A Midsummer Night’s Dream
FAQs
What is A Midsummer night’s dream about?
It’s A comedy.
It’s about love and all the trouble it can cause.
It’s MAGical.
It’s kinda wacky.
it’s filled with misunderstandings.
It begs all of us to not take life too seriously.
If you’ve been involved in PDC at all you know I believe in “taking silliness seriously”. If you haven’t worked with me - well now you know! We have fun, we take risks, AND we work VERY hard.
So, while learning Shakespeare can feel like serious business the purpose of this experience will be to have FUN expanding our horizons together. Life is full of silliness and so is this play.
I am not a Shakespeare expert. I have taken classes in acting and teaching Shakespeare, I have directed this play another time and created a little movie with some PDC students a few years ago, BUT I myself have never performed Shakespeare for an audience! You’ll be way ahead of me when we’re done! While I’m no Shakespeare expert, I do believe after 20 years that I am an expert in helping young people find what it is inside them that makes them tick which ultimately makes them a better actor! I just love telling stories. I know this story well, but I also know I will discover new things about it through you and our collaboration. I’m excited about this adventure we will take together.
Can I audition if I’ve never done anything with PDC?
YES! This is our first ever set of auditions that do not require previous PDC experience. BUT you should have some acting/theater experience from somewhere.
Everyone will fill out an Audition Form. If you have very little acting/theater experience your chances of being cast are much, much smaller.
How is this going to work? Is it a camp?
Yah sorta.
First- you can come to our info session/workshop on Wednesday April 2nd 6:30 - 8pm at St David of Wales.
Auditions are April 11 - 13 - details below.
You will be notified in late April whether you have been offered a part or not. If you accept your role you will need to register for our intensive camp week: June 16 - 20 M - Th 10am - 5pm and June 20 and 21 for shows (times TBD). The cost is $400. Thanks to a grant from the Young Actors Fund we can offer tuition assistance options. Please contact us if you need assistance - we will not turn any serious theater student away.
Rehearsals will begin in the evenings in late April and continue through June until we meet for our camp intensive June 16 - 21at Saint David of Wales.
WE WILL NOT HAVE REHEARSALS ON THURSDAYS OR FRIDAYS. Rehearsals will MOSTLY be held on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays with a few Wednesdays.
We should expect about 60 total hours of rehearsal, but many rehearsals will be in small groups. YOUR ARE NOT EXPECTED TO BE AT ALL REHEARSALS- just that final week.
Please be sure to tell us on the audition form ALL of your conflicts during late April, May and June. Having a conflicts list from everyone will help me make the schedule- Being unavailable certain days does NOT necessarily take you out of the running. So please don’t avoid putting things down in an attempt to get a role and then tell me later you can’t make certain days.
If this happens you will lose your role.
I am afraid of Shakespeare
The man’s been dead for over 400 years so he really can’t hurt y- oh wait you mean performing Shakespeare? Yah it’s ok. My philosophy is do it anyway. Adopt that for yourself now. This one is one of his most accessible and you will easily pick up what it’s all about. Really. You can do it.
The cast of characters
I plan to cast 16 - 20 students. This means someone might double up a role or we may combine/eliminate a few roles in our slightly abridged version. “The Sweethearts” and “The Mechanicals” will not have doubled roles. “Athenian Nobles” may double as fairies (but not Puck, Oberon or Titania). This is all currently still up in the air as I create an abridged script that works for us.
In order to keep it a small troupe, students who are chosen must have a role in the play. However, on the audition form (below) there is an opportunity for you to put all the roles you are interested in and to state if you want to be involved in the creative process in other ways, too. This may require more hours or different hours than will be scheduled for rehearsal time, or you might be able to come in to work on different aspects of it while Caroline works with acting groups you are not in.
The largest roles with the most speech and biggest responsibilities are all of The Sweethearts, The Mechanicals and Puck, Oberon and Titania.
I’ve tried to give you a tiny bit of info on each character on the list. On the monologues, I give you a bit of back story and perspective, but ultimately researching will be up to you. I have a ton of kids books that help spell out this story easily in regular ol’ English. You can borrow them - just ask me! See below for a great resource- I will update with more links when I have time.
OUR WORKING SCRIPT (this could change if we cut parts)
CHARACTERS
Athenian Nobles
Theseus, Duke of Athens (medium role)
Hippolyta, his bride, an Amazon Queen (medium role)
Philostrate, Theseus’ master of the revels (a small role, in charge of the Duke’s entertainment)
Egeus, Hermia’s father - overbearing, controlling - demands she marry Demetrius or die
The Sweethearts (all the human lovers. comedic timing a plus; large roles)
Hermia, a girl in love with Lysander, but is being forced to marry Demetrius; determined, strong-willed; shorter than Helena
Lysander, a boy in love with Hermia - clever, kind, hopeless romantic, rival of Demetrius
Demetrius, a boy also in love with Hermia - a social ladder-climber; was once in love with Helena or so she thought; Hermia’s father approves of him
Helena, Hermia’s best friend, desperately in love with Demetrius - witty, strong-willed, insecure, romantic; taller than Hermia
The Mechanicals (lower class group of tradesman; aspiring actor troupe; comedic timing a must)
Bottom, a weaver (plays Pyramus) - a know-it-all, over achiever
Quince, a carpenter (directs the play) - serious and mature
Flute, a bellows-mender (plays Thisbe) - eager
Snug, a joiner (plays the Lion) - innocent
Starveling, a tailor (plays Moonshine) - timid, anxious
Snout, a tinker (plays Wall) - dense, forgetful
The Fairies
Puck – a hobgoblin, servant to Oberon. a magical, mischief maker; large role
Oberon, king of the fairies; powerful, commanding, stubborn; large role
Titania, queen of the fairies; powerful, commanding, stubborn; medium-large role
Peaseblossom, a fairy, servant to Titania; small role - dance/movement?
Moth, a fairy, servant to Titania; small role - dance/movement?
Cobweb, a fairy, servant to Titania; small role - dance/movement?
Mustardseed, a fairy, servant to Titania; small role - dance/movement?
Auditions
Free Info Session: Wednesday April 2, 6:30 - 8pm in the Parish Hall at St David of Wales. Here you’ll be able to meet Caroline if you don’t know her, get to know the basic details of the story, browse books, ask questions to determine whether you’d like to audition and/or to help you prepare for your audition. Sign up for the session
YOU CAN READ OUR WORKING SCRIPT HERE.
Auditions: everyone must sign up for a time slot; Friday April 11, Saturday April 12 and Sunday April 13; please fill out the audition form by April 7
Call backs: Sunday April 20; 6 - 9pm (this is Easter Sunday- ooops- if you can not make it it is not a deal breaker)
All auditions and callbacks will be held downstairs in the PDC classroom at St David of Wales church:
2800 SE Harrison St. Look for signs if you’ve never been down there!
Please sign up for an audition slot HERE and fill out this audition form HERE (it gets sent right to Caroline!)
Please prepare one of the monologues below from A Midsummer Night’s Dream (some of them have been shortened for the purpose of the audition- we may or may not use the full versions for our show).
It should go without saying, you should choose a monologue for a role you’d be interested in playing. There are only 6 roles listed - choose one similar in type to the role you are interested in playing if yours isn’t an option. Please only prepare one even if you are interested in multiple roles (you can tell me that later).
DON’T FLIP OUT. Shakespeare is not easy. Read it slowly. Dig around for what everything means. Do not just memorize it and hope to get it right. Figure out and play the character. Character. Character. I am less concerned about you getting the rhythms right - forget the iambic pentameter (if it exists) if it’s causing you stress. Make it sound modern if you want. Make it your own. I am always, always interested in your essence over your perfection. Take your time. Play the character and what they need.
NO NEED FOR ENGLISH ACCENTS - Just because it’s Shakespeare doesn’t mean it has to be High English. Please don’t worry about that. The original story takes place in Greece…and a forest full of magical fairy creatures… and besides, they probably didn’t sound English like we know it now 430 years ago anyway! Concentrate on the character’s desires, hopes, needs and bring a smidge of yourself to it. Always. For anything.
IF you have never worked with Caroline before and have a short, contemporary, one-minute comedic monologue you would like to perform in addition to one of the Midsummer monologues below you may. This is NOT a requirement. It is just another opportunity for me to get to know you and your abilities. Please don’t send videos, links, pictures of past performances. I really don’t have time to watch them.
We will take a snapshot of you to go along with your audition form at your audition time slot. No need to bring a formal head shot.
Be prepared to chat with me a little after your audition, too.
PLEASE FEEL FREE TO EMAIL ME or TEXT ME WITH ANY QUESTIONS!
Audition Monologues
Helpful resources
Scour the internet. You can never do too much research when you’re trying to learn something new.
I’ll update this when I have time, but you know how to use Google, too. While I never want you to COPY someone else’s performance, it’s not cheating to watch to better understand the text. Just make sure you really know what you’re saying and not just HOW to say it because you watched someone else. I promise- people (I) can tell.
My Shakespeare - this is a great resource with the whole script annotated, scene synopses, videos, etc. I love it. Links to it are included in all of the monologues listed above, too.
and just for fun…our movie making outtakes… because making a movie in one day outside is both glorious and terrible. How many times will I say “wait a minute” in this one? ":-/