The Drama class performed William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream April 16-19. The shows were held outside of the library this year because of campus construction.
“We turned a complication into an opportunity to do something cool,” Drama teacher Jamie Donohoe explained.
In addition to the unavailability of the theater, Donohoe suggested there were additional reasons he decided to hold the production out doors. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Shakespeare are particularly cool outdoors. The setting, the lovers; there’s something about being outdoors, under the stars,” he said.
Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is about two lovers, Hermia and Lysander. They want to marry each other, but Hermia’s father wants her to marry Demetrius. To secretly marry, they disappear into the woods. They are followed by Demetrius, who is followed by Helena, who is in love with him due to a bit of magic. A love square develops between the four main characters.
Senior Kion Karimi played Demetrius, one of the lovers. Karimi said that he had difficulty with the role, because the character is hostile. “It’s really hard to play as him because he’s really a jerk, and I’m not,” he said.
Don Dupont’s woodshop classes collaborated with the Drama class by constructing the framework for the sets, specifically support systems for the sets’ big trees. “Mr. Donohoe asked me if we would do some work with the sets,” Dupont said. “It’s a good way to get students to work in an interdisciplinary way.”
According to Donohoe, drama students are required to learn a work by Shakespeare every year. “With some of his plays, especially A Midsummer Night’s Dream, he is able to create characters that we can all fall in love with,” Donohoe, an avid Shakespeare fan, explained.
Donohoe praised the student body and the faculty for their support of the production. “There’s a lot of people that have helped make this happen. The administration and the students are all very excited about it,” he said.
At the April 18 show, all seats were filled. By the second act, the sky grew dark and the air cooled. The audience made use of sleeping bags and blankets in order to stay warm.
Donohoe came out before the show to thank the Moraga Education Foundation (MEF) for their support, Jill Langston’s art students for their help with the set design, and Don Dupont’s Woodshop class for their help in building the sets. He also thanked Dave Pinkham, junior Sam Heckle, and sophomore Ethan Tonomura for their tech support.
