MIDDLEBURY — The Middlebury College Department of Theatre and Dance will present William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” May 5-8 in Wright Memorial Theatre on the college campus. None of Shakespeare’s plays celebrates the theater more exuberantly and systematically.
A play for all ages, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” interweaves three groups of characters: the king and queen of the fairy world and their shape-shifting trains, Duke Theseus and the Athenian star-crossed lovers, and a troupe of bumbling amateur actors who rehearse a play for performance at the duke’s wedding. In the moonlit forest all goes haywire when the juice of Cupid’s flower falls on the wrong eyes.
Professor Cláudio Medeiros directs 25 students to bring to life Shakespeare’s celebration of the magic of infatuation and the transformative power of theater itself. Inspired by the shamanic roots of performance across the world and the unruliness of the carnival spirit, the production sets the action in the here and now to remind the audience, young and old, that being beside oneself with infatuation is as demented as it is delicious.
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” will be performed on Thursday-Saturday, May 5-7, at 7:30 p.m., as well as Sunday, May 8, at 2 p.m. in Wright Memorial Theatre. There will be a post-show discussion with the cast and crew following the Friday night show.
Tickets are $12 for the general public; $10 for Middlebury College faculty, staff, alumni, emeriti, and other ID card holders; and $6 for Middlebury College students. The theater is located at 96 Chateau Road in Middlebury, just off Route 125/College Street. Free parking is available on College Street and in the parking lot behind the theater, accessible from Shannon Street. Handicap-accessible parking is available in front of the theater on Chateau Road on performance evenings.
For tickets or information, call (802) 443-MIDD (6433) or go to http://go.middlebury.edu/arts.