"A 1920s Midsummer Night's Dream" - Summer 2013

Press photo taken by Kendra Scheiber

Photo taken by Michelle Mosca from the Corinth Fourth of July Parade where our kids one first place in the float contest!

For Summer 2013, the Corinth Youth Commission's Summer Theater Workshop faced a dilemma. Loosing its home theater for the summer due to renovations, the staff racked their brains about what could be done simply while maintaining a high level of creativity and professionalism. Our solution? An original adaptation of William Shakepspeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" set in the 1920s and transformed into a musical with songs from the Great American Songbook by authors like George Gershwin, Harold Arlen, and Cole Porter. Shakespeare? Gershwin? Kids?! It was a crazy proposal and one that we thought the Summer Theater Workshop was more than capable of meeting!

We considered numerous locations but settled on doing an outdoor produciton in Jessup's Landing Park behind the Corinth Free Library right on the Hudson River - a perfect location for a play that engages with the divide between law and order, civilization and nature.

This was an entirely original production adapted by myself and Lauren Ogden, with music selected and placed in the script by Lauren. We cut about a third of the script, streamlining the play and highlighting certain themes we hoped to bring out more fully in our production.

I want to especially commend Lauren Ogden for her choice of songs and where to place them in the show. The songs allowed us to give some of the characters more depth and nuance. It also had the effect of transforming the play from an Elizabethean comedy to a modern American musical comedy, creating an all-around entertaining night of theater!

List of Songs

Part I

“For Me and My Gal” (Meyer/Leslie/Goetz) [1917] – Theseus & Hippolyta

“Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland” (Whitson/Friedman) [1909] – Lysander & Hermia

“But Not For Me” (Gershwin) [1930] – Helena

“Another Op’nin’, Another Show” (Porter) [1948] – The Mechanicals

“So In Love” (Porter) [1948] – Titania & Oberon

“How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Loved You When You Know I’ve Been a Liar All My Life?” (Lane/Lerner) [1933] – Demetrius & Helena

“Dream a Little Dream” (Andre/Schwandt/Kahn) [1931] – Titania &Fairies

“By the Light of the Silvery Moon” (Edwards/Maden) [1909] – Lysander & Hermia

Part II

“Swinging on a Star” (Van Husen/Burke) [1944] – Bottom & Fairies

“Embraceable You” (Gershwin) [1928] – Titania

“Only a Paper Moon” (Arlen/Harberg/Rose) [1933] – Lysander

“Fly Me to the Moon” (Howard) [1954] – Demetrius

“It Was Just One of Those Things” (Porter) [1935] – Lysander

“What Is This Thing Called Love?” (Porter) [1929] – Helena & Hermia

“Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams” (Barris/Hoekler/Moll) [1931] – Puck, Fairy, & Chorus

Part III

“A Child is Only a Moment” (Earle) [c. 2001] – Egeia

“Where or When” (Rodgers/Hart) [1937] - Helena, Demetrius, Hermia, & Lysander

“As Time Goes By” (Hupfield) [1931] – Theseus & Hippolyta

“Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall In Love)” (Porter) [1928] – Titania, Oberon, Puck, Fairy, & Chorus

“In the Good Old Summertime” (Evans/Shields) [1902] – All

Below are some highlight photos taken by Rick Cutright of Cutright Designs. For hundreds of additional photos, please see Rick's pages on Smugmug below:

First Night - http://cutrightdesigns.smugmug.com/Events/Midsummer-Nights-Dream-72513/30745853_TKXhmt

Second Night - http://cutrightdesigns.smugmug.com/Events/Midsummer-Nights-Dream-72613/30768718_2hjwnL

Third Night - http://cutrightdesigns.smugmug.com/Events/Midsummer-Nights-Dream-72713/30785586_8BSqnd

All photos purchased from Smugmug goes directly to the Corinth Youth Commission's Summer Theater Workshop.

Theseus and Hypolyta singing "For Me and My Gal." In our production, the mortal live in world in lighter, duller colors.

Lysander and Hermia at the end of "Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland." One of the best parts about doing our production in the Jessup's Landing Park was that we had unique features like this lampost and a large tree right on the Hudson River.

In our production, the Mechanicals corresponded to the Marx Brothers: Bottom (Groucho), Peter Quince (Chico), Snug the Joiner (Harpo), Starvling (Gummo), Francis Flute (Zeppo), and Snout (Karl - the adopted Marx Brother).

Puck and Fairy at the begining of Act II.

Oberon and Titania at the end of "So In Love." Conceptually, they are meant to be a Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers couple. In my direction, we played with the concept of Oberon and Titania as forces of nature knocked off kilter by their fighting.

Demetrius and Helena siging "How Could You Beleive Me When I Said I Loved You When You Know I've Been A Liar All My Life" (perhaps the longest song title in American musical theater). These two had fantastic chemistry and really made this song their own.

Bottom, now transformed into a donkey, seeing hallucinations courtesy of the fairies during "Swinging on a Star." This and "Embracable You" were my favorite scenes in the whole play.

Helena trapped between two lovesick men!

Now all four of the lovers are fighting!

Reconciled, the lovers sing "Where or When?"

Peaseblossom!

The CYC Summer Theatre Workshop provides participants an opportunity to act, sing, dance, assist with directing and choreographing, run lights and sound, and learn backstage skills. Participants learn teamwork, communication, and problem solving skills, as well as gaining the concept of cooperation through various project activities under the tutelage of a caring, talented, and professional staff.

The Saratoga Program for Arts Funding is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and Saratoga Arts.