April 20
The rich and immortal plays of Shakespeare offer never-ending inspiration to practitioners of the theater arts, as with this month's dynamic outdoor production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at Moravian College.
One of his most visually recognizable plays, Midsummer follows the young corners of a love quadrangle on a confused foray into the woods. Hermia and Lysander are in love, but Hermia's father is forcing her to marry Demetrius, who is willing but pursued by Helena. As the young lovers bumble about in the forest trying to sort themselves out, a group of amateur actors and a court of fairy folk find their way into the mix, creating comedy chaos, romance and magic.
Director Makenna Masenheimer chose to set the play outside, partly because she was inspired by Touchstone Theatre's South Bethlehem Greenway production of Journey from the East in 2015, and out of an interest in site-specific theater's ability to immerse an audience the way a traditional stage might not. “Hopefully, by staging Midsummer outside on different parts of our beautiful campus, the audience will be able to understand the show in a new way,” says Masenheimer. “The natural sights, smells and sensations will elevate the classic story. By following the action
around the campus, the audience will literally be chasing the story, just as the characters do.”
As part of Moravian's Friday Night Play Reading Series, Midsummer adds to the actors' challenge by rehearsing Monday through Thursday and performing Friday with scripts in hand. But don't expect a dry read-through. Masenheimer plans “a lively, energetic production in which actors are challenged to put on a production in a week and seamlessly incorporate their scripts into their performance.”
Free | 8 p.m. | Moravian College | Next to Reeves Library on North Campus | 1200 Main St., Bethlehem | 610.861.1320 | moravian.edu
