard on a flight to his hometown of Chicago last October.
At the time, he was seizing an opportunity to step away from campus for a few weeks to work as an assistant sound designer at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. He was also keeping up with his 乐播传媒 studies, including reading Twelfth Night for the course 鈥淚ntroduction to Design鈥� with Associate Professor of Theater B. Christine McDowell.
On the flight, just as he read the scene in which Feste the fool sings, 鈥淥 Mistress mine where are you roaming? O stay and hear, your true love’s coming,鈥� Bowie was in his earphones, launching into 鈥淪tarman.鈥�
鈥淟ook out your window, I can see his light. If we can sparkle, he may land tonight.鈥�
There was the epiphany. 鈥淚 was like, 鈥極h, this works.鈥� The seed was planted.鈥�
Twelfth Night lends itself to unbridled tomfoolery, he says. What would it look like set in the late 1960s, the dawn of a new era of self-expression?
鈥淭welfth Night is so joyful on the page 鈥� mistaken identities, love triangles, and drunken foolery. It’s not only really funny, but it鈥檚 sending a message of living freely. That runs through every scene of the play.鈥�
鈥淚’ve always had this overwhelming need to be able to tell stories,鈥� adds Custard. 鈥淚鈥檝e always known that whether it’s music or theater or some sort of live performance, being in the room with an audience, getting them to react in some way is important to me.鈥�
鈥淗istory continues to repeat itself over and over, whether 1602, 1969, or 2021.”
McDowell became Custard鈥檚 adviser, serving as set and costume designer for the play, creating what the director calls a 鈥渂eautiful world full of bright, colorful costumes that are so flashy. The world came together because of the work that she’s done.鈥�
Custard鈥檚 approach to Twelfth Night is more than just throwing some glitter around to see where it sticks. 鈥淲hen a play is set in a time and place different from what we might expect, the text and the context need to reveal something deeper about each other in order to be an effective piece of storytelling. Otherwise, it鈥檚 just camp.鈥�
In researching Twelfth Night, Custard saw how 鈥渉istory continues to repeat itself over and over, whether 1602, 1969, or 2021. Stories of revolutionary love and social resistance will always be worth telling.鈥�
鈥淎ll the reading to learn the theoretical backing of a play 鈥� that gets me excited because it makes my work good, because it helps me to know what I’m doing,鈥� he says. 鈥淚’m not just throwing ideas at the wall and seeing what sticks.鈥�
In his English major, Custard has shown his research ability with an honors thesis that delves into themes of disease and sexuality in Romeo & Juliet and Measure for Measure.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a study of how disease is working in the two plays,鈥� he says. In both plays, symptoms of physical illness are directly connected to the 鈥渕isogynistic, exploitative, and often deeply racist, systems of oppression…at work in the fictionalized cities,鈥� which in turn, 鈥渃an be used to represent modern cities 鈥� and the issues that we face today.鈥�
鈥淏ringing together the best of what everybody has to offer.鈥�
What Custard took away from the long process of directing Twelfth Night, from the Feste-Bowie epiphany in 2019 to the closing performance on May 9, is how to be 鈥渁 much more dynamic collaborator.鈥�
He learned, he says, to focus on ideas, less on personalities. 鈥溊植ゴ� is full of some of the strongest personalities that I think I’ve ever come across. It goes without saying that you will butt heads with people, particularly in creative spaces.鈥�
The result? 鈥淏ringing together the best of what everybody has to offer.鈥�
