Trevor Rees
Malkia Stampley, who plays Titania, rehearses with woodland fairies.
It's going to be a Midsummer unlike any other, a reimagining of an old tale. Opening March 7, this A Midsummer Night's Dream is the result of a surprising collaboration between Children's Theater of Madison, a 50-year-old theater company, and Theatre LILA, which relocated from New York to Madison just last year.
The idea for the partnership came after Jessica Lanius, co-artistic director of Theatre LILA, directed Anne of Green Gables for CTM in fall 2013. Before becoming artistic director at CTM in 2007, Roseann Sheridan had spent 17 years working on Shakespeare productions at American Players Theatre. She was intrigued when Lanius suggested tackling Midsummer.
The play is one of Shakespeare's most popular works, featuring the adventures of four young Athenian lovers on the eve of the marriage of Theseus, the Duke, to the Amazon queen Hippolyta. Woodland fairies administer love potions to the hapless humans, wreaking havoc on the wedding plans.
The creators of the upcoming production say the show represents a departure from traditional staging of the classic because of multiracial and multigenerational casting and the exploratory process the creative team used to develop the dark, steampunk visuals.
Theatre LILA strives to represent Madison's diverse population on stage, and Midsummer features two African American actors as leads, DiMonte Henning as Puck and Malkia Stampley as Titania. Lanius says Madison students will see the show as part of the public schools' partnership with CTM, so it's critical that "kids in the audience see themselves on stage."
Theater companies have found representative casting to be challenging in Madison, but LILA strives to bring in professional actors of color. "In Madison -- even in New York City -- kids from diverse backgrounds are not relating to actors on stage because the majority are white and the majority of the audience is white," she says. "They need to see that theater can be a platform for their voice. Then maybe later we will have more playwrights of color, more voices, writing for the stage."
The production features local young people in its cast: High school students play three of the four young lovers, Helena (Sydney Kleinholz), Hermia (Kateri Klingele) and Demetrius (Andrew Turner), as well as fairies and two of the mechanicals (the six characters that perform the "play within a play").
But older professional actors also have roles. Michael Huftile, who plays Bottom, is a seasoned Equity actor who has appeared many times at APT, on Chicago stages and on TV shows like Chicago Fire. Lanius says the mix has been good for all the performers because they learn from each other. "I think it's awesome for the LILA actors to be around these young kids," says Lanius.
To prepare for the show, CTM crafted an artist-in-residency program for Lanius as well as LILA's voice and speech coach Clare Haden and teaching artist Karen Olivo. The three have been working with CTM actors ranging in age from fourth grade to seniors in high school since October. The artists began by exploring the text with the young actors, familiarizing them with iambic pentameter and discussing images evoked by the lines. Actors physically explored images through movement exercises based on Lanius' highly physical approach to theater. Lanius says that process helped the cast unearth important details or "nuggets," such as varied characteristics of a flower, which audiences will see during the performances.
Lanius -- who moved back to Madison in 2014 after living in New York -- began to explore the intersection of theater and movement while attending UW-Stevens Point, where she majored in acting and minored in dance. "The program had an emphasis on modern dance. It started my love of merging theater and storytelling with physicality," Lanius says.
As a result, Midsummer offers alternatives to static staging, where characters simply stand and recite lines.
"We're playing with physical comedy to find the humor and fun any which way we can for this production. It never gets heavy," Lanius says.
Lanius steered away from traditional pastel-frocked fairies with gauzy wings. Her vision is darker and more organic. "I was really drawn to the idea that the fairies are coming from the Earth, almost like Mother Earth, and they are the woods themselves rather than being these perfect pretty little sprites," says Lanius.
In the director's world, woodland creatures are menacing, and the mechanicals are dressed in steampunk-inspired designs.
The dramatic set, designed by Mike Lawler, is made up of thousands of flower petals and a circular metal creation Lanius sees as representing the moon.
Sheridan says the fresh take on Midsummer is bound to appeal to young audiences. "There are two Shakespeare plays grounded in the young love experience. Romeo and Juliet on the tragic side, and Midsummer on the romantic comedy side," says Sheridan. "Any time I pick a show, the young person's experience is at the heart of it."
Lanius agrees: "The show is all about love and all the many ways we can be in love and how love can drive us mad and crazy," she says. "You've got a husband and wife, the king and queen of the fairy world, fighting, and as a result the whole world is imbalanced. The fairies are like their children dealing with their marital problems."
Sheridan says the show makes Shakespearean language accessible. "In my years at APT, one of the things I always enjoyed was how many times I heard people say, 'did you change the language, was that Shakespeare? It sounds so normal. It was so easy to understand.' The answer is yes, yes, yes, it is Shakespeare," laughs Sheridan.
Sheridan says the many fresh takes on this 400-year-old play will be something audiences of all ages and backgrounds will connect with. "Young people watching Midsummer will feel like it could be them up there. It could be their story, their friends and their crush. It's all very relatable."
A Midsummer Night's Dream will be performed at the Playhouse at the Overture Center, March 7-29.
