Playing the roles of Viola/Cesario has been a wonderful experience for me. When I was first cast in the role of Viola I was very excited to get to sink my teeth into such a meaty role. Little did I know how much fun I was really going to have.
Before rehearsals even started, our director JulianWiles and I discussed what changes I would need to make to portray a man, Cesario. In rehearsals we started with some vocal changes. I worked on making my voice deeper as well as adding a bit of a dialect. We also played around with my physicality as Cesario. One thing we worked hard at was that my portrayal of Cesario didn’t come across as a caricature. Once I kind of found a groove for Cesario I started to play around with Viola some. It really helped to establish some strong choices for her. One challenge for me during rehearsals was trying to remember which character I was in certain scenes. The flipping back and forth between Viola and Cesario got a little confusing at times. Thankfully now we have found a good flow : )
It has been a lot of fun to play “one of the guys” in this show. I definitely get to do some things physically that women don’t normally do. And I have to say getting ready before the show has never been quicker! I do enjoy getting to wear some “womens weeds” at the end of the show.
I hope you get a chance to experience the Roaring 20’s with us because we are having a blast!
