Among all the lesbian-themed stories ever written, the most successful one is the most overlooked: "Twelfth Night" by William Shakespeare. Using a screenplay by the author of a play with the same title, this feature-length film project will entertain and inspire audiences while showing that Shakespeare readily embraced lesbian romance (albeit played by adolescent boys) in "Twelfth Night" and refute claims that Shakespeare's work is conservative or supports conservative values.

Shakespeare's story in "Twelfth Night" sets this up: Olivia, a beautiful young countess, announces she will not marry for seven years, refuses to even meet any men, yet her closest companion is a woman as wise and assertive as herself. She then meets Viola, a girl who is pretending to be a boy, and falls in love at first sight. After openly confessing her love to this girl, Olivia mistakenly marries her twin brother, after first promising to keep her marriage a secret. Moreover, after her marriage, Olivia displays not one word of affection or desire for her husband through the rest of the play, and Shakespeare even makes clear their marriage is unconsummated; therefore, if she wants, she can have her marriage anulled.

The fact that Olivia's marriage is non-binding is just one of the insights that "Twelve Nights with Viola & Olivia" presents that few dramatists have noticed. "Twelve Nights" achieves this by presenting Shakespeare's characters in new scenes that ostensibly occur during the middle of "Twelfth Night." To complete the illusion, the new scenes are written in in a style like Shakespeare's, to create an effect as is a new Elizabethan play had been sudddenly discovered.

At the end, after Olivia realizes she is in love with a girl, and that she has no need to stay married to a boy, she asks Viola the ultimate question: "As I love thee/Doth you love me?" Her surprising response will never leave you.

"Twelve Nights with Viola & Olivia" is being funded through Ohana Justice Center Charitable Trust, a charitable organization recognized by the IRS, as part of its social justice mission. All contributions are tax-deductible. The director and actors are experienced professionals working in Southern California. Most of the film will be shot on location in San Diego, in keeping with its Renaissance Italy setting.

Your tax-deductible contribution will pay for production of this film, post-production and marketing expenses to bring this story about forbidden love, injustice and male violence to a worldwide audience. Already, this project is exciting actors and directors in Southern California; once the film is finished and presented in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York, it will stand as a bold and lasting statement by the entire LGBTQA community that same-sex love should not only be permitted, but celebrated and respected, just as Shakespeare wanted.

As Feste asks at the start of the story: "When shall we give fair and true love its full-tale due?" Your contribution and continued support will bring that day closer than any may expect.