Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream Comes to Porter Theatre

Westmont College’s Repertory Theater presents William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” 8 p.m. Feb. 25 and 26 and March 3-5 with a matinee performance at 2 p.m. March 5 in Porter Theatre. Tickets are $10 for general admission and $5 for children, students and seniors.

First printed in 1600, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” remains one of Shakespeare’s most popular comedies. Tangled in a series of romantic misadventures on a May night, Athenian nobles and their fairy doubles explore the nature of love, the fluidity of perception and the blurring of illusion and reality. The plot features romantic misalliances, bizarre transformations and hilarious, though danger-tinged, situations.

Professor John Blondell is presenting the comedy for the second time. “I staged the play at Westmont in 1990,” he says. “As I was casting about for a new play to do, I thought of the symmetry of doing it again, now 15 years later. I was interested in finding new things in the play with new students, in a very different period of time.  This time, I’m zeroing in on the dizzying, subversively anarchic spirit of the play and staging something that is both side-splittingly funny and slightly dark in sensibility.”

The production introduces an exciting period of Shakespearean plays for the department. Westmont and the Lit Moon Theatre Company will present a co-production of Shakespeare’s Richard II in November 2005. They will also collaborate on an international Shakespeare festival in fall 2006.

“For the festival we intend to present five to seven full productions with companies and artists from Poland, Prague, Montreal, London and Moscow, with an accompanying conference,” says Blondell. “We’re very excited about the project and thrilled to kick off this season of work with this great play.”
The production features seniors Cambria Forden as Philostrate and Puck, Kate Paulsen as Hippolyta and Titania and Cameron Squire as Bottom.  Professor Michael Pearce provides scenic, lighting and costume designs.

Digital images, by photographer Brad Elliott, are available at: http://homepage.westmont.edu/belliott/Press/Midsummer/. Photos 1 and 2 feature Kate Paulsen as Hippolyta and Zak Landrum as Theseus. Photos 3 and 4 feature Kate Paulsen again as Titania and Cameron Squire as Bottom. Photo 5 features (from left to right) Tim LeDoux as Lysander, Beth Segura, as Hermia, Carlo Moss as Demetrius and Erin Brehm as Helena.

Tickets can be reserved by calling the box office at (805) 565-7040.  For more information please call, John Blondell at (805) 565-6040. For directions, visit www.westmont.edu.