A Midsummer Night's Dream Educational Materials
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Old Town Playhouse Main Stage A Midsummer Night’s Dream Educational Materials March, 2018 A Midsummer Night’s Dream Mychelle Hopkins, Education Director This issue contains: Synopsis—RSC Synopsis A story of order and disorder, magic plant to cast a spell on About the Author reality and appearance and love Titania. and marriage. Theseus, Duke of A Performance History Athens, and Hippolyta, Queen of The juice of the plant, when the Amazons are to be married squeezed onto the eyes of some- Theatre Vocabulary and great celebrations are planned. one asleep, causes them to fall in love with the first creature they Design Plates Into the forest see when they wake up. Oberon Egeus brings his rebellious daugh- uses the juice on Titania as she Unpacking the Editor ter Hermia in front of the Duke. sleeps in her bower. Egeus wants her to marry Deme- Helena after all. Bottom Elizabeth I, Shakespeare’s Queen wakes up and recounts his trius but Hermia refuses, because Puck overhears the tradesmen she's in love with Lysander. The 'strange dream'. Shakespeare predicts the future rehearsing and magically trans- Duke orders Hermia to obey her forms Bottom's head into that of father or, according to Athenian an ass. The other men are terrifed The wedding of Theseus and Director’s Notes law, she must face a death penalty and flee the forest. When Titania Hippolyta becomes a triple or enter a convent. wakes, the first creature she sees celebration as the other hu- is Bottom and she falls rapturous- man couples marry too. Hermia and Lysander decide to ly in love with him. Quince and Bottom's troupe elope that night. They confide in amuses the couples with their amateur performance of the their friend Helena. However, Helena chases Demetrius in the “More studies are finding what she's secretly in love with Deme- forest and their fighting disturbs play. trius so, hoping to win his affec- Oberon. He tells Puck to use the we already know in our tion, she tells him of Hermia's plan. magic plant on Demetrius too, so As the couples retire, Ober- That night, all four lovers set out that he will fall in love with Hele- on, Titania and the fairies hearts—the arts DO make a into the forest. na. However Puck muddles up the perform a blessing, and Puck two Athenian men and uses it on positive impact on our youth! Meanwhile, a group of Athenian Lysander instead, who promptly asks the audience to applaud tradesmen (known as the Mechani- falls in love with Helena. Both if they enjoyed the perfor- Individually. Socially. Academi- cals), led by Peter Quince, are women are confused and Hermia mance. planning to perform a play in cele- furiously attacks her friend. cally.” bration of the Duke's wedding. https://www.rsc.org.uk/a-midsummer- nights-dream/the-plot. They rehearse The Tragedy of Pyra- Eventually, Oberon lifts all the mus and Thisbe in the same forest. enchantments and puts the hu- mans to sleep. Titania is horrifed Love at first sight that she's been enamoured of an Elsewhere in the forest, the fairy ass and is reconciled with Ober- king and queen, Oberon and Tita- on. On waking, the lovers decide nia, argue over Titania's refusal to the night's events must have all give up her page-boy to Oberon. been a dream. Lysander and Her- He sends his servant Puck to find a mia are back to normal, and De- metrius admits he does love A Midsummer Night’s Dream About the author Educational “He was not of an age, but for all would have gotten his basic educa- using lumber and timbers from Materials time” said the playwright Ben Jonson, tion. He would have learned Latin an earlier home called simply, writing about his friend, William and writing and would have first The Theatre. The Globe burnt Shakespeare. So much has been writ- encountered classical plays and down in 1613 during a perfor- ten about Shakespeare, there are whole poems. mance of Henry VIII and was re- library sections devoted to his work built. There is today a replica In late 1582 there is a record of and the study of his work and life. He theatre operating near the very William Shakespeare marrying is arguably the most famous playwright site of Shakespeare’s Globe. Anne Hathaway. They had three in the history of the English language. children together, Susanna, Judith The company of actors to which So, what do we know about this man? and Hamnet (who were twins). In Shakespeare belonged was re- William Shakespeare was the third of August of 1596—around the time named The King’s Men when eight children and the first boy born to A Midsummer Night’s Dream James I ascended the throne in John Shakespeare and Mary Arden. He was being first performed perhaps, 1603. Shakespeare continued to was baptized on April 26th, 1564 in Shakespeare’s only son, Hamnet, write plays for another decade or Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon- was buried. The cause of his death so, finally retiring to Stratford- Avon, England. His birthday is tradi- is unknown. upon-Avon, where he bought tionally set three days earlier, April one of the largest, most expen- We don’t know when, exactly, 23rd, which is also St. George’s Day. sive properties in the town. His Shakespeare moved to London but life as a playwright, poet, actor, William’s father was for a time, Mayor he was certainly writing and per- shareholder, husband and father of the tiny village of Stratford and this forming there by the early 1590’s. A Midsummer ended on April 23rd, 1616. He is position allowed young William to at- The Globe Theatre, Shakespeare’s Night’s Dream buried in Holy Trinity Church tend the local grammar school when he Theatre, was built in 1599 by his Educational where millions have visited to was eight. At the King’s New School he company, The Chamberlain’s Men Materials see his grave. An Early Production History A Midsummer Night’s Dream may have been written for a private occasion, possi- self. Samuel Phelps cast himself as Bottom in bly to celebrate Elizabeth Carey’s wedding 1853 at Sadler’s Wells in a production which in February 1596. What is certain is that it freed the play from meretricious glitter and mus- was given public performances before 1598 lin fairies, achieving an appropriately magical ef- and that when it was published in 1600 the fect. Ellen Terry, aged nine, played Puck in 1856 title page claimed that it had been “sundry for Charles Kean and when Beerbohm Tree times publickely acted”. No principal mounted a sumptuous production in January 1900 source for the plot is known, though it was with the customary troops of children as Shakespeare makes use of his reading of fairies and Oberon and Puck played by actresses. Ovid and Chaucer. When Samuel Pepys He provided a carpet of thyme and wild flowers, A bust of Shakespeare in saw A Midsummer Night’s Dream on 29 brakes and thickets full of blossom. Live rabbits Holy Trinity Church, September, 1662 he was determined never were added for revivals in 1905 and 1911. His Stratford-upon-Avon to see it again “for it is the most insipid production was revolutionary. He presented the ridiculous play that ever I saw in my life”. play using an apron stage with different levels and Betterton’s lavishly expensive production slate-grey canvas flats. Palace and woodland of Purcell’s The Fairy Queen in 1692 creat- scenes were simply contrasted with drop- ed a fashion for operatic versions of the curtains, silken suggestions of trees and gauze. A play that would culminate in Frederick row of futuristic columns complemented the out- Reynolds’ 1816 presentation of A midsum- landishness of fairies dressed and painted in gold, mer Night’s Dream with seascapes and whose movements were perceived as oddly me- fairies singing in clouds. At Covent Garden chanical or vaguely oriental. The uncertainty Educational Materials for A liberated the imagination. in 1840 Madame Vestris restored Shake- Midsummer Night’s Dream speare’s text, introduced Mendelssohn’s From Shakespeare in Performance, incidental music and played Oberon her- Edited by Keith Parsons and Pamela Mason are provided through a grant from the Worthington Family Foundation. We thank them Page 2 for their support. GLOSSARY OF THEATRE TERMS A Midsummer Night’s Dream Act: 1) The process of per- tres and one of the world’s Director: A person who provides the forming as a character. 2) A great capitals of live theatre. artistic vision, coordinates the creative main section of a play. elements and stages the play. Cast: 1) noun The performers Actor: A person who per- in a show, “We have a great Dress Rehearsal: A run-through of the forms as a character in a play cast.” 2) verb The act of the show that includes costumes, props and or musical. selection of an actor for a play, technical elements. “I hope I get cast in the next Antagonist: The opponent to Ensemble: 1) A group of people who play.” the protagonist (or hero) of work together to create a show. 2) The the story. An antagonist may Character: A human (or ani- chorus, or members of the cast other sometimes be called the mal) represented in a play. than the leads. “villain.” Each actor plays a character, Entrance: When a character steps onto even if that character doesn’t Audience: The people who the stage from the wings or other off- have a name in the script.