Fairies Peaseblossom, Moth and Cobweb, otherwise known as sophomore Caitlin Smith, junior Irena Loloci and senior Rachel Eng, gather around Puck, played by freshman Amanda Greene during Monday night’s dress rehearsal.
-Amber Parker
Mandi Mooney
Editor-in-Chief
April 8, 2005
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Fairies Peaseblossom, Moth and Cobweb, otherwise known as sophomore Caitlin Smith, junior Irena Loloci and senior Rachel Eng, gather around Puck, played by freshman Amanda Greene during Monday night’s dress rehearsal.-Amber Parker |
Two dozen students and four faculty/ set out without solemnity/ to perform a mockery on the stage/ while audiences their applause to wage.
In other words, Milligan’s production of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s
Dream” opened Wednesday night at the Jonesborough Repertory Theatre to
resounding applause and uncontained laughter.
“I thought it was amazing,” said senior Becky Waruszewski. “I feel like Mr.
Major did a perfect job casting. Some parts were really, really funny.”
“I think that the production works very well on several different levels,” said
Dick Major, director of the play and professor of theatre. “I do think that all
of the groups – like the royals, the lovers, the rustics, the fairies, the
servants – function very well.
Set mainly in an enchanted forest inhabited by fairies, the play uses comedy to
tell the love stories of Lysander (Robert Kitchens) and Hermia (Gigi Urgo) and
Demetrius (Aaron Huddleston) and Helena (Crystal VanMeter). But that’s not all.
The couples’ searches for love become entwined as Puck (Amanda Greene), a
mischievous fairy, plays pranks on the mortals.
But even that’s not the end as the plot thickens to include the dispute between
Oberon (Andy Frost), the king of the fairies, and Titania (Missie Mills), his
queen.
“There are many moments in the show, everybody’s got their moment,” Major said.
“People who like composition in period style plays; they’ll have a lot of look
at visually.”
Perhaps the most comical portion of the production is the play within the actual
play. Athenian rustics prepare a play for the royal family that includes
sophomore Ryan Arnold dressed as a woman, a human pretending to be a wall, a
roaring lion and a dog.
“I’ve always loved the play within the play,” Major said. “I’ve directed that
portion of the play several times over the years and it’s one of my favorite
sections.”
Rehearsals for the play hit a snag last weekend when the power in Jonesborough
went out, leaving the group without light to hold a dress rehearsal. Therefore,
the cast had only one dress rehearsal on Monday night.
“(By Monday’s rehearsal) they’d been away from the show since 6 p.m. on
Saturday,” Major said. “So I think they did remarkably well.”
This is the second production that Milligan has done in conjunction with JRT.
The first, “Footloose,” was performed last semester to sold-out audiences. Not
yet ready to release the title, Major plans to return to the Milligan campus for
this fall’s production.
“As we’re getting closer to the prospect of having a facility at Milligan, I’m
anxious for many reasons just to be back on campus,” Major said. “I want to
establish our presence back at Milligan a little more. All of these things out
in the community have been good for us and good for Milligan too. But like I
say, I’m just ready to go home.”
Tickets are still on sale for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” which will run
through Sunday.
Their poetry in the air not lost/ students and faculty for three days more/the
labyrinth of Shakespeare will endure.