Dream_header2

A Midsummer Night’s Dream | July 23 – August 23 button

By William Shakespeare
Directed by Janis Stevens

Sponsored by Christine & David Heckman

..
Magic and laughter are on the loose in the woods outside Athens in Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy! The fairy king and queen are at war, court and commoners alike prepare for Theseus and Hippolyta’s nuptials, and Puck stirs the pot leading two pairs of lovers on a wild and wacky chase in search of true romance.

Production Team

Stevens_Janis_webJanis Stevens
Director		 Alexander_Jim_web
Jim Alexander
Set Designer		 rocha_elizabeth_web
Elizabeth Rocha
Costume Designer		 Jones_Stephen_web
Stephen Jones***
Lighting Designer
tippin_rew_webRew Tippin
Sound Designer		 Meyers_jeff_web
Jeff Meyers*
Stage Manager		 melissaMelissa Nathan*
Asst. Stage Manager


Cast

VanHorn_Bill_web
Bill Van Horn*
Bottom/Pyramus		 JoshJosh Carpenter*
Theseus/Oberon		 Coughtry_Jordan_webJordan Coughtry*
Starveling/Moon		 cartier_mark_web
Mark S. Cartier*
Peter Quince
Sturgis_Nisi_webNisi Sturgis*
Hippolyta/Titania		 Leighton
Leighton Samuels
Lysander		 Thomas_MichaelDix_web
Michael Dix Thomas
Demetrius		 Blaustein_Andy_webAndy Blaustein
Philostrate/Robin Goodfellow (Puck)
marloweMarlowe Holden
Mustardseed/Lion		 murphy_erica_web
Erica Murphy
Hermia		 Williamson_Olivia_webOlivia Williamson
Helena		 doyle_anna_web
Anna Doyle
First Fairy/Mote
Logan_John_webJohn Logan
Snout/Cobweb/Wall		 Estes_Alan_webAlan Estes
Peaseblossom/Thisbe		 isabella Isabella Coulombe
 Fairy

 

equity

*Member of Actor’s Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States.

 

scenicartists

*** Member of United Scenic Artists, the union of professional theatrical designers in the United States

 

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Press Release

Reviews
A true ‘Midsummer’ delight at Monmouth
Shakespeare at Monmouth


More pictures from A Midsummer Night’s Dream

From the Director

Often “the Dream” is how theatre folk refer to Shakespeare’s play. If you have been in the theatre for much of your life, you have probably had something to do with multiple productions of it. So “the Dream” is not said in a reverential tone but as if speaking of an old friend, a familiar. It is said with love.

 

I have seen many “Dreams” including Peter Brook’s astonishing Royal Shakespeare Company production when it toured the States in the early 1970s. Because the play is “dream-driven” it allows any number of interpretations to be justifiable in creating “the world of the play.” When asked to direct this season’s production for TAM, my first instinct was that I wanted to take the play back to “itself” — to leave it alone and let the beauty and magic of the text glimmer in its own light.

 

The world of our production is guided by a desire to create the classical backdrop of Theseus’ Athenian Palace and overlay it with the slightly forbidding, magical, mutable fabric of “the dream wood.” It is here that each character under goes “translation and transformation”—two of the play’s most powerful themes. It is these themes that make double and triple casting of roles illuminating rather than necessity. Every character encountering their “dream-self” participates in a temporary transformation, at least.


Once they return to reality, do the characters retain the knowledge that “the dream” awakens? Are they changed? Or is it only the hint, the “glimmer and glint,” of something richer that harkens? Maybe it’s easier to say “It was just a silly dream.”