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Arts Playlist: Delaware Shakespeare's Summer Festival

Cast of Delaware Shakespeare's production of "Twelfth Night, O Lo Que Quieras" rehearses for the 2025 Summer Festival
Delaware Shakespeare
Cast of Delaware Shakespeare's production of "Twelfth Night, O Lo Que Quieras" rehearses for the 2025 Summer Festival

Delaware Shakespeare takes the stage at Wilmington's Rockwood Park for its annual series of summer shows starting July 18, with a preview the night before.

The show is "Twelfth Night, O Lo Que Quieras," a musical, bilingual reimagining of the Shakespeare classic.

In this edition of Arts Playlist, Martin Matheny sat down with DelShakes' Producing Artistic Director Mariah Gantt to learn more.

Delaware Public Media's Martin Matheny interviews Delaware Shakespeare's Mariah Gantt

Delaware Shakespeare takes to an outdoor stage in New Castle County to present a re-imagining of one of the playwright’s classic comedies.

DelShakes will present several performances of Twelfth Night: O Lo Que Quieras at Rockwood Park. DelShakes Producing Artistic Director Mariah Ghant says the play is an update of what some people have called the perfect comedy.

“There's mistaken identity, there's confusions of love. And so it has kind of everything," she said. "And we've taken that and exploded it even more by adding music and by also making it partially in Spanish.”

Ghant says audiences shouldn’t worry about being intimidated by the show’s combination of Shakespearean language, Spanish, and music.

“Let the words wash over you like music, so don't feel like you have to pick apart every single word that you're hearing, but instead absorb it all and watch and feel as it's occurring," she said

While the reimagination of Shakespeare’s play maintains the same key plot points, it is also updated to make it strikingly relevant in 21st century America. For example, the two protagonists are migrant refugees from Venezuela.

“The story is really about the migrant experience. It really is about providing a voice for people who maybe otherwise, they're being silenced," Ghant says.

Twelfth Night, O Lo Que Quieras opens on Friday, July 18 at New Castle County’s Rockwood Park with a preview show on July 17. Tickets and performance information is at https://delshakes.org.

Delaware Public Media's arts coverage is made possible, in part, by support from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.

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Martin Matheny comes to Delaware Public Media from WUGA in Athens, GA. Over his 12 years there, he served as a classical music host, program director, and the lead reporter on state and local government. In 2022, he took over as WUGA's local host of Morning Edition, where he discovered the joy of waking up very early in the morning.