Clayton Haglund

Thea- Basic Acting

A Midsummer Nights Dream
04-13-2015
The SLCC Theater Departments production of A Midsummer Nights Dream has a very
fun feel from the get go. The director chose a 1920s stylized rendition of the Shakespearean
classic in order to highlight some of the parallels between early 19th century American women
battling for equal rights and one of the main character, Hermias own struggle to find a way out
of her impending arranged marriage to man whom she does not love. Even the ushers were
dressed up in Roaring 20s costume, which brought the play to life, before even entering the
theater. That was a nice touch.
Puck, a trickster wood nymph, was a fun character to watch. His main motivation
behind his mischief making was seemingly just to amuse himself and not from any place of
malice or ill will. Some of his provocations were meaner than others, however, having turned
one of the players into an ass. A secondary objective of Pucks was assisting Oberon, who
rules the woods, also from pure hearted place with a fun mischief making attitude as well
albeit somewhat more serious and more mature than Pucks. The obstacles that Puck had to
overcome were boredom in the woods, and also at one point following instructions that were
inherently unclear unbeknownst to him. He utilized the moments of evaluation, and there
were some well-placed beats, however there seemed to be a lapse in the use of the text at one

moment where the character spoke over another, forcing him to repeat a line for the audience
to hear.
The relationship between Lysander and Hermia was built on a solid foundation of trust
over which they added the other necessary acting ingredients. The back and forth between them
seemed to come from a real place, with the subtext showing through where needed, and their
motivations showed through as made apparent by their facial expressions, inflection, and
natural body movements. Hermias adoring, confusion, despair, and anger played really well
throughout, alongside Lysanders mutual feeling of love, which took a turn for complete,
comedic disdain for Hermia. The humor surrounding their interactions came through in some
parts more than others, with some scenes becoming a bit bogged down due to lack of energy,
but more often than not the timing was excellent and packed the necessary punch at just the
right places to get a laugh out of everybody. All in all they displayed an excellent sense of the
conversational nature in their lines.
The cast did exceedingly well in telling this magical and funny tale of love, and lifes
little tricks that it throws peoples way. The Shakespearian dialogue was spoken beautifully and
was enchanting in its own way, but not overpowering the actual scene as a whole. The group of
players was an essential part of the overall flavor of the play. Their energy was fabulously over
the top, playful and fun to watch. The love triangles were kept interesting. The awareness to
each other was apparent and flowed perfectly naturally around the stage. They worked great
together and any future productions put on by the cast would definitely be one to go see!

Overall, the play seemed very well practiced and had a vibrant life to it, allowing the
necessary room for suspension of disbelief. One of the only things I would recommend would
be to focus on interior monologue as one of the most difficult of the 10 ingredients to capture
and portray, but that will bring an extra spark of life to the dialogue because it will give a better
sense of the improvisational nature that real life conversation has. It will help give the pacing
and delivery of lines a more natural feel, along with the use of evaluations and beats, of course.
Not that the cast didnt excel with working with those ingredients, its just that work with
interior monologue couldnt possibly ever be finished because in life there is an infinite depth
of this in peoples conversation that gives it the natural and spontaneous feel.