{"id":106248,"date":"2017-03-09T10:23:11","date_gmt":"2017-03-09T15:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=106248"},"modified":"2017-03-10T14:26:22","modified_gmt":"2017-03-10T19:26:22","slug":"slideshow-shakespeares-a-midsummer-nights-dream-meets-hollywood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2017\/03\/09\/slideshow-shakespeares-a-midsummer-nights-dream-meets-hollywood\/","title":{"rendered":"Slideshow: ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ meets Hollywood’s golden age"},"content":{"rendered":"

Martin Andrucki was asked why he chose to stage his production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream <\/em>\u2014 playing at Schaeffer Theatre tonight through Monday<\/a> \u2014 in 1930s America and to have Fairyland evoke the fantastical world of Hollywood’s golden age.<\/p>\n

Andrucki is the college’s Dana Professor of Theater, and he said that the reason has to do with bark, and not the canine kind. Midsummer<\/em>‘s famous Fairyland has, perhaps too often, been populated by “actors covered in bark or in tutus, wearing mosquito wings,” he says.<\/p>\n

So as Andrucki thought about his first production of Midsummer<\/em> since 1995, he decided to create another type of Fairyland for Shakespeare’s tale of a wedding, a love quadrangle, theater al fresco<\/em>, quarreling fairies, and magical potions.<\/p>\n\t\n\t

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Under a spell, Lysander (Declan Chu '17) tries to woo Helena (Audrey Burns '17), who believes he is trying to mock her. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t

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Under a spell, Titania (Tricia Crimmins '19) lounges in bed with Bottom (Dan Kuan Peeples '17), who's been made to look like a donkey by Puck. They're attended by fairies Moth (Anna Kreitzer \u201919), Mustardseed (Anne Trapp \u201920) and Peaseblossom (Rebecca Kraft \u201920).\n(Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t

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Quince (Christina Felonis '17) explains the play she's written to Nick Bottom (Dan Kuan Peeples '17). Felonis' performance is part of her senior thesis in acting. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t

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\"Full of vexation come I, with complaint against my child,\" says Egeus (in hat, Theo Eagle '17) about his daughter Hermia (Azure Reid-Russell '17); at left and right are suitors Demetrius (John Dello Russo \u201918) and Lysander (Declan Chu '17).\n(Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t

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\"If we shadows have offended, \/ Think but this, and all is mended,\" says Puck, played by Sam James '18 of Bradenton, Fla., the play's final lines. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t

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“I thought of Woody Allen’s Purple Rose of Cairo<\/em>,” Andrucki explains, “where Jeff Daniels steps out of the screen and brings Mia Farrow into a world of beauty, glamor, and romance.”<\/p>\n

In Hollywood’s golden age of the 1930s, “escape and magic were at the movies. Hollywood musicals were fairyland. Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers: They were fairies.” It’s a bygone world that reflects Shakespeare’s own capacity for raising “his fancy to a flight above mankind,” in the words of 18th-century English writer Nicholas Rowe.<\/p>\n

The Bates production, which runs through Monday<\/a>, features an original score by Bill Matthews, the Alice Swanson Esty Professor of Music. His compositions include a song for the fairies and one for the character Nick Bottom, as well as music for dance sequences and what director Andrucki describes as “a sonic landscape for the whole show.”<\/p>\n

\"Martin<\/a>

Standing at the foot of the Schaeffer Theatre stage after Wednesday’s dress rehearsal for A Midsummer Night’s Dream<\/em>, director and Dana Professor of Theater Martin Andrucki goes through his notes with the actors. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n

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A Midsummer Night’s Dream<\/h3>\n

Directed by Martin Andrucki, Dana Professor of Theater<\/p>\n

Scenic design by Judy Gailen<\/p>\n

Costume design by Christine McDowell and Nora Dahlberg \u201818 of Arlington, Va.<\/p>\n

Lighting design by Michael Reidy, senior lecturer and managing director of theater and dance<\/p>\n

Original music by Bill Matthews, Alice Swanson Esty Professor of Music<\/p>\n

Projections by Lucas Wilson-Spiro ’15<\/p>\n

Choreography by Sam Hersh ’19 of Northborough, Mass.<\/p>\n

Stage manager: Claire Sullivan ’19 of Montville, N.J.<\/p>\n

Cast of Characters<\/h5>\n

Oberon\/Theseus: Brian Pfohl, assistant in instruction, psychology<\/p>\n

Titania\/Hippolyta: Tricia Crimmins \u201919 of Lake Forest, Ill.<\/p>\n

Philostrate: Ghasharib Shoukat \u201920 of Karachi, Pakistan<\/span><\/p>\n

Egeus: Theo Eagle \u201917 of Brooklyn, N.Y.<\/p>\n

Hermia: Azure Reid-Russell \u201917 of Northport, N.Y.<\/p>\n

Demetrius: John Dello Russo \u201918 of Revere, Mass.<\/p>\n

Lysander: Declan Chu \u201917 of Winthrop, Maine<\/p>\n

Helena: Audrey Burns \u201917 of Topsham, Maine*<\/p>\n

Peter Quince: Christina Felonis \u201917 of Athens*<\/p>\n

Nick Bottom: Dan Kuan Peeples \u201917 of Piermont, N.Y.*<\/p>\n

Francis Flute: Erik Skattum \u201919 of London<\/p>\n

Robin Starveling: Lila Patinkin \u201920 of Chicago<\/p>\n

Tom Snout: Christine Carroll \u201920 of Locust Valley, N.Y.<\/p>\n

Snug: Madison Shmalo \u201919 of Kennebunk,Maine<\/p>\n

Puck: Sam James \u201917 of Bradenton, Fla.<\/p>\n

Moth: Anna Kreitzer \u201919 of Ellsworth, Maine<\/p>\n

Peaseblossom: Rebecca Kraft \u201920 of Newton Center, Mass.<\/p>\n

Cobweb: Amelia Green \u201917 of Westport, Conn.<\/p>\n

Mustardseed: Anne Trapp \u201920 of Townsend, Mont.<\/p>\n

Audrey Burns ’17, Christina Felonis ’17, Dan Kuan Peeples ’17 are working on <\/em>Midsummer as a part of their senior theses in acting.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Midsummer<\/em>‘s famous Fairyland has too often been populated by “actors covered in bark or in tutus, wearing mosquito wings,” says director Martin Andrucki.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":106334,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[4,11010,130,133],"tags":[1518,5702],"class_list":["post-106248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-life","category-arts","category-collaboration","category-creativity","tag-bates-theater","tag-martin-andrucki"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106248"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106409,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106248\/revisions\/106409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}