Arts & Entertainment

Midsummer Meets Mardi Gras at Plays in the Parks

Bring your lawn chair, snacks and bug spray for some outdoor Shakespeare.

Finding community actors who can handle Shakespeare seems like a difficult, if not impossible, task. But William Ward says he had no problem casting “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

“It’s not easy to handle, but there are so many talented people in the area, and we have a very strong cast who have all done Shakespeare before,” said Ward, who’s directing the Bard’s beloved comedy at the Amphitheater in Bernards July 29 through Aug. 5. “In Morris County and Somerset County, there’s a large pool of very, very good actors. We have a very strong cast.”

The play is a co-production by Trilogy Repertory Company and the Bernards Township Parks and Recreation Department, and is part of the township’s Plays in the Parks series.

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One of the goals for Ward and his cast and crew is to make Shakespeare accessible for younger audiences because the Plays in the Park series is geared toward families.

It’s something he said Trilogy has done before with plays like “Twelfth Night” and “As You Like It.” In addition to entertaining audiences, the show just might help kids when school comes around, because “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is often one of the first Shakespeare plays students study in school.

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“We use the original text, however we try to make the situations as understandable as possible,” the director said. “When people go away from our show and they say, ‘Hey, we finally understand what that play’s about,’ we consider that a success.”

Shakespeare’s romantic comedy follows Theseus, the Duke of Athens, as he awaits his wedding. Egeus seeks Theseus’ help in getting his daughter, Hermia, to marry Demetrius, but Hermia loves Lysander and refuses her father’s wish. Meanwhile, Hermia’s friend, Helena, loves Demetrius and has a plan to win him back.

Follow all of that? Even if you did, the play throws you (and its characters) a few curveballs.

Oberon, the king of the fairies who live in the woods, asks Puck to use magic to make Titania fall in love with the first person she sees when she wakes up, and to have Demetrius fall in love with Helena. But Puck gets things mixed up, and his attempt to make things right only complicates the situation.

To make “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” more accessible, Ward is setting it in woods near Athens, Louisiana, instead of Athens, Greece. So the fairy king and queen Oberon and Titania, are also the king and queen of Mardi Gras, and the fairies are Mardi Gras revelers.

“We’ve made it more accessible and that’s fun for us, rather than stand up there in tights and doublets and togas,” Ward said. “We’ve chosen to do our own thing with it, which is fun with Shakespeare.”

Another touch is to make the Duke, Lysander and Hermia members of a traveling circus.

Also helping to make the play more understandable is what Ward calls “just plain good acting.” The cast includes Lewis Decker as Oberon, Jennifer Wewers as Titania, Christie Leigh Carver as Helena, Alex Huston as Lysander, Felicia Coppola as Hermia and Sean Welsh Brown as Demetrius.

Ward has worked professionally in theater and appeared on Broadway in “Buddy, the Buddy Holly Story” and in a national tour of “The Sound Music.” This fall, he’ll work as the stage manager for the musical, “Kiki Baby” in New York.

With all that experience, he said, he' impressed with the Park in the Plays productions, which have been going on for 28 years, becoming a tradition in the area.

“People bring blankets and sandwiches and their beach chairs and their bug spray,” he said. “They come out and have a great night with their family. They’re introduced to William Shakespeare in many ways. It’s really a great community effort.”

Trilogy Repertory Players and the Bernards Township Parks and Recreation Department will present “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at Pleasant Valley Park Amphitheater on July 29 and 30, and Aug. 4 to 6. For information, go to TrilogyRepertory.com or Bernards.org.


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