from the director:
As a child I was first introduced to Shakespeare by my parents who took me to see a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a wooded amphitheatre in Carmel, California where audi- ence members could saunter down during the performance, to the edge of the stage adorned with brilliant fire pits on either side, and serve themselves hot apple cider and stickies as the play raged on beneath embers from flames shooting madly up into the night’s sky and beyond....it was sublime!
The text of the play was published in 1600 but the date of its composition is uncertain. It has been suggested that this text is an elaborate version of an entertainment written for a wedding, possibly in 1598. Without a doubt is that fact that Dream is one of Shakespeare’s best loved and most oft performed comedies full of universal truths and themes; the battle of the sexes, the nature of justice, of authority and responsibility.
What impresses me most about this particular production is the collaborative nature of your community members in bringing you this play; their genuine support and appreciation of each other; their commitment to the work, to the art of creating theatre. With “simpleness and duty” they have bonded together “ all for your pleasure” – from every nook and cranny of our community – they are children, business owners, stage mothers (in a good way!), retirees, a “home town boy” on leave for the summer from teaching English in Brooklyn, two actors from Dubois (!), a student – all walks of life. Together with our varied theatrical and life experiences, cast, crew and audience alike, one thing is for certain; Through the process of rehearsing, per- forming and watching this play we move forward together as one, into a radiant dream of our own and once transformed, we are able to realize the possibilities that the power of language and live theatre delivers unto our community.
Look to your left...look to your right...we stand together, we sit together, we laugh together hand in hand, side by side, mesmerized by the moments...amazed...we “know not what to say”.
Susan Riddiford Shedd