A Midsummer night’s dream
To the 2019 International Thespian Festival
Will Shakespeare’s
North Penn High School Theatre
& Thespian Troupe 5464
All Photographs: Lou Liguori
www.louliguoriphotography.com
The Journey to performances
November 16-18
Three Performances North Penn High School Fall Show
June 20, 2019
Two Performances North Penn High School Pre-ITF
December 1, 2018
One Performance Pennsylvania Thespian Chapter Conference
June 28, 2019
Two Performances
2019 International Thespian Festival
Directors’ notes: It begins with a concept
Most people, when hearing that a high school is producing a Shakespeare play, run for the hills. First, having only experienced Shakespeare in a classroom, they shudder. All those long words and rhyming, really? Second, teenagers “speaking the speech”. What else can we do this weekend?
There are many questions surrounding Shakespeare and people can get pretty worked up trying to answer them. Did he write the plays? We think Gerard J. Schubert, O.S.F.S., founder of DeSales University’s Performing Arts Department and the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, had the best theory: Would a company of actors really be able to keep that secret? Hmm!? What most theatre critics can agree on is, our Will was a practical man of the theatre. He knew what worked with audiences in his day, and golly gee, in our day, too. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is funny. We’ve giggled our way through rehearsals and had great fun discovering the physicality of the play.
Shakespeare was notorious for setting his plays in some faraway time, in this case classical Athens, and then filling the script with anachronisms that were more Elizabethan than Greek – it’s part of the fun. Theseus and Hippolyta are Greek heroes, but in Midsummer they resemble Elizabethan nobility. The “Rude Mechanicals,” tradesmen of Athens, are craftsmen found on any Elizabethan street. Greek names, yes; but, Elizabethan society, mores, and allusions, yes, too. And then there are the fairies, of course. That’s Shakespeare.
It’s not unusual to reset Shakespearean plays to other times and places. The trick is not shoving the play into a preconceived idea, but finding a concept that illuminates the script for our time, our place, our audience. Since so many in our audience will be students, we wanted to draw them into this story—-and, hope to instill a life-long love of Shakespeare.
Steam Punk is by definition a style of design or fashion that combines historical elements with anachronistic technological features. Inspired by the Industrial Revolution and science fiction, it began as a literary genre and then grew. It’s fantastical. It’s imaginative. It’s creative. It’s personal—you add something to an object and make it your own. It became the basis of our collaboration on the set, costumes, lights, props, music, acting, choreography. We found a freedom of creation when we entered it’s portal. It fit with the story, the characters, the fantasy of Midsummer. And the younger (than us) generations love it. We worked carefully to find the play through Steam Punk and to allow it to evolve (no pushing!)—-with some creative license that made sense to us. We believe Shakespeare, while probably surprised how his plays have survived, would also want them to make sense to new generations. We hope he approves of our Steam Punk Midsummer . . . and we hope you do, too.
Thank you to all the students and staff who have approached this show with openness, passion, and humor. We have stretched each other far out of our comfort zones. it has been a delight. Now, come join the fun.
and continues with �a student designed �logo . . . That�inspired a set
This could be the part of the presentation where you can introduce yourself, write your email...
Josie Genuardi, artist
That finds its �way into the �the publicity
and the program, here streamlined for the 2019 international thespian festival
—Puck� (or will)
"Oh, What fools
these mortals be!"
shakespeare ends Midsummer well with the couples wedded, �a dance, & a blessing.
2019 international thespian festival
The excitement of being chosen for a Main Stage Production
at the 2019 International Thespian Festival
More Information www.npenn.org/theatre
If we shadows have offended,�think but this, and all is mended,�that you have but slumber’d here�while these visions did appear.�. . . So, good night unto you all.�Give me your hands, if we be friends,�and robin shall restore amends.