The magic that goes into ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’
Hermia, played by senior Holly Cummings, plots an escape to marry her forbidden love Lysander, played by senior Ethan Moyer. “I was super excited because I had never played a part that big before, and Hermia is such an exciting and interesting character to play on stage,” Cummings said.
October 18, 2022
As the audience’s small talk turns to silent anticipation, the warm glow of spotlights illuminates the stage. From fairy kings to forbidden romance, this play guided family members and friends along a Shakespearean storyline.
Recently, students from the Starlight Theatre Company (STC) performed two Shakespeare plays, including a production of Macbeth as well as A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
“It felt good to perform in the theatre space, particularly with a larger stage,” junior Finn Alexander said. “It definitely felt like there was more room to express fully the energy that we wanted to put out there, I thoroughly enjoyed it.”
Regarding the production of two separate Shakespeare plays, theatre students found themselves putting in a lot of preparation.
“We start with the set, and we started with that at the end of last year,” technical director Colton Perry said. “Because of stuff that was happening with the theater for construction purposes we were working around a lot of unique obstacles. It’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work to make the magic.”
With that being said, theatre teacher Matthew Humphrey also recognizes the part young actors played in making this show come together.
“Our theater kids are wonderful, their heart is in the right place,” Humphrey said. “They’re enthusiastic about the work even if they don’t always understand it, which is some of the challenge of teaching and directing Shakespeare.”
A Midsummer Night’s Dream follows the love story of two couples who attempt to clear the obstacles in their path to marriage, but only make matters worse with the help of a fairy named Puck played by sophomore Eli Cabello.
“He is the servant of the fairy king, so I got to dance around a lot,” Cabello said. “Puck is kind of a goofy guy, and I just got to be silly the whole time.”
While performing such a reputable play could cause students to feel pressure, it also proved to be a very rewarding experience.
“I was really proud of the show, we all worked really hard to get the show done,” senior Holly Cummings said. “It looked really good in the end, so I was really confident in performing it.”
Students work closely and extensively with one another in order to create a performance that has allowed them to form a community.
“We spend so much time together, it’s kind of like a big family for us,” junior Josy Stevens said.
After all of that hard work, students have made so many memories they’ll get to look back on for years to come.
“I look forward to going to theatre because it’s where I see my friends, it’s where I work with the people that I look forward to seeing every day,” Stevens said.
