Fairy tale: Othello HS to stage ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’

OTHELLO — It’s your typical teenage drama. Boy loves girl. Girl’s father wants her to marry someone else. Girl runs away and both boys look for her. A mischievous fairy sprinkles a potion on everybody that makes them all fall in love with the wrong people. Wait, what? 

“In some ways (“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”) is challenging because it’s so confusing with all the potions and the falling in love with the wrong people and everything,” said Othello High School Drama Club advisor Tom Christensen. “But I think for the kids the plot of this show is actually a little bit clearer. They get it better than anybody I’ve ever seen trying to (learn) ‘Romeo and Juliet’ or ‘Hamlet.’” 

The script is a little bit modified to shorten up some of the long monologues, Christensen said, but it’s still the classic Shakespeare comedy. Queen Titania (Lillian Spurgeon) and King Oberon (Josh Cerrillo) who are quarreling, Lysander (Sawyer Roylance) and Hermia (Alyse Freeman) are in love. Demetrius (Radley Zurligen) also loves Hermia, but Hermia’s friend, Helena (Arielle Kaminsky), loves Demetrius. Meanwhile, local men Quince (Isaiah Terayama) Bottom (Jayden Rowley), Snout (Tyler Noble), Flute (Travis Freeman) and Snug (Anahi Guerrero) are getting ready to produce a play within the play in the queen’s honor. Once Puck the sprite gets involved the young lovers start fighting over each other’s sweethearts; the queen falls for Bottom; and Bottom grows the head of a donkey on his shoulders. It’s a comedy, so everything turns out all right in the end, but the twists and turns that fate takes along the way have entertained audiences for centuries. 

“Demetrius and I both love Hermia,” Roylance said. “And Hermia’s dad hates me (and wants her to marry Demetrius). Hermia loves me instead of Demetrius and decides to run away. Demetrius and Helena decide to chase after us, and it proceeds to spiral out of control.” 

The dialogue moves between iambic pentameter, straight verse and straight prose, which at first glance would seem daunting for high school actors. 

“Depending on which characters they are, they have different style of speech,” Christensen said. “The fairies have one style, the mechanicals have another style and the Athenians another.” 

“Once you start repeating them over and over, it’s like OK, I’m starting to get what this means,” Kaminsky said. 

Christensen staged the same play about 20 years ago, he said, but wasn’t entirely happy with the result and decided to take a different approach, he said. He worked with his troupe on understanding the meaning behind the dialogue, which made their delivery more natural, and also on the physical comedy. 

“The fight between the two couples is a riot every time,” he said. “I was hesitant the first time to try some of the things because I didn’t know if the kids could handle it, but these guys are champs.” 

The audience should keep an eye on the whole stage, Roylance said, because while the main action is happening at the forefront, something funny is often happening in the background that they won’t want to miss. The story of Titania and Oberon sometimes gets overlooked as well, Christensen said, but it’s relatable. 

“It’s about attention and typical marital issues,” he said. “For all that it’s Shakespeare and the language is old, I think people understand the characters. In the opening scene when the Duke wants to shut (Hermia) away because he doesn’t like her boyfriend, I think a lot of these girls are like ‘Yeah, this makes a lot of sense. My dad doesn’t like (my boyfriend) either.’ … It will be enjoyable and people will be able to get it.” 

‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ 

7 p.m. Nov. 13-15 

McFarland Middle School 

790 S. 10th Ave, Othello 

Tickets available at the door 

$10, $8 with ASB 

    From left: Peter Quince (Isaiah Terayama), Nick Bottom (Jayden Rowley) and Francis Flute (Travis Freeman) rehearse their play-within-a-play while Tom Snout (Tyler Noble) and Robin Starveling (Jose Reyes) look on in the Othello High School production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
  

    Puck (Ashlynn Bates) creates chaos wherever she goes in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
  

    Are Lysander (Sawyer Roylance, left) and Demetrius (Radley Zurligen, right) really both in love with Helena (Arielle Kaminsky), or are they just making fun of her? Nobody’s feelings are to be trusted in the Othello High School production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
  

    The cast of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Floor, from left: Kinsley Washburn, Isaiah Terayama; Row 2: Jose Reyes, Milo Gomez, Romina Pruneda, Dayna Flores, Ashlynn Bates, Lillian Spurgeon, Melia Dominguez, Adelle Walker, Hannah Freeman, Travis Freeman, Alyse Freeman, Chelsea Bunner, Anahi Guerrero; Back: Emma Stevenson, Tyler Noble, Radley Zurligen, Arielle Kaminsky, Enrique Perez, Saphira Rowe, Joshua Cerrillo, Jayden Rowley.