A Midsummer Night's Dream - State Theatre

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2 Welcome! Welcome to the State Theatre’s school-day performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In BAMA Theatre Company’s inspired production, eight amazing actors magically morph into 22 different characters These Keynotes will help you and your students prepare for the show. Besides exploring the plot, characters, and background of the play, the materials will help audiences recognize and appreciate the theatrical elements that set this production apart from other versions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream you may have seen. Enjoy the show! Contents Welcome! ....................................................2 Shakespeare & A Midsummer Night’s Dream ......................................3 The Story......................................................4 Follow the Map! ........................................5 About This Production............................6 Staying on Track........................................7 What’s It All About? ................................8 One Play, Many Stories ..........................9 Meet BAMA Theatre Company............10 Resources ....................................................11 During the Show ......................................12 Keynotes are made possible by a generous grant from Bank of America Charitable Foundation. The State Theatre’s education program is funded in part by Bank of America Charitable Foundation, Colgate- Palmolive, The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, E & G Foundation, Gannett Foundation, The William G. & Helen C. Hoffman Foundation, The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey, Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies, J. Seward Johnson, Sr. 1963 Charitable Trust, Karma Foundation, The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, McCrane Foundation, MetLife Foundation, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, National Starch, New England Foundation for the Arts, New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour, Bill & Cathy Powell, The Provident Bank Foundation, PSE&G, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, TD Bank, and Wachovia Wells Fargo Foundation. Their support is gratefully acknowledged. The presentation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is supported in part by PSE&G. Keynotes are produced by the Education Department of the State Theatre, New Brunswick, NJ. Mark W. Jones, President & CEO Lian Farrer, Vice President for Education Online at www.StateTheatreNJ.org/Keynotes Keynotes for A Midsummer Night’s Dream written and designed by Lian Farrer. Edited by Jennifer Cunha. © 2010 State Theatre Funding has been made possible in part by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts. Continental Airlines is the official airline of the State Theatre. The Heldrich is the official hotel of the State Theatre. Find us at www.StateTheatreNJ.org Contact: education@StateTheatreNJ.org The State Theatre, a premier nonprofit venue for the performing arts and entertainment.
3 Shakespeare & A Midsummer Night’s Dream “Lord, what fools these mortals be!” —Puck, Act 3, Scene 2 Shakespeare’s comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, was first performed somewhere between 1595 and 1596. The play weaves together characters and stories from very different worlds: mythical heroes from ancient Greece, sprites and fairies, two human couples, and a group of bumbling craftsmen. On Midsummer Eve, their lives and stories intersect in unexpected ways, with adventures and misadventures that eventually lead to a happy conclusion. A poet as well as a playwright, William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is the most celebrated and influential writer of any era. Despite the passage of more than 400 years, his plays are constantly being performed around the world. They have been the inspiration for countless films, novels, poems, and operas, and even other plays. After the Bible, he is the second-most quoted writer in the history of the English language. Shakespeare’s popularity and influence are universal; at the Shakespeare Centre in Stratford-upon-Avon, the library collection includes editions of the plays and poems in over 80 languages, from Arabic and Albanian to Yakut and Zulu. Shakespeare’s influence extended over the English language itself. No one knows exactly how many new words he created; the estimates run from a few dozen to ten thousand. Some of the words that are first seen in his plays include accessible, amazement, assassination, barefaced, bedazzle, belongings, circumstantial, courtship, critical, dewdrop, downstairs, employer, epileptic, exposure, fairyland, fashionable, frugal, homely, impartial, lament, leapfrog, majestic, moonbeam, paternal, puke, rant, reclusive, roadway, sacrificial, schoolboy, silliness, useful, vulnerable, watchdog, and zany. Midsummer is a holiday that has been celebrated since ancient times. It takes place during the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. In England, Midsummer was celebrated with parades, bonfires, feasting, and dancing. During Shakespeare’s time, some people believed that Midsummer Night had a special magic. Sprites and fairies had stronger powers. Flowers gathered on this night could work magic. People dreamed visions of their true loves. Some even went insane. From the title alone, Shakespeare’s audiences would have understood that A Midsummer Night’s Dream would be about love, magic, and madness.
Page 1: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Page 5 and 6: 5 Follow the Map! EGEUS Wants These
Page 7 and 8: 7 Staying on Track The ‘Mechanica
Page 9 and 10: 9 One Play, Many Stories A Midsumme
Page 11 and 12: 11 Resources BOOKS The Friendly Sha

A Midsummer Night's Dream - State Theatre

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