Proud Participant of the Montclair State Theatre Night Awards Competition
From the Director
“Hand in hand with fairy grace Will we sing, and bless this place.”
It has been my distinct pleasure over the past eight weeks to work with an immensely talented group of staff and students on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Being the first-ever Shakespeare play for Ridge Drama Club, we have explored the story, investigating its language, character, story, movement, and the magic, both within the play and in our collaboration together. We have rehearsed most days after school, ventured to see a Shakespearean production at Drew University by Shakespeare NJ, and taken inspiration from Julie Taymour’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It has been a rich and rewarding process.
Believed to have been written around 1595, A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of Shakespeare's most popular comedies. As G.K. Chesterton wrote, “Shakespeare, not knowing what to do with his characters, turned them out to play in the woods.” In Midsummer, love and happiness are pursued in these woods as man attempts to control nature, other humans, and other forces beyond control. Sometimes we all find ourselves trying to control things we can’t: changing people’s minds, a grade, an outcome, or even our feelings. In our “real world,” there aren’t magic flowers from fairy kings to control the uncontrollable. But if we give up trying to control what we cannot control, we might just find our happiness becomes more unconditional.
This piece we have created together centers around an uncontrollable dream; how we dream and how our dreamed stories bizarrely weave together to make something of complete sense in the present moment. From our unconventional set pieces (sometimes even made out of actors!) and repurposed materials used to make costumes, to the jarring music throughout, we shine a bright spotlight on the unconventional, the weird, the different, the silly and the bizarre to tell our story; to tell Shakespeare’s story - a dream.
To my cast and crews - I love you with all my heart and I could not be more proud. Shakespeare is no easy task. But still, we brave it and share his lofty ambition. As one Nick Bottom hoped that the Queen and the wedding guests were amused, we hope that you will be too. As for our production … blessings and apologies!
“If we shadows have offended
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber’d here
While these visions did appear”
-Martha Harvey, Director
