Midsummer Madness
I'm happy to report that rehearsals for our next show at the Elora Centre for the Arts, William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, are now underway. With a large cast and a small space we're going to have to come up with some very creative staging for this one...
If you've never had a chance to see a Shakespearean play before, or you have seen a play but been totalled baffled, then "The Dream" is the perfect cure for you. It is one of Shakespeare's most-loved, most popular plays (and for the most-produced playwright in history, that's saying something about the play's lasting-power). It's a love story, a laugh-out-loud farce and a fantastic journey to fairyland all rolled into one.
When I first read the text I was very young, no more than 13 or 14 years old, yet I had no problem understanding what was going on. The language of Shakespeare's plays may look and sound a bit different than our own, but it's still English, and when you get beyond a few of the old sayings and classic references turns into something quite familiar to us all.
In truth, I don't think it's so much a different way of speaking, as it is a different way of thinking, that gives actors such difficulty with classical texts. Once you make that shift in your mind, and the lines come out not as you, but as Theseus, Hippolyta, Oberon, Titania or Puck, that's when they seem to flow. And as we all know, when the lines start to flow, the play starts to take flight.
The Dream begins March 12th, and runs to March 14th. Tickets available from any cast member, or by calling 519-780-7593. Seating is limited.
If you've never had a chance to see a Shakespearean play before, or you have seen a play but been totalled baffled, then "The Dream" is the perfect cure for you. It is one of Shakespeare's most-loved, most popular plays (and for the most-produced playwright in history, that's saying something about the play's lasting-power). It's a love story, a laugh-out-loud farce and a fantastic journey to fairyland all rolled into one.
When I first read the text I was very young, no more than 13 or 14 years old, yet I had no problem understanding what was going on. The language of Shakespeare's plays may look and sound a bit different than our own, but it's still English, and when you get beyond a few of the old sayings and classic references turns into something quite familiar to us all.
In truth, I don't think it's so much a different way of speaking, as it is a different way of thinking, that gives actors such difficulty with classical texts. Once you make that shift in your mind, and the lines come out not as you, but as Theseus, Hippolyta, Oberon, Titania or Puck, that's when they seem to flow. And as we all know, when the lines start to flow, the play starts to take flight.
The Dream begins March 12th, and runs to March 14th. Tickets available from any cast member, or by calling 519-780-7593. Seating is limited.
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