Welcome!

What is WillowCabin.com?
WillowCabin.com is an amateur website devoted to all things Shakespeare. Within these virtual pages you will find resources for students, teachers, actors and enthusiasts.

What does the name mean?
In Twelfth Night, the heroine Viola, dressed as a boy, is sent by the Duke Orsino (with whom she is in love) to woo the Countess Olivia on his behalf. Olivia, still in mourning over the death of her brother, will accept none of the Duke's advances; however, she finds herself strangely attracted to the youth who has come to win her love. She asks 'him' what he would do if he were in love with her. Viola declares (in her most famous speech of the play):

[I would] Make me a willow cabin at your gate,
And call upon my soul within the house;
Write loyal cantons of contemned love
And sing them loud even in the dead of night;
Halloo your name to the reverberate hills
And make the babbling gossip of the air
Cry out 'Olivia!' O, You should not rest
Between the elements of air and earth,
But you should pity me!
(1.5.141-9)

Who created the site?
My name is Dale Lisa Flint. I am a professionally-trained actress (American Conservatory Theatre, California Shakespeare Festival), and academic (B.A. 1998 - UC Berkeley, M.A. 2003 - San Jose State). You are free to reproduce information contained within these pages, but please give credit where it is due. For information in regards to the proper format for citing internet sources in research papers, visit www.mla.org.

Please send me your questions or comments.