An Evening with Shakespeare

press release: Madison Country Day School is thrilled to announce An Evening with Shakespeare, a fall theater production. The middle school will start the performance with the hilarious one act play The Rustics of Arden, a play about an actor in Shakespeare’s company who flees London in order to escape the Plague. In the village of Arden, he stumbles into the mechanicals from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night’s Dream and casts them in play to save his life. The high school acting company follows with the comedy, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Shakespeare’s first romantic comedy satirizes the obsessions, fashions, and fads of its day. In this play, Shakespeare brings together an assortment of the oddest human beings assembled in any of his plays to talk about the foibles of young love and redemption.

According to MCDS Theater Director James Wagoner, this event features the strengths and talent of the student body. “Student contributions include development of production concept, original set design, original musical compositions, costume design, sword choreography, original poster art and program design, and stage management and assistant direction,” according to Wagoner. “It’s a wonderful production to showcase our students commitment to the artistic process, creative expression and collaboration.”

This family-­friendly production will take place at the Mitby Theater, a contemporary state­-of-­the-­art performance venue at the Madison College- ­Truax Campus near the Madison airport November 20-22, 2015. Tickets are $7 for adults and $5 for students and available at the door.

About MCDS: Madison Country Day School is Dane County’s only independent Pre­K through grade 12 school, offering a challenging and comprehensive college­preparatory education, including the Madison area’s only International Baccalaureate (IB) Programme. In an environment where each community member is truly known, MCDS students develop a deep knowledge base and lifelong critical and creative thinking skills.