Dramatis Personae Theseus, Duke of Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mic Matarrese*
Pease Blossom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Joe Atack
Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, betrothed to Theseus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Carie Kawa*
Moth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ryan David O’Byrne*
Egeus, father to Hermia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Stitch Marker
Cobweb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sonny Valicenti*
Hermia, daughter to Egeus, in love with Lysander . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lori McNally*
Scene
Lysander, in love with Hermia . . . . . . . . . . . . Brad Standley*
Mustard Seed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wesley Gaines McNair
“Athens” and a wood near it.
Demetrius, in love with Hermia . . . . . . . . . Christian Durso*
Production Staff
Helena, in love with Demetrius . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gracyn Mix*
Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Charles Fee
Philostrate, Master of Revels to Theseus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jeffrey C. Hawkins*
Choreographer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Helene Peterson
Quince, a carpenter / Prologue . . . . . . . . . . . Dustin Tucker*
Costume Designer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Star Moxley
Bottom, a weaver / Pyramus . . . . . . . . . . Shad Willingham*
Lighting Designer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rick Martin
Scenic Designer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gage Williams
Flute, a bellows-mender / Thisbe . . . . Ryan David O’Byrne*
Sound Designer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Peter John Still
Snout, a tinker / Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Joe Atack
Fight Choreographer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ken Merckx
Snug, a joiner / Lion . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wesley Gaines McNair
Voice and Speech Coach . . . . . . . . . . David Anthony Smith
Starveling, a tailor / Moonshine . . . . . . . . . Sonny Valicenti*
Stage Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tim Kinzel*
Oberon, King of the Fairies . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mic Matarrese*
Assistant Stage Manager . . . . . . . . . . . Kristen Boehnlein*
Titania, Queen of the Fairies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Carie Kawa* Puck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jeffrey C. Hawkins*
Director’s Note While searching for an approach to A Midsummer Night’s Dream I was drawn, rather whimsically, to the music of the “British Invasion” and the idea of setting the play in the mid-1960s. I began to imagine a production of Shakespeare’s “Dream” set to early 60’s pop music, with the “Mechanicals” (Bottom, Flute, Quince & Co.) as a sort of “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” London in the 1960s was reported by music critic Ian MacDonald to be, “a city in glorious thrall to a thriving youth culture…the place to
which we must all look to learn how to act, think and dress.” But London’s first incarnation as the city that “swings” might well have been at the turn of the 16th century, the final decade of the Elizabethan period, just about the time that the city’s greatest pop star, William Shakespeare, penned A Midsummer Night’s Dream. While the young in 1590 were hardly “classless,” it was a period of great upward mobility, with a vibrant global economy spurred on by expansionism in the New World. London was the center of government, commerce and the arts. Shakespeare’s London was also
* Member of the Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States.
the progenitor of all “youth cultures” to follow. While I have, occasionally, embraced contemporary settings for the Shakespeare plays in my work, I am aware that this approach can be dangerously reductive, leading the director into the role of literary lion tamer, torturing the text into submission in order to keep it in the cage of comparison. The goal, and only real justification, for this production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is to create a look and rhythm that will engage the audience in the text and heighten our awareness of what is timeless in the play.
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The actions of the young lovers seem particularly suited to the rhythms and sentiment of the early 60’s love songs; the fairy world of Oberon and Titania, with their magical “flowerpower,” finds a clear equivalent in the spiritual movement inspired by celebrities pilgrimages to India. The lovers’ journey to the woods might be viewed, in this context, as a “consciousness-raising trip.” Whether or not we have achieved our goal will only be discovered in performance. Charles Fee Producing Artistic Director
Laketahoeshakespeare.com
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