Midsummer: an update

I am directing Midsummer Night’s Dream for the Southern Arc Dance Company, with performances on Sat, Apr 15, 7:00 pm, at the McRitchie-Hollis House Museum in Newnan; and on Sun, Apr 16, 4:00 pm, at Askew Park in Hogansville. This is a fundraiser to provide scholarships at Southern Dance.

This is the third time I’ve directed Midsummer. The first was in 1978, the second was in 1997 — so about 20 years between each production. The first was, as might be expected, straight-up proscenium, pretty costumes, exactly what you’d expect from a young director barely out of his BFA in drama and theatre.

The second was far more adventurous — you can read about it in the middle of this post from As You Like It from 2020. (At least three of those actor from 1978 went on to become theatre professionals.)

And now I’m trying to throw together a completely environmental version, wherein the audience must stay on its toes — literally — in order to keep up with the show.

We will begin on the front lawn of the museum at a cocktail reception for Duke Theseus and his fiancée the Amazon queen Hippolyta: plastic coupes and ginger ale all round, served by the Rude Mechanicals, hired for the occasion. Guests will mingle with the Duke and his friends, Egeus and Hermia and Lysander and the rest, with whom they will chat and gossip. Peter Quince will repeatedly offer to show people the script of the play he’s written, “Pyramus & Thisbe.”

When Theseus orders his master of ceremonies Philostrate to round up some entertainment for the wedding night — a bit of actual Shakespearean text — whichever Rude Mechanical is closest will go into full alert and will scurry off to tell Quince of the opportunity presented to them.

Then, at some point, Egeus will stumble upon the gossip that his daughter has no intention of marrying Demetrius, the man he has chosen for her, and we’re off to the races: “Full of vexation come I, with complaint / Against my child, my daughter Hermia.”

From that first scene we segue into the Rude Mechanicals’ conference about “Pyramus & Thisbe,” still in the front lawn of the museum. But then…

…fairies bearing glowing orbs begin to appear and entice the audience to follow them around the building, through a hedge, and into the woods of Athens, where… well, hopefully hilarity will ensue.

My cast is mostly young dancers, almost none of whom have acted before, and certainly not Shakespeare, but they’re eager to do well and I think will be very entertaining. Our rehearsal schedule is very meager, only twice a week, so we may be cutting it very close, but as I told all my casts in the past, it only has to be ready when the audience walks in the door.

Cross your fingers.