A Midsummer Night's Dream Educational Materials

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. An gather to watch the perfor- stage area. actor may play many characters mance. The audience sits in in the same play. Exit: When a character leaves the stage. the house. Choreographer: A person Follow Spot: Large, movable light at Auditions: Tryouts held for who creates the dance num- the back of the house that follows an actors who want to perform in bers in a musical or combat actor as he or she crosses the stage. a show. Actors auditioning for sequences in an adventure Also called a spotlight. a musical may be asked to sing story. and read a particular charac- Front of House: Any part of the theater’s lines from a scene as well Climax: The height of the tre that is open to the audience, includ- Stump detail, Matt as learn a short dance se- dramatic action in a play. ing the box office, lobby, restrooms and McCormick, Designer quence. concession area. Company: All of the people Author: A writer of a play or who make a show happen: Improvisation: When an actor per- musical, which is also known as actors, musicians, creative forms something not written in a script. a playwright. A musical’s au- team, crew, producers, etc. Intermission: A break between acts thors include the book writer, “Independent Crew: A team of people who when the audience gets a snack or uses the composer and the lyricist. the restroom while the company chang- move scenery, operate lights studies show Backstage: The area out of and sound, handle props or es the set and costumes. In European view of the audience that in- work backstage during a pro- theatres this break is called “the Inter- clude the wings and dressing duction. val.” increased years rooms as well as the lounge Curtain Call: The entrance of License: Permission, or the rights, to area or “green room.” of enrollment in the company at the end of the produce a play in exchange for a fee Blocking: The actors’ move- show to bow and acknowledge which covers script copies and royalties arts courses are ment in a play or musical, not the audience’s applause. for the authors. including the choreography. Designers: The people who Light Board: A computerized board The director usually assigns positively create the sets, costumes, light- that controls all of the theatrical lights blocking during rehearsals. ing and sound for a production. for a show. correlated with Break a leg: A wish of “good Dialogue: A conversation Lines: The dialogue spoken by the ac- luck” in the theatre, which between two or more charac- tors. comes from a superstition that higher SAT verbal ters. Matinee: A performance of a show held saying “good luck” is actually during the day. bad luck! Diction: The articulation, or and math clearness of speech, while de- Mic: Short for “microphone,” a device Broadway: The theatre dis- livering one’s lines. Also that electronically amplifies the voices of trict in New York City that is scores.” known as “enunciation.” the actors. home to 40 professional thea- Page 3 A Midsummer Night’s Dream Educational Monologue: A large block of lines Raked Stage: A stage that is Stage Left: The left side of the stage, Materials spoken by a single character. When raised slightly upstage so it slants from the actor’s perspective. spoken alone onstage or directly to towards the audience. Stage Manager: A person responsible for an audience, a monologue reveals Rehearsal: A meeting during keeping all rehearsals and performances the inner thoughts of a character. which the cast learns and practices organized and on schedule, and for calling Offstage: Any area out of view of the show. sound and light cues during the show. the audience. Rights: Permission to perform a Strike: 1) To remove a prop or set piece Onstage: Anything on the stage show that is obtained through a from the stage. 2) To clean up the stage and within view of the audience is license and payment of a fee called after closing. said to be onstage. royalties. Tableau: A frozen image made up of Pantomime: To act something out Role: The character that an actor actors, usually showing a specific mood or without words. plays. idea.

A Midsummer Performance: 1) A single showing Scene: A section of a play in one Technical Director: A person who Night’s Dream of a production. 2) An actor’s in- particular location and time. coordinates the construction and painting terpretation of a character in front of the sets, the hanging of the lights and Educational Script: 1) The written words that of an audience. the setup of the sound system. Materials make up a show, including dia- Play: A type of dramatic writing logue, stage directions and lyrics. Technical Rehearsal: A rehearsal when meant to be performed live on a 2) The book that contains those the crew begins adding sets, lights, sound stage. A musical is one kind of play. words. etc., to the show once the performers know the lines, songs and blocking. Also Plot: The chain of events that occur Set: The entire physical environ- called “tech.” during the play. ment onstage, which may include backdrops, flats, furniture, props Theatrical Lights: Lights that hang from Producer: The person in charge of and projections. the ceiling of a theatre or on poles, or a production who oversees budget, “booms” above or on the side of the stage. calendar, marketing and the hiring of Set Change: A change in scenery, These lights illuminate the actors and con- the creative team, cast and crew. often between scenes or acts. vey time of day and specific moods. Production: This term refers to Set Designer: A person who Underscore: Music that plays under everything about a show onstage creates the scenery. dialogue or during a scene change. and off, every given night of the run. Setting: The location, environ- A production includes the perform- Understudy: An actor who learns a ment and time period of a play. ing and technical aspects of the character other than his own and is able to show, which means that each group Sound Board: An electronic play that character if the other actor is that presents a show will have a board or computer that controls sick. unique production. the mics, sound cues and any oth- Upstage: The part of the stage furthest er audio in a production. Also Program: A booklet that lists the from the audience. called a sound console. entire company of a production and Usher: A person who shows the audi- may include other information Stage: The area where the actors ence to their seats and hands out pro- about the play. perform in a theatre. grams. Prop: Anything an actor holds or Stage Business: Small actions Warm-up: Exercises at the beginning of carries during a performance. Short performed by actors that make a a rehearsal or before a performance that for “property.” play more realistic and believable. prepare actors’ voices and bodies. Proscenium: A type of theatre in Stage Directions: Words in the Wings: The area to the side of the stage which a large frame, or arch, divides script that describe the actions for just out of the audience’s view. the stage from the house. the characters that are not part of the dialogue. Protagonist: The main character or hero of a story. Page 4 GLOSSARY OF THEATRE TERMS A Midsummer Night’s Dream Theatre versus Theater: The word “theatre” can also be spelled “theater” and is defined in two ways. The first definition is the art of produc- ing plays and musicals for a live audience. The second definition is the building or place in which a show is performed including stage, backstage and house. Often the word is spelled with an “er” when it describes a cinema or movie theater. For the purposes of this glossary, we are using the “re” spelling throughout to refer to both the practice of theatrical activity and the physical building in which it takes place.

Types of Stages Arena: The audience is seated on all four sides of the performance space. Also called “in the round.” Proscenium: The audience is seated on one side, facing the stage. The arch or frame around the stage is called the proscenium arch. Stadium: The audience is seated on two opposite sides of the performance space.

Thrust: The audience is seated on three sides of the performance space in a U-shape. The stage itself can be shallow or very deep. “Independent studies show increased

years of enrollment in arts courses are

positively correlated with higher SAT

verbal and math scores.”

Page 5 Unpacking the Editor

Scholars who study and shape the text of Shakespeare’s plays are called “editors” and over the centuries there have been countless editions of his plays. An editor might decide between variations in the source materials, whether to use a semi-colon or a comma, etc. Oftentimes their work is minute and extremely detailed. Most modern editions of Shakespeare’s plays contain introductory pages that talk about his life and times, as well as the history of the particular play in the edition. Often these pages can seem a bit pedantic. Sometimes the editor’s preface can seem like a foreign language! Let’s unpack some of this material and give you some ideas and tools to make full use of the editor’s scholarship to aggrandize your own understanding. For this exercise let’s use an earlier page in this educational packet; An Early Production History of A Midsum- mer Night’s Dream, found on page 2. In the first paragraph, we find the name of a noblewoman named Elizabeth Carey. Who was she? Why would she be so important to our playwright? This is a great jumping off place for some further investigation. Notice also how the editor writes “may have been” – this is code for “we don’t really know for a fact but this is our best guess”. One fact that is indisputable is the quote Mason and Parsons use from the title page of the first printing of the play – “sundry times publickely acted.” Notice the antiquated spelling. During the Elizabethan Period spelling was still very fluid and many spelling variations could be found for the same word in the same document! Third graders everywhere, take heart. The editors also mention Ovid and Chaucer. These are poets from earlier periods, Ovid from Italy, Chaucer from England that Shakespeare would have studied in grammar school. Much of his source material comes from these two authors. Again, these names could launch a fruitful periphery examination. You probably have heard of these poets. You may not have heard of Samuel Pepys (pronounced “peeps”) who is quoted by our editors in the piece. This fellow was just an average play-goer. What makes him exceptional and worth quoting is that he kept copious notes in his diaries explaining what he saw, how it was staged, and whether or not he liked it. While he didn’t have a five star system or even a thumbs up or down, he was perhaps our first real drama critic. Pepys’ Diary is extant and one can read them (with proper clearance) in the British Library, provided you can read Elizabethan Secretary Hand. The next section of the piece introduces some famous Nineteenth Century Actors like Thomas Betterton, Madame Vestris, Samuel Phelps and Ellen Terry. Examples of meretricious production values throughout this period are a treasure trove of further exploration. In just 100 years, productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream went from over-the-top Romanticism to the white box simplicity of Peter Brook’s “Dream” in 1970. In conclusion, when an editor’s preface seems too scholarly to absorb, or you are tackling a Shakespearean play for the first time, take it slow and look up what you don’t know. Begin by defining the italicized words in this exercise: Aggrandize Antiquated British Library Elizabethan Period Elizabethan Secretary Hand Meretricious Nineteenth Century Actors Pedantic Pepy’s Diary Romanticism Source materials

And find out who these folks were: Chaucer Elizabeth Carey Ellen Terry Madame Vestris Ovid Peter Brook Samuel Pepys Samuel Phelps Thomas Betterton

Share your exploration with your class. Detail of the DSR Loft—Matt McCormick, Scenic Designer, OTP March 2018 Elizabeth I, Shakespeare’s Queen

The Coronation Portrait, c. 1600. Copy of 1559 lost original. Artist Unknown.

Ditchley Portrait (right) by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger oil on canvas, circa 1592

Known as the 'Ditchley Portrait', this painting was produced for Sir Henry Lee who had been the Queen's Champion from 1559-90. It probably commemorates an elaborate symbolic entertainment which Lee organised for the Queen in September 1592, and which may have been held in the grounds of Lee's house at Ditchley, near Oxford, or at the nearby palace at Woodstock.. After his retirement in 1590 Lee lived at Ditchley with his mistress Anne Vavasour. The entertainment marked the Queen's forgiveness of Lee for becoming a 'stranger lady's thrall'. The portrait shows Elizabeth standing on the globe of the world, with her feet on Oxfordshire. The stormy sky, the clouds parting to reveal sunshine, and the inscriptions on the painting, make it plain that the portrait's symbolic theme is forgiveness. The three fragmentary Latin inscriptions can be interpreted as: (left) 'She gives and does not expect'; (right) 'She can but does not take revenge', and (bottom right) 'In giving back she increases (?)'. The sonnet (right), perhaps composed by Lee, though fragmentary, can mostly be reconstructed. Its subject is the sun, symbol of the monarch. From The Life and Times of Elizabeth I by Neville Williams, Antonia Fraser, General Editor

Visscher’s Panoramic View of London, 1616 (above)

“When students have the opportunity to engage in a dramatic enactment of a story, their overall understanding of the story improved...Drama can also be an effective method to develop the quality of a child’s narrative writing.”

Shakespeare Predicts the future In his seminal book, Shakespeare Our Contemporary, Jan Kott points out that Old Town Playhouse One of the most studied speeches in A Mid- when Puck claims to “put a girdle Main Stage summer Night’s Dream is the “progeny of round about the earth in forty evils” speech delivered by Titania to Oberon minutes” the character unwittingly in Act II, scene 1. Modern scholars see this as a haunting description of Climate Change predicts the future. The first Russian 148 E. 8th Street in our modern world. sputnik encircled the earth in forty- Traverse City, MI 49684 seven minutes! Phone: 231-947-2210 ‘...the moon, the governess of floods, pale in Fax: 231-947-4955 her anger, washes all the air, that rheumatic E-mail: diseases do abound. And thorough this dis- [email protected] temperature we see the seasons alter.’ Visit the following (copy and paste address in your favorite web browser) for a modern film- ing of this famous speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vRlm_la7kU

Some notes from our production’s Director From the Director…

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, one of Shakespeare’s greatest comedies, ironically begins as a tragedy. Women are treated as spoils of war or property to pass on, an earnest couple is told they are not allowed to love who they love, and two powerful royals focus on carrying out their personal vendettas at the expense of the health of the natural world. Unfortunately, our current culture is just as heavily divided. Violence in words and actions is rampant and, as Midsummer’s Fairy Queen articulates, “This same progeny of evils comes from our debate, from our dissention. We are their parents and original.”

Amidst the fantastical creatures, slapstick comedy, and lush visual delights of this timeless tale, “The Dream” also cautions us not only against reckless love but reckless hate. True magic comes from empathy, from radical openness, from deep listening, and from the ancient understanding that there is unity in diversity. Each member of this enchanted company—mortals and myths alike—goes through a unique journey from separa- tion to surrender; from fear-based actions of territorialism and control to love-based actions of humility, generosity, and selfless love. This poign- ant romp illuminates the folly of division, challenging each of us to ask: What part of my heart can I soften? What olive branch can I extend? What can I let go for the benefit of others? “Do you amend it then. It lies in you.”

Thank you for opening yourself to this special production. May we all as “sweet pucks” carry the message of these happy endings into our lives, into our communities, and throughout the world.

~ Shelby Lewis