Students perform ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ Shakespeare in the Arb

Home News Students perform ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ Shakespeare in the Arb
Students perform ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ Shakespeare in the Arb
William Shakespeare Courtesy | Wikicommons

Even without a proper rehearsal space, costumes, or set, 14 students staged a production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” as the yearly tradition of Shakespeare in the Arb last weekend. 

This all-student production was produced separate from the theatre department. Due to weather, organizers moved the performance from the Slayton Arboretum to the Mauck Solarium. 

“Because it was indoors, the laughter echoed a lot more and it felt like more of a full house, which did lead to a more fun environment,” freshman Mary-Kate Kearney said. “It was definitely unfortunate they couldn’t have it outside due to weather, but they really pulled together and did a great job with the space they had.” 

Co-directors and juniors Maureen Martin and Colleen Blockhus produced the show. Martin said directing the show is “a very chaotic process.”

“There is no set rehearsal schedule or space in which to rehearse. You rehearse when your actors can and you find an available space,” Martin said. “It is very difficult to find spaces on this campus where a dozen actors yelling is not disruptive.” 

Martin said any student-run performance is difficult to produce, but the cast and directors proved it is possible. 

“Our rehearsal schedule was created around the schedules of the people in the show,” freshman Emily Griffith said. “You can imagine that 12 Hillsdale student schedules were a nightmare to work with. We also didn’t have any set to work with, which meant that any interaction we had onstage was either with each other or directly with the audience.” 

Griffith played Hermia, a young Athenian who runs away to marry Lysander. Unlike Griffith, most of the cast played multiple roles in the play. Though this is not unheard of in professional theatre, Kearney enjoyed seeing it in collegiate theatre.

“The double-casting was both a practical and creative choice,” Martin said. “It gives those actors in the ensemble an opportunity to do different things in the same production. It is also a common practice to double cast Theseus/Hippolyta and Oberon/Titania. I have never heard of a production that gender flips Oberon and Titania, but we did that.” 

The production used few costumes or sets. Beyond some accessories and small set pieces, the cast wore all of their own clothing and worked with a bare performance space.

“It really made the production more about the performance and the language rather than about the spectacle,” Kearney said.

The lack of set and costume also provided a new challenge for the directors as they planned how they wanted the show to be produced, Martin said.

“The lack of set and costume is the reality you work around when you direct Shakespeare in the Arb,” Martin said. “Knowing it at the beginning of the process just reminded us that the emphasis of the show really needs to be the language and the actors, which is the point of Shakespeare in the Arb.” 

The cast found a new appreciation for the art of theatre as a result of the minimalist style of the production, Griffith said.

“It was a weird kind of vulnerability, not having any lights or sets or big costumes to work with or hide behind,” Griffith said. “I cannot recommend the show enough, whether it be to audition or to simply come enjoy the performance.”