First Stage Young Company Stages a ‘Midsummer’ to Remember

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A Midsummer Night's Dream logo

More than a bit of imagination is required to fully experience the lighthearted and lovely production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream that opened last weekend in First Stage’s Goodman Mainstage Hall. The production is being staged by the company’s award-winning Young Company, a group of local high school actors.

A cast of 15 students brings this comedy to life in Mainstage Hall, which recently has been reformatted into a theater-in-the-round format. Audiences now sit on all sides of a round stage. In this production, as in all Young Company shows, sets and props are kept to a minimum. The audience must use its imagination to create the various locations.

The Young Company represents students from throughout the greater Milwaukee area. In this production, students hail from Cedarburg to Franklin, Whitefish Bay to Wauwatosa. Young Company director Matt Daniels can be seen onstage himself in the current production of A Christmas Carol. He plays Scrooge in the show being staged by Milwaukee Repertory Theater in the historic Pabst Theater.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of Shakespeare’s early plays, written about the same time as Romeo and Juliet. Midsummer is often read as part of high school literature classes, and there are reasons for this. One of them is that Midsummer is a comedy, complete with magic, mischief, humor, mistaken identities, and so forth. Another reason is that the sets of lovers (at least the human ones) are relatively young; these characters can easily be played by teenagers. There’s also the play’s emphasis on many types of love, such as romantic, filial and unrequited. 

The show’s director is Molly Rhode, who is also the associate artistic director of Northern Sky Theater. She is an alum of First Stage’s theater academy. Both Rhode and Daniels continue to regularly appear as actors and directors in the First Stage productions staged at the Marcus Performing Arts Center on Water Street.

Smaller in Size, But Same Scope of Technical Effects

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Photo: First Stage

Molly Rhode

Molly Rhode

The Goodman Mainstage Hall is located in the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center on Walnut Street. It’s a more intimate setting than the one found in the Marcus Center. The Mainstage theater benefits from an excellent sound and lighting system, which are put to full use in presenting this show.

Indeed, the environment in which A Midsummer Night’s Dream takes place must veer between the harsh reality of life in Athens to the mysterious, otherworldly quality of a nearby enchanted forest.

As the play begins, Hermia (Alice Rivera) announces her love for Lysander (Elena Marking). But Hermia is instructed by the city’s ruler, Theseus (Sabrina Borg), to submit to her father’s will. Theseus’ fiancée, Hippolyta (Rose Campbell), disproves of the ruling. Hermia’s father, Egeus (Lola Onorato), is determined to see his daughter married to a man more to his liking, Demetrius (John Eash-Scott). (At this point, it’s clear that Lysander is more of a prize than the arrogant Demetrius.)

When Theseus sides with Egeus, it prompts the young lovers to hatch an escape plan. Before they leave, Hermia feels as though she must say goodbye to her best friend, Helena (Angel Rivera). She is well aware that Helena longs for Demetrius, but she doesn’t suspect that Helena will double-cross her. Helena, hopeful that she can find favor with Demetrius, tells him about Hermia’s plan.

Of course, Demetrius must rush to the forest in an attempt to find Hermia. The chase is on, with Demetirus looking for Hermia, and Helena following Demetrius. With all four friends and/or rivals in the same place, it’s time to introduce some of the fairy folk. This includes Oberon (Sabrina Borg) and his fairy wife, Titania (Amelia Eichmeier). Oberon sees this as an opportunity to trick his wife and also set right the romantic confusion between the mortal couples.

An Odd Couple: Titania and Her New Romantic Interest

So Oberon commands the impish Puck (Josie Van Slyke) to carry out his wishes. Puck unintentionally confuses the two couples, although he does manage to carry out the instructions correctly regarding Titania. Puck spreads some magic dust on her while she is napping. When she awakes, Oberon tells Puck, she must fall in love with the first thing she sees. In this case, it’s an ass. 

The young actors in the First Stage cast bring energy, vitality and precision to the production. They handle Shakespeare’s language very well and make their characters convincing. Members of the ensemble are recruited for various duties. At one point, they become trees in a well-choreographed cat-and-mouse game between the couples. Occasionally, original songs are inserted as a nice counterpoint to the dialogue. Cast members play a number of instruments during the show, including the ukulele, guitar and various types of drums.

Without set pieces to set the mood, a great deal of the play’s overall effect is transmitted through the ingenious costumes (by Latora Lezotte). The white-on-white costumes, as well as the fishnet capes strung with fabric swatches, are particularly noteworthy. (It must be noted that all of the actors are barefoot for the entire performance.) Further conjuring the Shakespearean world are lighting effects (Shane O’Neil) and sounds/music (by Josh Schmidt).

Although the First Stage program suggests the show for families with children ages 11 and older, an opening night performance contained a number of much younger children. Although some stretches of dialogue may not have been of interest, the hilarious antics of the would-be actors (called rude mechanicals) and especially the sight of a young man fitted with a realistic donkey-head, certainly caused a great deal of laughter from those in the audience. The play runs for two hours and 15 minutes and contains an intermission.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream continues through Dec. 18 at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center, 325 W. Walnut St. Masks are not required at this time. For tickets, visit firststage.org or call (414) 267-2961. Tickets are for general, non-reserved seating.