2015 ~ A Midsummer Night's Dream
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Performed July 9-12 and 16-19
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” explains director Ron Scot Fry, “is a delightful, sensual romp in the woods. The play takes three worlds – the button-down world of the establishment, the rough-hewn world of manual laborers, and the world of the wild, magical beings who inhabit the woods – and sends them careening in a mad chase that leaves each world changed. It is a play about love, so it is ridiculous, complicated and unfair. It provides excellent opportunities for our local cast to play characters obsessed with love: romantic love, self love, love of mischief, love for art, love for tradition and love for love itself. And it provides all of our artists a chance to create a theatrical world of magic and mischief in the night, where we can ultimately ‘Let the Sun Shine.’“
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Believed to
have been written later in the early 1590s, A Midsummer Night’s Dream has proven
to be one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays and is frequently produced. The
story is one that depicts an unseen fantasy world existing alongside,
interacting with, and often manipulating the human one. As such, reality – and
the rules of authority figures – are suspended, such that the young people who
are caught up in antic confusion and various taboo scenarios are ultimately
absolved.
Given that the premise of the action is a gathering to celebrate the marriage of Theseus, Duke of Athens and Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons – at which a play is performed to entertain the guests, by the so-called “Rude Mechanicals" – it is believed that the play itself could also have been written in honor of a wedding. Its many memorable quotes include a line that warns, “the course of true love never did run smooth.”
Given that the premise of the action is a gathering to celebrate the marriage of Theseus, Duke of Athens and Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons – at which a play is performed to entertain the guests, by the so-called “Rude Mechanicals" – it is believed that the play itself could also have been written in honor of a wedding. Its many memorable quotes include a line that warns, “the course of true love never did run smooth.”
The Cast of A Midsummer Night's Dream (2015)
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Tess Cinpinski as Starveling
Todd Denning* as Oberon and Theseus Marcee Doherty-Elst as Snug Chris Flieller as Bottom Susan Scot Fry as Philostrate Kristin Hammargren as Hermia Jeffrey James Ircink as Egeus Mary B. Kababik as Peter Quince Robert W.C. Kennedy as Flute Brian Miracle as Snout Emmitt Morgans as Demetrius Tom Reed* as Puck Tom Sebald as Mustardseed Samantha Sosatarich as Wandering Fairy Malkia Stampley* as Titania and Hippolyta Shayne Steliga as Lysander Sola Thompson as Bohemian Kat Wodtke as Helena and Rachel Zientek as Peaseblossom with Original Music by Paul Terrien with Joseph Manussier __________ Directed by Ron Scot Fry Dramaturgy and Assistant Directed by ML Cogar Fry is Optimist Theatre’s Founding Artistic Director, who has also directed Optimist’s The Tempest and Macbeth. Fry has also designed sets for those shows and for As You Like It and The Winter's Tale for Optimist Theatre, as well as for Alverno College, First Stage, Wisconsin Hybrid Theatre, Milwaukee Public Theatre and Milwaukee Mask and Puppet Theatre. He has had performing roles in Twelfth Night and The Winter's Tale. *Member, Actor's Equity Association |
Shakespeare in the Park 2015's presentation of A Midsummer Night's Dream encompassed eight performances across two weekends in July.
Check out some production images here: For some A Midsummer Night's Dream trivia, click here or hereFor A Midsummer Night's Dream online, click here
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