To say Jean Hardie has experience directing “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is an understatement.
Each of the 17 years she taught at St. George’s School, Hardie directed a production of the William Shakespeare comedy with the eighth-graders. Some years, the class had 18 students, others 36, and she would find a way to make sure the show went on no matter what.
From those productions, she had a pared down script that worked well for younger performers, so when Spokane Civic Theatre asked Hardie if she would be interested in directing “Midsummer” for their summer Civic Academy program, it was an easy yes.
“One of the things that I really admire about this play is how many great parts there are,” she said. “I think there are probably as many really good roles with lots of stuff to do in them as any play I’ve ever encountered … It’s nice to direct, because people aren’t sitting around waiting a lot. Everybody’s getting involved, and somebody’s learning to fight, and somebody’s learning to dance.
“There’s always something to be working on.”
The play features three storylines that are connected by the wedding of Theseus (Daniel Stuhlmiller) and Hippolyta (Talene Rivera).
There is conflict among four lovers, Helena (Myranda Lloyd), Lysander (Toby King), Demetrius (Grayson Blakesley) and Hermia (TaeZhanae Hays-Cormier), with Hermia’s mother Egeus (Virginia Carr) wishing she would marry Demetrius instead of Lysander.
There is also a group of six actors working on a play which they will perform before the big wedding. Theseus has chosen “Pyramus and Thisbe” despite the bad review from Philostrate (Lily Johnson), his Master of Revels.
The mechanicals, aka the six actors, are Nick Bottom (Garrett Schibel), Peter Quince (Katelynn Roohr), Francis Flute (Nakylah Pry), Snug, the Joiner (Monty McGrew), Tom Snout (Reuben Erlinso) and Robin Starveling (An Tran).
Meddling with the lovers and the actors are a group of fairies with troubles of their own: Oberon (Jarrett Beaudry), who is the king of the fairies, his queen Titania (Elly Sims), Puck (Jimmy Morin), Peasblossom (Darby Shuster) Mustardseed (Presley Hodgson), Moth (Madaline Arnold) and Cobweb (Alexandra Haas).
The cast also features Aaron Johnson and Creedence Danielson as Oberon’s attendants.
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is directed by Hardie, assistant directed by Jameson Elton, stage managed by Lily Savage and produced by Janice Ambramson. It opens Friday and runs through Aug. 2 at Spokane Civic Theatre.
Hardie has trimmed down some of the “really particularly long speeches” while keeping the strongest and best parts in an attempt to keep the piece moving, though she notes Shakespeare did a great job of that himself.
Hardie has found the language of Shakespeare to be appealing to younger performers familiar with the Bard and those who haven’t read his work. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in particular always seemed to garner excitement from the theater kids she worked with and those who heard the play was being produced and decided to audition just because.
“It’s then getting them used to language, the way Shakespeare uses grammar, the way he uses punctuation, the way he uses poetry,” Hardie said. “The nice thing about ‘Midsummer’ is that all of those things are there. They are very accessible for the kids to do.”
Other choices Hardie and Elton have made make the show even more accessible. There’s the choice of costume which, while not focused on any particular time, has been modernized. Helen is a little goth, while Hermia has a more typically feminine style. Demetrius and Lysander are so interchangeable that those actors are dressed almost exactly alike.
The mechanicals are a bit of a hodge-podge of looks, from farmer to surfer, while the fairies are as fanciful as possible.
The music too is eclectic, including everything from ballads and Felix Mendelssohn to cool instrumental music and Madonna tunes.
“To try to express what the character is about or what the moment is about, rather than trying to find one thing like ‘Oh, we’re in this time and place,’ ” Hardie said.
Similarly, the set pieces make it clear where the action is taking place without being tied to the look of a certain era or location. The whole set is fairly woodsy, Hardie said, but in scenes set in the court, the cast and crew will pull those elements forward while scenes set in the forest will feel immersive.
When the action is with the fairies, the lighting will be sparkly to emulate stars in the sky, while scenes with the mortal characters will be lit in a more realistic way.
“That’s another nice thing about ‘Midsummer’ is that it’s easy to figure out how to flow from one scene to another …” Hardie said. “The way he jumps from one set of characters to another, and then has them interacting with each other, the way it all weaves together is just so wonderful.”
Through those intertwining stories, there are many depictions of love, some of them the happily-ever-after kind and others not so much. Save for Hermia’s mother (her father in the original play) being so insistent about who she wants her daughter to marry, Hardie believes many of those depictions will be recognizable to audiences, including Helena being a little clingy when it comes to Demetrius, who himself is interested in Hermia.
Being able to recognize elements of ourselves or people we know in these characters is just one of the reasons Hardie thinks “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” has maintained its popularity over the centuries.
“It’s a great entry point for kids doing Shakespeare, if nothing else, and hopefully leading them into wanting to do more,” she said. “Shakespeare is not done generally as much as I wish it could be, and I get it, because I think audiences really want to experience Shakespeare, but when they do, sometimes they’re like ‘I don’t know if I got it,’ but they’ll get ‘Midsummer.’ ”
If You Go
‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’
When: Friday through Aug. 2. 7:30 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
Where: Spokane Civic Theatre, 1020 N. Howard St.
Cost: $20/students; $36.50/adults. Tickets available through spokanecivictheatre.com.
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Article by Azaria Podplesky
Photo by Ryan Wasson