A Midsummer Night’s Dream

I have not, as you might have assumed, dropped off the face of the earth.  I have not been home much over the last two weeks due to the fact that the children are participating in our local homeschool group’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

This has been such a wonderful experience for Ryan, Katie and Erin as well as myself.  The play is to take place at the Cottage which is a perfect setting for this woodsy play.  The children have been learning lines and rehearsing since early last fall and for the last three weeks rehearsals have been happening three times a week for several hours. The children are working extremely hard and are having a ball doing it.  Thank heavens we educate at home and are able to take advantage of such great opportunities.

The oldest actor in the play is fifteen and the youngest is three ( the Cottage toddler is a very sweet fairy).  The median age is about ten years old.

At first there was talk of doing an abridged edition of the play but our director/mom was certain the children could pull off the whole play, and pull it off they will. The first performance will take place on Friday, the second on Saturday and then an encore performance will happen next week.

This has been a group effort of great proportions.  One mom has art background and took on all of the costume design.  The actors had a great deal of input. She took their ideas and created some theater-worthy costumes.  A few of us have been helping out with the sewing, here are some of my efforts. The skirts are for Titania’s fairy companions, the white tunic is Katie’s costume, she is playing Philostrate the Master of Ceremonies in Theseus’ court.  The dark brown is Ryan’s tunic, he is playing Francis Flute who plays Thisbe in the play within the play. The white mantle is Thisbe’s.

I have spent more time at the sewing machine in the last three days than I have in the last three years. :).

Another mom has taken on set design and while the setting doesn’t need much enhancement I was blown away by her simple but amazing accents to the scenery. Another mom is props and prompter and we have all helped in various little ways. It has been great fun for me.

I neglected to bring my camera to today’s dress rehearsal so I will post pictures of the performances. Meantime I put Shakespeare in Spring in my sidebar, the Dover edition is our script and the Coville book is just beautiful and a great way to introduce the story.

I have always loved Shakespeare, always. I never understood people’s fear of reading the plays or delighting in his poetry.  The comedies are a wonderful beginning for children to experience the theater, the Bard and the English language at it’s most beautiful.  I am so grateful to director/mom for convincing the reluctant moms that their children were up to the challenge.  The have far exceeded all expectations and have developed a real love for the play.  They get how funny it is and they delight in carrying it off.  It is an experience they will never forget.

Shakespeare, it’s what all the cool kids are doing!