'A Midsummer Night's Dream' to open tonight at River Campus

The course of true love never did run smooth, but a jazz-age retelling of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" combines strong storytelling and cool tunes to make a seamless production.

Director Bart Williams, assistant professor of theater at Southeast Missouri State University, has set Shakespeare's comedy in 1920s Jazz Age New Orleans because, he said, there are many natural parallels between the two.

Last semester, the department put on "A Streetcar Named Desire," also set in early 20th century New Orleans, but Williams said there wasn't much recycling of set pieces or costuming -- the plays have a very different feel, he said.

Costume designer Amber Cook, assistant professor of costume design at the university, said she and Williams were on the same page about the production, which helped round it out and feel coherent.

"The fairies are based on old-school New Orleans," Cook said, with Oberon's fairies dressed in tuxedos and Titania's fairies more of a take on the Storyville district -- burlesque performers and prostitutes.

Students of Southeast Missouri State University Conservatory of Theatre and Dance rehearse for Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" on Monday at the Rust Flexible Theatre on the River Campus in Cape Girardeau.Laura Simon

"We did incorporate fantastical elements, too," Cook said.

The mortal people start in a more austere, neutral palette, Cook added.

"They go from muted to vibrant, flapper style," she said.

Cook said fabric for the costumes custom made by an online retailer.

"There aren't a lot of fabric options in Cape," Cook said, and this way, the show has a different feel to it, and the audience isn't seeing fabric they might have used themselves.

Students of Southeast Missouri State University Conservatory of Theatre and Dance rehearse for Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" on Monday at the Rust Flexible Theatre on the River Campus in Cape Girardeau.Laura Simon

"It would take people out of the show experience, and we don't want that," Cook said.

Cook said this show is solid in its storytelling.

"It's Shakespeare. You might not think it's immediately digestible to the modern ear, but this show is easier than most," she said.

This will be basically a first-folio rendition of the play, meaning, Williams said, using the language Shakespeare intended, with a few modifications. Williams said he deleted interjections during the Mechanicals' play within a play, for example, and did some judicious tightening of language, but it is essentially Shakespeare's language.

Williams, who trained in the United Kingdom for five years, said he had the great fortune to train with people who looked at Shakespeare differently than a lot of American production companies.

Students of Southeast Missouri State University Conservatory of Theatre and Dance rehearse for Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" on Monday at the Rust Flexible Theatre on the River Campus in Cape Girardeau.Laura Simon

"At any given time, in England, you have five people doing 'Hamlet,'" he said, "and I find they're a lot less precious about Shakespeare than Americans will be."

The story centers around two young couples, in love and desperate to marry. They escape their families into the fairies' domain -- in Shakespeare's play, a forest, and in this adaptation, New Orleans' Storyville. The king and queen of the fairies, Oberon (played by Ryan Adolph) and Titania (Emmani Cunningham), are fighting over the nature of love and use the two couples to prove each other wrong.

Demetrius (Sean Sifert), Hermia (Emily Hooks), Lysander (Jay Wade) and Helena (Bethany Whitehouse) comprise the two couples.

Also in the fairies' domain are the Mechanicals, who have been hired to perform a play for the wedding of Duke Theseus (Seth Tanner) and Queen of the Amazons Hippolyta (Hannah Brake). Their rehearsal gets dragged into the fairies' dispute.

Also part of the show is Beatrice, Williams' adopted dog.

Students of Southeast Missouri State University Conservatory of Theatre and Dance rehearse for Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" on Monday at the Rust Flexible Theatre on the River Campus in Cape Girardeau.Laura Simon

"She's not a natural actor," he said, but she has her own costume and will play the moon during the play within a play in Act III.

Dog adoptions will be available at the show through the Humane Society, Williams added.

The Athenians are instead from the Garden District of New Orleans, Williams said, where each street is named for a Greek goddess.

"There's a Calliope Street," Williams said, even though in New Orleans, it's pronounced "Cally-oop."

"It made sense," he said.

Students of Southeast Missouri State University Conservatory of Theatre and Dance rehearse for Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" on Monday at the Rust Flexible Theatre on the River Campus in Cape Girardeau.Laura Simon

For the music, Williams said, producers tried to explore Buddy Bolden and other early jazz performers, with country and folk idioms as well, to reflect New Orleans' many influences.

"London and New Orleans are both port cities," Williams said, adding New Orleans is the most European of American cities.

"It's a city that looks better in shades of halfway there," Williams said, explaining the look of New Orleans is not overly polished, but has more glitz to it.

"Port cities are more raw, people of all different backgrounds but with things common to all people," Williams said. "New Orleans is a place to reinvent yourself, and so was London in Shakespeare's time."

Tickets are $18.50, available at the River Campus box office, rivercampus.org/tickets or (573) 651-2265.

Performances are at 7:30 p.m. today and Saturday, and a matinee will be at 2 p.m. Sunday in the Rust Flexible Theatre at Southeast's River Campus, 518 S. Fountain St. in Cape Girardeau. Performances next week will be at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through April 29 and a 2 p.m. matinee April 30.

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3630

Pertinent address:

518 S. Fountain St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.