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From
Thursday, December 9, 2004
Some enchanted evening
UMD Theatre Company presents Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'
By David B. Boyce
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From
The Student Newspaper of UMASS Dartmouth
Thursday, December 16, 2004
Dreams come true
The Theatre Company performs a Shakespeare play for the first time in 30 years
By Melissa K. Sance
At a five-day workshop held prior to auditions for "A Midsummer Night's Dream," director Stephan Golux told the Theatre Company they would do the impossible. "By the last day of the workshop," says TCO president Paul Ferrari, "we were conveying powerful monologues wearing masks and speaking absolutely no words, jumping rope while balancing a three-foot wooden dowel on one finger, and learning to move our bodies in series of sequences that if I described them wouldn't even make sense."
Their next trick? Resurrecting Shakespeare.
The noted playwright's TCO-time seemed to expire after the company's 1971 performance of "Romeo and Juliet." But last year, the group's executive board proposed that "Midsummer" open the 2004 season, and last weekend, Shakespeare was back on stage.
In all senses of the word, the show was magical.
As a fanciful tale of love gone wrong, "Midsummer" was meant to be enchanting. But the Theatre Company's rendition was nothing short of stunning. Fog drifted over a stage simply furnished with two benches, which the actors climbed, crawled, and sprawled on. All the actors turned in commanding performances: Stephanie Smith was breathtaking as Titania, and Mike Lynch was equally sensational as Oberon. Reilly White, Andrew McKay, Jen White, and Erica Miethner gave passionate performances as the star-crossed Athenian lovers, and Paul Ferrari was captivating as Puck.
Ironically, it was the play-within-the-play that stole the show -- Mike Smith was hilarious as Bottom, and Bottom's fellow craftsmen only followed suit.
The show's only flaw: it only ran for one weekend.
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