The Madison Shakespeare Company (MSC) is celebrating this year’s day of love through a collection of eight of the bard's most iconic love scenes alongside the works of Thomas Middleton, John Fletcher and Thomas Dekker in “A Valentines Affair 2025,” directed by Annie Jay.
The show will be rounded off with “Sonnets from a Hat,” an improvisational break where cast members perform randomly selected sonnets as directed by suggestions from the audience.
The full production is just 90 minutes, the perfect addition to your gal-entine or Valentine’s celebration. Performances are 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 13 to 14 and 5 p.m. on Feb. 15 at the Bartell Theatre.
Jay will be celebrating her fifth performance with MSC.
“Telling a compelling story is my number one priority. Early in the process of every project, I need to be able to answer why we are doing it,” Jay told The Daily Cardinal “And what is more compelling and universal than love and relationships? Good, bad, complex, new, seasoned.”
As a director, Jay said she works to choose the best roles for every performer while also pushing them outside their comfort zone. MSC chooses their scenes for the affair based on their performers. This year, the cast comes from various backgrounds with ages ranging over 20 years.
“The possibilities are literally limitless,” Jay said.
Sometimes, this commitment to helping her performers be their best leads Jay to take a hands-on approach.
“Some of my [male identifying] actors get the wiggles. To help them take ownership of their space onstage and crank up the confidence their characters need, I am not above sitting on the floor and holding down their feet,” she said.
This year’s Affair includes Antony and Cleopatra, Antipholus and Luciana, Hostess Quickly and Pistol and Palamon and the Jailer’s Daughter. University of Wisconsin-Madison alumni Malcolm McCanles and Megan Tennessen, as well as performer Josh Gibbons, will make their MSC debuts. They will be accompanied by veteran performers Paige Abbatacola, Deanna Martinez, Laura Kochanowski, Mitch Taylor and Jason Compton.
“One highlight this year is a two-part arc from ‘Two Noble Kinsmen’ that highlights all eight of our performers and displays the phenomenal range of recent UW grad and new cast member Tennessen, as her character descends into madness,” Jay said. “We also stitched together two scenes from a non-traditional approach to ‘love’ in ‘Measure for Measure,’ in which the epically layered recent UW graduate McCanles gets to dive into the depths of evil and manipulation.”
For its seventh season, A Valentine's Affair is set to perform at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 13 to 14 and 5 p.m. on Feb. 15 at the Bartell Theater.
