Act 1 introduces the main characters (as well as their quirky personalities) and sets the conflict to be resolved in the play; it has 5 scenes. (Due to lack of an external budget,) We aren’t committed to a perfectly-accurate era production this time, and thus the clothing and sets are of the “generic past”; no one’s dressed in modern clothing, per se, but this makes the visuals easier, as fewer new items need to be made (better for budget), and most items already exist and can be purchased. Here are my notes — my thoughts and interpretations for each. My character interpretations are here.

1. Begin with music and a memorable feast that literally embodies the food of love, playing on in an Illyrian palace with sunlight streaming through its windows, and a multimedia-projector-esque device projects moving images in the upper level corridors, to make the palace appear more staffed. Musicians play a song, as Curio eats a hart. Music stops dramatically and in deference to the Duke Orsino as he enters from his balcony entrance; and, as he waves his hand, it continues (symbolically: the man’s word galvanizes the concept of love). Orsino’s speech sounds “ample fickle”, and indeed, he does tell the musicians to stop feeding him this food of love, that he grows so sick of (he did command them to give him too much of it that he gets sick of it). Curio (in this interpretation) is his cousin from the countryside, who is apparently more obsessed with the feast of hart than in Orsino’s heart. When Orsino doesn’t give him a positive on the hunting question, he leaves with a “hmmph” thinking Orsino a fool (for turning himself into a hart!). Valentine enters, and reports on his progress with Olivia–that Olivia would hide herself from view for seven years to mourn her brother. Orsino doesn’t take this as a setback; he’s so obsessed with this concept of love of his fantasized version of Olivia, that he believes this part of her character that would pay the “debt of love / but to a brother” would make her a better lover. In this interpretation, his “dying fall” really occurs (though he doesn’t die - that would break the plot!), and he starts climbing the balcony at the end of his ending speech, and jumps into the “sweet beds of flowers” on “canopied with bowers.”
2. This is actually my favorite scene in this SL production — in fact, I was galvanized to produce this just due to the prospect of converting the Globe Theatre’s characteristic double pillars on-stage into palm trees, and covering the garage-roof-like proscenium arch of the Globe with a mess of storm clouds. The added effect of the rainstorm and lightning and sounds came later. I had imagined Viola and the Captain, at first, separated by a huge distance, each sitting beneath their own palm tree. Adding the storm made the exchange make more sense–they’re trying to wait it out, each beneath a palm tree after the storm ends (although, in movies, you recall shipwrecked people who make it to shore to wake up after the storm’s over), and the storm sound effects is another reason why they’re shouting. At the start, Viola is alone beneath her own palm tree, as is the Captain, who perhaps is used to the every-man-is-his-own-island. They shout through the storm, and when the Captain mentions that there might be hope for her brother yet, she takes a fondness to him and offers him gold just for saying it - she braves through the storm and crosses the gap between them. But, of course, she’s offering her gold as a beacon of trust, and proceeds to asking him for guidance in this new land. You can get a grasp of Viola’s young age by her naïvity, her quick decision to be concealed as a boy.
3. Toby and Maria open the scene, but enter from very different doors. Maria enters from the back porch door of Olivia’s house, which on this side, at least, is next to The Taurus Tavern. Toby stumbles out of the Tavern, and Maria starts scolding him about his late hours. Toby attempts to justify himself, as well as Andrew. In this production, Toby and Andrew are of about the same height, though Toby attempts to make Andrew seem taller (thinking himself as tall). Also, Toby is in appearance and behavior little older than a teenager (in part due to casting). Andrew enters after Toby; even though they both emerge drunkenly from the same tavern, he’s actually delayed a bit for having to pay for Toby’s revels. He’s drunk, so that doesn’t matter, and the big bottle of Castiliano Vulgo helps make this clear. The conversation that follows may require a feat of SL navigational luck. As Andrew enters, he verbally greets Toby, but stumbles towards Maria (recall that he’s drunk!), who takes a huge step back from her previous confrontational distance next to Toby. Toby greets him mockingly, Andrew turns to face Toby, though he’s next to Maria (he’s drunk and the sense of direction and who’s who is a bit a miss!). When Toby tells him to “accost,” he walks over to him, confused, “What’s that?” Toby objectifies Maria, “My niece’s chambermaid.” Andrew then faces Maria (he’s currently standing near Toby), and greets her as “Mistress Accost.” Maria states curtly, “My name is Mary, sir.” Andrew, who is still a bit out of it, greets her again as “Mary Accost,” and Toby immediately attempts to clarify himself, elaborating on what he meant by “accost.” Andrew, who is actually more drunk than we realize, bring up the other (sexual) meaning of “accost,” and mentions the ludicrous meaning of accost in that sense, “By my troth, I would not undertake her in this company!” Maria, who has had enough of this, and who had already made up her mind on Andrew’s lacking intelligence, leaves. Andrew, after being told by Toby that if he lets her parts so easily can’t really slap people off with gauntlets anymore, rushes over to her and beseeches her to stay. He then tries doing a hand-exchange thing, which is a small feat in SL interface navigation by itself. He tries taking Maria’s hand, and then Maria pushes the bottle on him, to beseech him to drink and let go of her hand-but he keeps on trying to take her hand. “Dry” and “barren” as she lets go of his hand for the last time and leaves. Andrew then sinks down to an emo sit on the porch steps, while Toby tries cheering him up. At first, Toby sort of looms over him, as the sot of greater intelligence. Andrew then says something totally offbeat, mentioning that he’s a great eater of meat and that does do harm to his wit; in response, Toby should sound like he’s rolling his eyes, “(uh huh) no question.” When Andrew threatens to leave, Toby then sits down next to him, and seriously attempts to cheer him up . Curly hair is more in-style than straight hair, the kind that Andrew has, and, true, as they muse about his hair-like-flax-on-a-distaff, Andrew does pull a clump of his own hair out to wonder about it. Cup of canary can be obtained if they were to caper off into the Tavern again, but ironically, there’s a canary in a cage next to them (symbolizing this trapped tendency to imbide in canary). The subsequent capering in galliards and carrantos cheer them up, and they do head off back to the tavern, to being born under Taurus!
4. Valentine and Cesario are/will both (be) sent as messengers of the Duke’s love, but Valentine is Cesario’s predecessor, and so it is significant when he defers his status to Cesario — they exchange this on a sort of raised stairway halfway between main stage level and the balcony. The Duke then enters from his balcony, and goes onto beseeching Cesario, a less “graver nuncio”, to be adamant in showing his love. But, although the words are intimate, the Duke and Cesario are separated by a distance, in this case, represented by stage levels–Cesario is at a level below, and the Duke is still standing up on his balcony.
5. Maria and Feste enter through the door on the main stage level, and Maria goes about her slurry of complaints in Act 1, chastising Feste for being gone for so long. As Feste hangs himself, Maria ends up beating him in the joke, but leaves hurriedly when Olivia enters. Feste climbs the stairs and bows in a mock flourish to Olivia. Olivia, who starts with the command to take Feste away, ends up allowing him to stay after just a few words between the two (foreshadowing her fleeting change from deep-in-mourning to piqued by a love interest when she meets Cesario). It does seem that Cesario’s arriving causes quite a stir in Olivia’s house, as every single member seems to come to Olivia to mention his(her) arrival. Now, for this SL production, there is a chance that the actor who plays Toby might not make it (he’d been missing several rehearsals, and may tend on a similar schedule as an actual Toby), so in that case, Toby’s role in this scene will be played by a silent actor who lurches in and falls as a totally drunken sot of a Toby. Feste’s exit then finely shoves him away, off through the door on the main stage level. When Olivia calls for her veil, Maria bustles up the stairs and gives it to Olivia, who becomes veiled. Cesario enters from the main stage door and is looking up at Olivia, until the part where she tells everyone to leave and takes off her veil. They are then on equal levels. In the end, Olivia descends the stairs to give her brief soliloquy.

That is more or less the plan! Except, we don’t have a dedicated animation team, and mostly have actors making their own, some using animation creation software for the first time. Not all animations may work as expected. Not much of a budget for costume, anyway. The sets are possible with your dear director working for free for a couple hundred of hours designing and building/assembling them.

Incidentally, all of the above sets were built *for* the Globe Theatre, especially its characteristic two columns, and back wall doors. The set elements cover the parts when not needed, fitting like a tailored hat! This is the empty/bare SL Globe Theatre Stage: