STUDYGUIDETh

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By William Shakespeare Directed by Kevin Moriarty

October 24 - November 22, 2009Dee and Charles Wyly TheatreAT&T Performing Arts Center

Peter Quince, Nick Bottom, Snug, Tom Snout and Francis Flute

5 Mechanicals

6 Fairies

4 lovers

Demetrius chosen as the husband of… Hermia who is in love with…Lysander who loves Hermia in return, but (tricked by Puck) falls in love with… Helena who is in love with Demetrius

4 rulers

Theseus Duke of Athens Hyppolita Queen of the Amazons/ Theseus' fiancee Oberon & Titania King & Queen of the Fairies

1 angry MoM Egeus, mother to Hermia SYnopSIS

Act I: The Duke’s Court

The Lovers plead their case… Denied,

they escape to the woods, but not

alone… A band of workers rehearse a

play…In the woods the ruling Fairies

meet & exchange words… Love-in-

idleness, Puck spins his magic…

Everyone is looking through rose-colored

glasses and the Queen’s in love with an

ass…Love is a battlefield.

Act II: The Morning After

The fairies duke it out and make peace…

Time to get out of the woods… The show

must go on… There’s a wedding, a play, a

blessing and it all ends with a party.

Who’s Who...

Puck, First Fairy, Moth, Cobweb, Mustardseed and Peaseblossom

2,165 lines in A Midsummer Night’s Dream

81% of the lines are written in verse 20 actors,

all from Dallas 5 actors are students at Booker T.

Washington High School for the Performing and Visual

Arts 5 actors are students at SMU’s Meadows School

of the Arts 165 hours of rehearsal 80 hours of

Shakespearean voice/speech coaching 66 hours of

technical rehearsal 1100 pieces of chalk

6400 balloons 10 Nerf guns 35 costumes

3 wedding dresses 20 silk screens 4 gallons of silk

screening ink 80 hours to silk screen

22 graFFiti images painted over 3190 feet

1152 AA batteries 108 speakers

20 wireless microphones 455 lighting instruments

200 feet of FLexible neon 3 mirror balls

8 deck crew members to clean and

restore the set each night

PRODUCTION BY THE NUMBERS

“Falling in love with puck is rather like turning life into a game of hockey.” – harold bloom

A sampling of love graffiti from around the world.

In A Midsummer Night’s Dream the characters wildly pursue love not in the ordered world of Athens, but rather in the woods, where

dreams prevail. Here the laws are orchestrated by the King and Queen of Fairies—not the human Duke of Athens. In these woods,

youthful exuberance, creativity and naughtiness bloom, embodied in the mischievous spirit of Puck, the cupid-like fairy at the heart of

Shakespeare’s play.

Puck is a spirit “cheerfully amoral,” says literary scholar Harold Bloom in his book Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human. “He

becomes an agent for the irrational element in love.” Puck is the driving force that causes his victims to immediately express the

fury of emotions they feel. These expressions manifest themselves in declarations, songs, dance, and art. This is the same driving

force of poetry on bathroom stalls, initials in trees, words in sand, and graffiti found on walls, trains, and sidewalks in every

urban setting. For as long as humans have been writing, they have been scrawling on walls—from cave drawings to billboards to

graffiti. This need to express an emotion bursts forth through powerful lines, lines that leave a mark, a tag, an iconic symbol

used to describe a universal feeling. It is the childlike innocence of Harold and the Purple Crayon, the journey that comes with

drawing your dreams. It is the whimsical joy of bright, vibrant hearts found in the pop art of Keith Haring, Jim Dine and Peter Max.

These tags—whimsical, erotic and often heartshaped—embody the creative essence of Puck. In our production, these lines, iconic

images and signature markings are what Puck and the fairies use to create a dream world—a magical place that transforms its inhabitants

through the radiant, creative, life-giving power of making art. When the lovers enter the woods, they play by his rules. They are caught

up in joyful, celebratory, youthful energy—irrational love. “This Puckish freedom is overwhelmingly attractive—but falling in love with a

Puck is rather like turning life into a game of hockey,” Bloom warns. And so, when they leave Puck’s influence, some measure of order

returns—their lives become the fully realized world of their dreams. But Puck remains with the fairies, waiting for the next dream—

dancing in and out of the world he orchestrates. ❤

“And we fairies, that do run

By the triple Hecate's team,

From the presence of the sun,

Following darkness like a dream,

Now are frolic.” (V.i)

Ah, Shakespeare! ...performed for centuries and constantly reinterpreted. But when you were there, in the beginning, when William presented his new work, there wasn’t anything “classic” about it. His characters, costumes and emotions

were of “the now”—urgent and immediate to his audience, as well as his actors. His music was the music of the day—superstar songs thrown into the midst of his characters’ quandaries, expressing in music what they could not otherwise. The same is true today. Contemporary pop music is immediate and urgent. It instantly aligns the audience with an artist's emotions. Here's a little of what inspired our artists to tap into their urgent love, mischief and grief . Check out what’s been playing on some of our character’s iPods...

Puck’s ToP 5 Good Girls Go Bad cobra starship feat. leighton meester Don’t Trust Me 3oh!3 Down jay sean feat. lil wayne Hot Mess cobra starship Love Game lady gaga

TiTania’s ToP 5 Never Say Never the fray

Battlefield jordin sparks Goodbye kristina debarge Forever chris brown My Life Would Suck Without You kelly clarkson

Helena’s ToP 5Love Drunk boys like girls How Do You Sleep jesse mccartney Before the Storm jonas brothers feat. miley cyrus You Belong with Me taylor swift Knock You Down keri hilson

PlaYlisT

Dallas Theater Center’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is part of Shakespeare for a New Generation, a national initiative sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts in cooperation with Arts Midwest.

Dallas Theater Center would like to recognize the generosity of our

major corporate partners.

Pier 1 Imports

Southwest Securities

t. howard + associates

Target

Associate Producing Partners

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP

DallasTheaterCenter.org

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