Midsummer Intro & Act 1

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM:

It was hard for me to remember whether my first exposure to Shakespeare was Midsummer or R&J, but I am almost positive Midsummer wins. I was debating summarizing plot as part of my blogging and I may on some of the future plays but if you have never heard of midsummer there’s probably a production near you running right now- or take your pick of about 3 different Netflix version.

OK, back to what I was saying- If chronologically they are tied, then experience-wise Midsummer kicks R&Js butt. I can’t even count how many times I have seen A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In fact, I can barely count how many times I have worked on the piece if you include adaptations and scene work in classes. By that count, I have played EVERY CHARACTER IN THE PLAY with the exception of: Demetrius, Lysander, Starveling, and Theseus. I have worked on EVERYONE else!

And you know what? I still love this play. I know a lot of Shakespeareans can’t stand it at this point, but as much as I want to roll my eyes at another production and find an excuse not to go, I always laugh and I always walk out glad I went. I can’t remember a time that I have ever had as much fun on stage as when I was playing Bottom (EVEN when I was playing him with viral pneumonia! Yes, you read that correctly).  The magic of this play is that I feel like as long as you don’t cut the Pyramus and Thisbe play at the end + Puck’s final speech = you can’t screw it up. Even if I’ve hated production choices up until that point- you can’t help but LOVE the ending.

OK, there is a lot more to say about this play, but I’m going to try and restrain myself until I get into the act by act blogging. Hopefully I will have more pointed, specific memories with other plays moving forward but there are SO MANY with Midsummer I would never end this post.

Midsummer- ACT I:

Immediate reactions: Theseus is either an idiot or a douche. Seriously. His first few lines all have the most misogynistic sentiment. I think everyone just overlooks this because Egeus comes in less than a minute later and is even more awful than Theseus. In fact, it dawned on me that all the men in this first scene of the play seem to be bigger asses than the one who gets turned into an ass!

The first scene never fails to astonish me how NOT funny this is on the page and how hysterical this ends up when its staged. In the first page we’re talking about Egeus killing his child, Theseus warns how unhappy Hermia will be if she has to die a virgin, and Lysander’s rallying speech to comfort her is basically- hey, its ok, everyone who ever falls in love is screwed!

Teaching moment: page vs. stage- is this moment funny?! (I picked this speech, there are so many parts you could pick to stage)

Or, if there were a sympathy in choice,
War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it,
Making it momentary as a sound,
Swift as a shadow, short as any dream;
Brief as the lightning in the collied night,
That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth,
And ere a man hath power to say 'Behold!'
The jaws of darkness do devour it up:
So quick bright things come to confusion.

So that’s awesome. And THEN his grand plan to circumvent the universe’s apparent goal to break up all lovers is to sneak away to his dowager aunt- Who we never hear about again.

Teaching moment: rhyme scheme- Dr. Ralph believes that people who rhyme have a reason, so I’m intrigued as to why it takes Hermia a few lines to start the rhyme instead of launching right into the couplets. Fun to stage this moment with Dr. Cohen’s method of choosing the rhyme/Hermia showing off how smart she is/her vows are.

My good Lysander!
I swear to thee, by Cupid's strongest bow,
By his best arrow with the golden head,
By the simplicity of Venus' doves,
By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves,
And by that fire which burn'd the Carthage queen,
When the false Troyan under sail was seen,
By all the vows that ever men have broke,
In number more than ever women spoke,
In that same place thou hast appointed me,
To-morrow truly will I meet with thee.

A final moment that struck me/I’d like to focus on is Helena’s soliloquy- this is truly a moment that I think illustrates the importance of direct address. If Helena is just spouting off about cupid and the frustrations of love I really believe she looks less sympathetic/intelligent than if she is trying to justify to the audience why she loves a jerk.

Act 1 sc. 2

OK, this blogging thing is new to me so give me a learning curve, but since I spent a LOT of time/space on scene one I’ll try to be more brief with scene two and as we move on with this project I will hopefully have a better idea of how long/how many examples/how much background to give for each entry….

OK, so immediate reaction- Most people think the greatest thing about Midsummer is the fairies- they are wrong. it is OBVIOUSLY the mechanicals. When I was in an improve troupe at Pepperdine and we would do genre games it felt like every show someone would call out “children’s play” as a genre and people always loved it. Why do we LOVE to see good actors play bad actors?

Director/actor response: The mechanicals are also the bit in the play where a ridiculous amount of legit clowning can be done. Physical humor gold that the other genres of characters really only get to experience during the lovers quarrel, but we’ll get to that…

Teaching moment: we can go right along with the rhyme scheme (also alliteration) and talk about how Bottom’s painfully blunt rhymes mock the convention in general…

The raging rocks

And shivering shocks

Shall brake the locks

Of prison gates;

And Phoebus’ car

Shall shine from far

And make and mar

The foolish Fates

Favorite line: Bottom, the “lead actor” of the troupe who keeps trying to manage things and direct has tried to have the last word with the very elegant “take pains, be perfect, adieu” only to have Quince remind everyone where to meet for rehearsal, which in turn prompts bottom to come up with a new last word and what does he muster- “Enough; hold, or cut bow-strings.”

Readers, do any of you have an actual dramaturgical reading for this phrase? Because I’m fairly sure it makes no sense but sounds AWESOME.  

Until tomorrow friends- hold, or cut bow-strings.

 (This picture is from a production of Midsummer by Tailgate Shakespeare those pictured are myself as  Bottom, Sara Landis as Titania, and Jeff Chips as one of the attending fairies- yes, he's grooming me...)