"A Midsummer Night's Dream" Auditions

Theatre Fall '23 Production

We are proud to announce our Fall Mainstage production will be Shakespeare’s 

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM 

directed by esteemed Bay Area director, M. Graham Smith.

Here’s what Graham has to say about his contemporary take on the play:

“We Faeries that do run from the presence of the sun…following darkness like a dream”

-Puck Act 5 Sc 1

“I will walk up and down here, and I will sing that they shall hear I am not afraid”

-Bottom, Act 3 Sc 1

About the Play:

Shakespeare’s comedy about Love and Faeries is a lot more dangerous than the usual green-tight treatment reveals. It’s a play about the oppositional forces of the State and Wildness, Conscious and Unconscious desires, Order and Chaos, Reason and Passion, and how we balance these forces in our lives. In Athens Theseus is about to wed Hippolyta the Queen of the Amazons whose people they have just conquered and colonized, marrying them as a symbolic prize for their conquest. Four young lovers are called before Duke Theseus to be reprimanded for letting their messy love triangle evolve against the wishes of one of the Lovers’ father (the patriarchy!). When all four of the Lovers flee into the woods outside Athens to live for their passions, chaos ensues. Meanwhile an amateur troupe of actors rehearse a play for the Duke’s wedding day that goes from bad to terrible and out the other side of terrible to hilarious in spite of itself. And finally the King and Queen of the Faeries (Oberon and Titania) are locked in a cruel game of jealous rivalry and humiliations that is causing the Earth’s environmental well-being to collapse. All the paths intersect in the woods and powerful and sometimes painful revelations spin out of control. When the sun rises and the Duke’s wedding occurs, what choices have been made? Who has compromised? At the end of the play Puck insists that “all is mended” but is it? Can we ever unsee the truths that our dreams show us? How do we reconcile our waking lives with our fantasies? 

A Note from the Director: 

Working on Shakespeare is always thrilling for me because despite what we think we know about Shakespeare, he makes space for us to bring our full selves to the work, revealing new opportunities specific to each artist involved. I’m particularly interested in this play and what it means to be a Faerie today and why the LGBTQI+ community has often gravitated toward creating spaces outside the moral and social walls of The State. Movements like the Radical Faeries and the Surrealists loom large in the world of the Woods as we think of where we can get lost in order to “find” ourselves. What can these liminal spaces show us about ourselves and each other before sunrise when we must return to civilization? How do we balance our explorations in the moonlight with our responsibilities in the daylight world? This production will have a highly physicalized acting aesthetic with stage combat and special attention to movement led by movement specialist Danielle O’Dea, a motion capture expert for video games. 

Characters:

Theseus - Duke of Athens, recently returned from conquering the Amazons, a race of

warrior women and is about to marry the conquered Amazon Queen Hippolyta.

Lysander - Young nobleman of Athens. In love with Hermia. Hermia’s father is against her marrying him, he persuades Hermia to run away from home & family into the forest.

Demetrius – A young nobleman of Athens. In the past he acted as if he loved Helena,

but after Helena fell in love with him, he changed his mind and having the approval of Egeus, he pursues Hermia. (But she’s not interested)

Egeus - An Athenian upper-class respected gentleman who wants his daughter Hermia

to marry Demetrius, his choice for her.

Philostrate - Theseus’s Master of the Revels who is responsible for organizing the entertainment for the Duke’s marriage celebration.

Hippolyta - The legendary Queen of the Amazons engaged to marry Theseus. 

Hermia - Egeus’s child. Both Demetrius and Lysander are in love with her. She is in

love with Lysander. Very strong-willed and independent.

Helena - A good friend of Hermia’s and is in love with Demetrius. She pursues Demetrius through the forest even though he want nothing to do with her.

Puck – (AKA Robin Goodfellow) A mischievous fairy who delights in playing pranks on

mortals; they are Oberon’s servant.

Oberon - The King of the Fairies who rules with Titania. In a feud with Titania that is causing environmental destruction.

Titania - Queen of the Fairies who rules with Oberon. In a feud with Oberon that is causing environmental destruction.

Thistleweed, Peasebottom, Moth, Cobweb, and Mustardseed – Faeries

Nick Bottom - The overconfident weaver chosen to play Pyramus in the play for the wedding celebration.

Peter Quince - A carpenter and the writer/director of the play

Francis Flute - The bellows-mender chosen to play Thisbe in the play, a young girl in love.

Robin Starveling - The tailor chosen to play Thisbe’s mother in the play/ends up playing the part of Moonshine

Snug - The joiner chosen to play the lion in the play.

Tom Snout - The tinker chosen to play Pyramus’s father in the play. Ends up playing the part of the Wall, dividing the two lovers.

Auditions:

Auditions will be held in LeFevre Theatre September 5th and 6th, with callbacks on September 7th. Think about which characters in the play you might connect to and why. Prepare a brief monologue by choosing any speech of around 8 lines (Verse or Prose) from A Midsummer Night's Dream.  Be prepared to chat with the director at your audition. Beginners, transfer students, and folx of all identities are welcomed and encouraged to audition. Any person of any gender may audition for any character.

Please Review the Rehearsal Schedule Below:

Additional Audition Information:

To read the script and pick your 8 audition lines for A Midsummer Night’s Dream: https://tinyurl.com/4vk38w3e

To sign up for your audition: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0C4EAEAE2FA4F4C25-amidsummer 

To fill out the mandatory Audition Google Form prior to auditions: https://forms.gle/PgjfTNoAMdTuTZ4N6