DePauw University students and faculty had the opportunity to attend a performance of William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” Tuesday night. This event featured the talents of five British Shakespearean actors from the Actors from the London Stage (AFTLS) program.
This well-known Shakespearean comedy tells a story of star-crossed lovers, unrequited love and what happens when mischievous fairies get involved in human affairs. The small cast meant that each actor took on multiple roles, translating to a unique and often comedic spin on the play. One of the actresses would play one role, then adjust her hat and take a few steps over to portray an entirely new character, inciting giggles from the audience.
The performance included no set pieces, as well as minimal furniture, props and costumes, placing the focus on the actors; their delivery of the lines, their unique characterizations of each character they portrayed and their use of vocals and dance for certain scenes within the fairy world stole the show.
“I loved the ingenuity of it, the simplicity of it and the way they tackled it—you didn’t think about them being characters, they just were these characters,” junior Billy Burke said of the performance.
The performers’ one-of-a-kind portrayal also included a more modernized take on Shakespeare’s comedy, one that the audience appreciated.
“They kind of added their own thing to it, which made it even better, and sometimes breaking down some of the historical [aspects], and using things that were more modern really helped it connect with the audience,” first-year Courtney Smith said.
Such innovative decisions came from the combined efforts and ideas of the five actors; AFTLS has no director.
“We went into a room in London and four weeks later came out with a show,” quipped Patrick Moy, the actor who portrayed characters such as Theseus and Puck.
This method often proved difficult for the actors, who along with the responsibility of providing feedback and ideas, had to find their own costumes.
“It’s constant diplomacy, constant tact, constant cooperation,” Moy said.
AFTLS, started in 1975, is an educational outreach program based both in London and at the University of Notre Dame, through the Shakespeare at Notre Dame program.
DePauw is one of the many campuses that the actors visit, Professor Amity Reading explained.
“They’re on two-year cycles with the program, so whatever schools, like DePauw, for example, that have a relationship with the Notre Dame program, every two years they have the actors sort of come through and do a performance,” she said.
During the visits, the actors also visit classes that have read the play that they performed. They engage the students in discussion about the play, act out scenes with them and answer questions about the performance.
For an even deeper involvement with the actors, there is also the opportunity to take a quarter-unit course based solely on the play that AFTLS performs during their visit.
Professor Amity Reading is one of five team teachers, a mix of English and theatre professors, teaching the class for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
“We take turns focusing on the language aspects of the play and the performance aspects of the play," Reading said.
The capstone of the class includes the performance of a scene from the play, and the opportunity to work with the actors in the production of their scene.