Dream brings together actors, orchestra, singers
By Caroline Moseley
Ay me! for aught that ever I could read,
Could ever hear by tale or history,
The course of true love never did run smooth.
(A Midsummer Night's Dream)
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Tom Dewey '01 (l) as
Demetrius and Majel Connery '01 as Hermia.
(Photo by Kate Blair '00)
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There are the aristocratic couples Hermia and Lysander and Helena and Demetrius; the feuding king and queen of the fairies, Oberon and Titania; and the illstarred lovers of the play-within-a-play, Pyramus and Thisbe. Presiding are Theseus, Duke of Athens, and his Hippolyta.
To keep the romantic pot boiling there is Oberon's favorite sprite Puck ("Lord, what fools these mortals be!") and the "rude mechanicals" -- artisans Quince the carpenter, Snout the tinker and Bottom the weaver (who has something of a fling with the Queen of the Fairies). The play is directed by Thomas Roche, Murray Professor of English Literature.
What makes this production especially remarkable is that the University Orchestra will also be on stage, playing the music that Felix Mendelssohn wrote for an 1843 production of the play at the Berlin Schauspielhaus. According to conductor Michael Pratt, Mendelssohn composed 11 numbers, including entr'actes, melodramas (spoken text over music), songs and choruses; the best known pieces are the Overture, Scherzo, Nocturne and Wedding March. The music is often performed in concerts, with a narrator, but only rarely are play and music combined, perhaps because of the expense of having a full cast and a full orchestra.
Working with music
Working with the music is a new experience for PSC actors. Says Adam Friedman '01 (who plays both Oberon and Theseus), "It's a challenge -- or opportunity -- to act in time with the orchestra, to listen for musical cues and, of course, to speak over the incidental music."
Assistant director Marion Friedman '00 observes, "This play is something really different because of the orchestra." The cast, many of whom are seniors and veterans of campus theatricals, "realize that they are only one part of the play."
All involved agree that the Mendelssohn score enhances Shakespeare's text. For instance, says Pratt, "One of the melodramas sets the scene wherein Puck leads the distraught pairs of lovers on a merry chase to the point of exhaustion. The music gently winds them down to sleep and comes to a pause; Puck pronounces his 'Jack shall have Jill, Naught shall go ill' benediction; and the Nocturne begins as the lovers are seen alseep."
Todd Barry '00, who plays Puck, sees his character "as an element that is able to bring Shakespeare's play and Mendelssohn's music together. Because the orchestra will be playing quite a bit when I'm on stage and speaking, I have a close relationship with the music. At the beginning of Act II, for example, the Scherzo plays for several minutes to set the mood for the fairy kingdom. I come out and simply listen to the orchestra, calling attention to the fact that this is a theatrical production."
And there is vocal as well as instrumental music: the fairy chorus will be sung by the women of the Katzenjammers.
Shakespeare's play takes place in ancient Athens, but the production will have little in the way of sets. "Richardson is such a beautiful space," says production manager Katie Oman '00. "The interior architecture suits the play and becomes our stage set. The arches, the columns, will be the city of Athens."
Says director Roche, long-time PSC dramaturg and sometime cast member, "We just rely on the Tiffany delights of the Richardson stage and the presence of a mighty orchestra." As to period, he says, "It is really no particular time, with a slight preference for Art Nouveau."
"This production," says Jacqueline Schaeffer '00, who will be seen in overalls as Snug the joiner and in faux fur as Lion, "pulls out all the stops."
Tickets for the 8:00 pm performances on March 2, 3 and 4 and the 2:00 pm matinee on March 4 may be purchased at the Richardson Auditorium box office. For further information, call Lindsey Mantoan '03 at 258-9865.
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