Taking the Kids to Shakespeare with Optimist Theatre

Shakespeare in the Park can be a very freeing experience. The stuffy confines of an indoor production can feel a little bit stiff reflected against audience expectations of High Art. Optimist Theatre’s current free outdoor production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream adds to the already open feeling of free outdoor Shakespeare with a production design firmly planted in the ’60s. 

The feel of the show calls to an open time of cultural experimentation that had vanished into the cultural rigging about half a decade or so before I was born. The fairies are hippies. The Athenians dress like conservative rich people from the 20th century. It all plays out in a stage in a park overlooking the Milwaukee skyline. The open expansion of the show allows audiences to pick their own entry point. You don’t have to come dressed any particular way. (Opening night played out amidst an underwear bike ride that felt remarkably at home in the era that had been chosen for the play.) You don’t have to come at any specific time or stay until the end. (There was a curious couple who sat down in front of us halfway into our stay. They hung out until Bottom got his head morphed and then took off.) 

My wife and I decided that this would be a perfect show to introduce our kids to live Shakespeare with the show. Our 4-year-old and 1-year-old daughters had shown an ability to sit still and be quiet while watching things before. (Our 4-year-old had been to a few kids’ shows in the past.)  There were activities for the kids at the park. There were crayons. There was face painting. We picnicked. Then the four of us snuggled-up on the hill to catch some Shakespeare. 

It was nice seeing some of the production through the eyes of a child. Our 4 year-old loved Tom Reed as a playful puck with a goatee of blue. I thought he did a pretty good job, too. She was a bit reluctant to accept the hippie-based fairies of the production. They first appeared wandering about the park before the show. Our little 4-year-old was unconvinced. I would have tried to open her mind to seeing them a bit differently, but one does not argue fairies with four-year-old girls. They know much more on the topic than the rest of us, who have long since forgotten the firsthand magic of hanging out with gnomes and elves and talking groceries and such. 

I may have been open to accepting hippies as fairies in the production, but there was something fundamental about it that didn’t quite sit right for me. I guess the most compelling and fascinating end of ’60s hippie culture to me (as I understand it) was the sense of unity and pantheism. We are all gods connected through a universal consciousness that is everywhere. This for me is at odds with what is so powerful about Shakespeare’s depiction of the fairy kingdom. Shakespeare's depiction of the fairy kingdom isn’t exactly a love-in. There’s a whimsical feel to it all, but there’s a definite hierarchy and there are those who have authority that goes more or less unquestioned. The end of hippie culture that I admire the most and my understanding of Shakespeare’s interpretation of the fairy world aren’t directly opposed to each other, but it doesn’t feel the way it should for me.

My wife and I loved the mechanicals. The amateur actors working on a play within the play were the most vivd end of the production for me. There was a lot of really good talent mixing in that end of the ensemble. Co-founders of no less than three different local theatre companies were included in the Mechanical ensemble. The addition of a couple of other actors I never seem to see onstage enough (like Brian Miracle and Robert WC Kennedy) makes for one of the most enjoyable interpretations of the mechanicals I’ve ever seen. In Tandem co-founder Chris Flieller is great fun as Bottom. I’ve seen the character of the leading amateur actor played with comically exaggerated pomposity in the past. What Flieller adds to it that’s quite clever is a sense of extreme enthusiasm. Flieller’s Bottom isn’t motivated by ego so much as he seems to be motivated by a reckless love of the stage. It’s a remarkably fun center to all of the craziness. Theater RED co-founder Marcee Doherty-Elst slips into a lovable comic density in the role of Snug the joiner. Youngblood Theatre co-founder Tess Cinpinski brings an appealing sense of order around the edges of the comedy as Starveling the tailor. Robert WC Kennedy does a remarkably clever exaggeration of awful acting as he plays Francis Flute in the role of Thisbe. Brian Miracle’s Snout is irresistible. The character finds out that he will be playing a wall in the mechanicals’ production and proceeds to walk about the stage getting into character. It’s a charming bit of comedy in the periphery. 

Naturally when one attends Shakespeare with toddlers, one is unable to take-in the whole show.Our one year-old was getting wiggly and threatening to break her silence. Our four year-old was experimenting with the idea of placing different things on my face. Our moment in the park was moving on from the play. We left, waving good-bye to Oberon on our way out. We went home and put the little sprites to bed. For the right kids, this particular iteration of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a great chance to get exposed to Shakespeare from a pleasant angle overlooking the Milwaukee skyline. Samantha Sostarich, Adrianna Cordova and company may not look like the kind of fairies a four-year-old might expect to see, but they and the rest of the cast certainly put on a fun outdoor show.

Optimist Theatre’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream runs through Jul. 19  at Kadish Park. For more information, visit Optimist Theatre online.