 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
Here we are at the second time around for this wonderful play! It was our first and now it’s our tenth! Hard to believe so much time has passed already. Looking back, I am amazed at how far this company has come. Some kids who were lions and fairies when we first set foot on this stage are now kings, queens and lovers. Some have even gone on to glorious careers in college! I know that in their travels the words of the Bard must keep coming back to them and adding spice to their lives. Perhaps one of them will one day find themselves back at this bend in the road, revisiting their youth as I feel I am doing with this play.
In that way, this is my 3rd go-around, since I played Bottom in my youth right in this room. With all that history looming behind me, I was trying to break away from all the things I’d done before, both as an actor and director. But some parts of this play are just too timeless, so I decided to let it be just that. A madcap mixture of time and place and history. Athens... what is Athens? Just one of many places that these characters could inhabit. Therefore, you will not see any Athenian clothing. The courtly characters are dressed as Elizabethan actors might have dressed themselves; the mechanicals are the usual merry mix; and the fairies are forays into all times! The fairy world was exciting to create and explore this time. I added the “Dark Fairies” in order to really bring more balance to that world – the dark and the light, innocence and mischief, small and tall, young and old. Life – and hopefully this production – is richer for all of it!
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