At 7:30pm sharp on Feb 13, 14, and 15, students and family gathered in the Black Box Theatre to watch their fellow classmates and high schoolers perform William Shakespeare’s play ‘Twelfth Night.’ The play was set in the 60s and 70s and drama teacher Lori Thompson encouraged audience members to look for key features of the decades.

“I was definitely happy the play was set in the 60s and 70s because it would make it more relatable to people.” junior Kyle Ryan said. “People could probably connect more with the 60s rather than the 1560s.”

Ryan played Malvolio, the administrator of a wealthy countess named Olivia. Malvolio’s job is to take care of Olivia in the most effective way possible.

“I liked all the changes my character went through during the play.” Ryan said. “He went from being very uptight to being extremely hyper to scared. It covered all the different aspects of him.”

Since the play was performed in the Black Box, the audience was able to achieve a different experience than if it was performed in the Ruby Zima Auditorium.

“I like the Black Box because you’re so close to everything and everybody gets your reaction,” junior Cord Alvarado, who played Sir Andrew Aguecheek, said. “It’s just the pure, hard feelings you get from being so close to everyone.”

‘Twelfth Night’ centers around two twins, Viola and Sebastian, who survive a shipwreck but are rescued separately, each believing the other is dead. They both find their way to the land of Illyria wear they go through their own crazy adventures and mistaken identities, eventually finding the love of their life. The play lasted almost three hours with an intermission between Acts two and three.

“The way they remembered all their lines stuck with me the most.” audience member sophomore Molly Beck said. “I think it’s awesome because I could never do that.”

Through all their hard work and rehearsing, most of the actors could not avoid the nervous butterflies before or during the show.

“What I did to overcome my nervousness was to just tell myself ‘this is one more show, I’ve done this before.’” Alvarado said. “I knew mentally that the audience was just going to make me better.”

After the show, it seemed that the jitters calmed down and all the students who participated in the show could finally enjoy the audience members’ reaction to the play.

“It felt really good to see the play come together for the first time.” senior Julie Siefker, who played Viola, said. “I was really skittish about it before we had the audience; I didn’t know if it was going to be very good but the audience definitely helped feel like it was put together.”

Throughout the entire play, there were serious heart-moving moments followed by sarcastic remarks and goofy messups that left the audience laughing and enjoying their night. Some had trouble understanding everything but one must remember: the course of true love never did run smooth.