DETROIT — Shakespeare in Detroit (SiD) will perform Twelfth Night, a comedy by William Shakespeare, directed by JaMeeka Holloway-Burrell. Twelfth Night plays Thursday, November 8, Friday, November 9, Saturday, November 10 and Sunday, November 11 at 7 p.m. EST at the Detroit Opera House located at 1526 Broadway in downtown Detroit, with a 2.5 hour runtime including a 15-minute intermission.

The production will be the theater company’s final public performance until 2020, when it moves into its new permanent home on Detroit’s Riverfront.

The play, translated by Alison Carey,  is a part of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Play on! Project. The script, which can serve as a reference for classroom learning while keeping in mind the meter, rhythm, metaphor, image, rhyme, rhetoric and emotional content that Shakespeare intended, is the perfect way for SiD to forge ahead with its educational focus next year.

“We are excited to present this translation of Twelfth Night as we gear up to focus on educational and outreach efforts in 2019,” says SiD founder Sam White. “Next year is going to be a big year in restructuring our organization and working directly with students in addition to the construction and fundraising needs of the theatre company as we prepare to move into our Riverfront space, coming Labor Day of 2020.”

According to White, who was born and raised in Detroit, it’s important to now focus on implementing a strategic plan that creates a foundation of sustainability more than its past and present template for niche, traveling performances.

“We really want to heighten our artistic value by inviting some of the finest theatre practitioners from around the country to join our team of locals here in Detroit to move us into a thriving future,” continues White. “Our site-specific work will have a place in our plans moving forward, to some degree, but we are focused on building a cultural institution that will attract tourism, supplement the educational landscape here in Detroit and improve the quality of life for people who live, work and play here.”

Among the national artists joining SiD this season is JaMeeka Holloway-Burrell, a Durham, North Carolina, resident and Founding Artistic Director at Black Ops. She has a 1920s vision for Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and describes it as a “ode to romance, colorful words and music”.

“Using the Jazz era as a backdrop, our Twelfth Night dances right to the core of the human spirit that is naturally and unexplainably withstanding,” says Holloway-Burrell. “Lovesick, shipwrecked or amidst Prohibition, like the players in Twelfth Night, it’s always been our way to find rejuvenation in love, with music and cleverly designed words.”

Shakespeare in Detroit is a nonprofit organization that enhances and supports the cultural, educational and financial growth of Detroit with professional theatre created through a conscious lens of equity, diversity and inclusion. Visit shakespeareindetroit.com for more information.

Tickets are $45. Senior and student discount available. Email info@shakespeareindetroit.com or visit shakespeareindetroit.com for more information.