Upper Schoolers Tackle Shakespeare

FWCD’s 2022 Upper School play this year was William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, featuring 18 student actors and 13 student crew. The comedy, likely written between 1594 and 1596, was published in 1600 and originally performed in 1605.

“I've always loved Shakespeare and this play, in particular,” said Siouxsie Easter, Upper School Theatre Director. “I knew we had the right mix of comedic and dramatic actors to tell this story. In addition, I want our students to experience a variety of acting styles. I'm so proud of the way they took on this challenge!”

With the prominent theme of love, A Midsummer Night's Dream chronicles four Athenians who run away to the forest only to have Puck (a fairy) make Demetrius and Lysander fall in love with the same girl, Helena. As a result, Hermia has lost her two suitors. The four traipse through the forest, pursuing each other while Puck helps his master play a trick on the fairy queen. In the end, Puck reverses the magic, and the two couples reconcile and marry.

Shakespeare’s work regularly focuses on love and how people tend to fall in love with those who appear beautiful on the outside. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream mixes up the worlds of the rich, working class, and fairies to show that true love and friendship are probably right beside you,” Easter said. “You just need to take a moment to look.”

The elaborate staging was exciting for the technical theatre students. When exploring design for any show there are often options: attack with minimalism, relying on the actors doing all the work; stage very literally; or find a balance in the two. “FWCD has traditionally put more resources into our musicals, and that is normal. Musicals have much more complex requirements by nature,” said Eric Tysinger, FWCD Scott Theater Manager and Technical Theatre Director. After talking with our students and collaborating with our Guest Artist Scenic Designer Bob Lavallee, we found ourselves wanting to create a larger world for the return of Shakespeare to the FWCD stage.”

The FWCD Theatre Department hadn’t done a piece like this in a while, so they decided to go big. “Midsummer’s biggest gesture is probably the forest, so we started there,” Tysinger said. “How do we create a forest within our budget and not just use boring ol’ wood. We ended up with a forest of fabric trees that I think was quite effective. Then we had to come up with a palace … and that means lots of trim and detail work. It was definitely an undertaking, but I wanted to take advantage of the amazing technical theatre class this year. This group is in attack mode on all projects.”