Actors from the London Stage Head to Hammer Theatre Center for TWELFTH NIGHT

Hammer Theatre Center presents Actors From The London Stage performing Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. This deliriously enjoyable romantic comedy offers up love triangles, mischief, and disguise, with five British actors playing all the roles in this frolicsome look at love. The company will also host an intensive workshop on Shakespearean language, performance, and themes for students at San Jose State University. The text of Twelfth Night may be edited for length and casting. Twelfth Night will be presented 11:00am and 7:00pm, Friday, October 18 and 2:00pm, Saturday, October 19 at the Hammer Theatre Center, 101 Paseo De San Antonio, San Jose. For more information and tickets ($28-$40), the public may visit www.hammertheatre.com or call (408) 924-8501.

Twelfth Night plays upon Shakespeare's comical convention of female cross-dressing worked into a series of increasingly complicated love triangles. Shipwrecked on the Illyrian coast, Viola, an aristocrat by birth, disguises herself as a boy named "Cesario" and goes to work for Duke Orsino, who is in love with Lady Olivia. Olivia instead falls in love with Cesario, who is herself falling for the Duke. Meanwhile, the scheming steward Malvolio endures a series of practical jokes, creating a delightful tangle of comic complications on the way to a memorably joyful ending.

Actors From The London Stage was co-founded in 1975 by Sir Patrick Stewart of the Royal Shakespeare Company and Dr. Homer Swander, a distinguished professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Stewart believed that actors have a personal and distinctive connection with dramatic texts, which led to the creation of AFTLS in hopes of "giving the actor a unique platform from which to explore with professors and students what he or she does and why it is done." Presenting at 16 to 18 universities a year, AFTLS is committed to engaging students in a collaborative environment where actors and guidance are completely accessible.

The Hammer Theatre Center is a distinctive, state-of-the-art performance venue in the heart of downtown San José. Owned by the City of San Jose and operated by San Jose State University (SJSU), the Hammer Theatre's mission is to serve the community through artistically and educationally excellent programming that is expressive of the unique characteristics and diverse cultures that comprise Silicon Valley. The broader vision of the Hammer includes arts, innovation, and technology programming on the Paseo de San Antonio, creating a vibrant pathway between SJSU and the Tech Museum and bridging the urban spaces from Saint James Park down to the South of First Avenue cultural district. The Hammer also aims to connect SJSU's more than 37,000 faculty, students, and staff with the downtown cultural and economic corridors.