Jepson Shakespeare Project Production Blog

This week Oliver and I spent our work days in class editing out script. We have Act II, which we are really excited about. It includes all the best characters and many roles for fairies if we have extra kids. I also think it will allow some fun acting and stage direction. While cutting down our script we tried to keep several things in mind. One, we wanted it to makes sense to audiences who know Shakespeare AND the kids. The plot will remain in tact, but we decided much of the superfluous, flowery digressions had to go. Two, we wanted to maintain the original rhyme scheme to the best of our ability. And three, we wanted it to be appropriate. This involved cutting some lines we felt would be “awkward” to explain. As a result Helena’s Spaniel piece has been nicked. Oliver and I managed to bring Act II down to ten full pages, which we are happy with for the moment. We may continue to edit once we do a read through with our lovely Youth Life kids. We also may try to tie in some current pop culture, and at the suggestion of Dr. Bezio, let the kids replace the fairy song with a song of their choice. I’m excited for what is to come and will be meeting with our site advisor and having our first practice!

This week in S&S, Molly, Allison and I began to discuss our ideas for Act 4 of Midsummer. Molly and I timed ourselves reading Act 4 and figured out how many kids we would need to cover the number of characters who are present (all of them). As a group, we discussed which lines could be cut or merged together. We also started brainstorming prop ideas.

Allison emailed our site contacts, Laura and Verenda, to see if there is a good time to meet with the kids at John Marshall High this coming Monday before we get started with rehearsals. We are still waiting to see if this will be possible due to the bike race in Richmond.

This past week my partner, Lydia, and I worked on cutting Act II of Midsummer Night’s Dream for the purpose of making the act quicker and more readable for the children of the Youth Life program. We are looking forward to meeting the kids and getting to know their personalities a bit before casting them in their respective roles. Hopefully we will have approximately 8 kids because there are 8 actors within our act, but if we have more than we can always cast them as fairies.

The premise of our act is based around the love flower and the trick that Oberon and Puck play on Titania and the Athenian youths. I’m specifically looking forward to seeing how excited the kids may be to jump into their roles. Also, I’m interested to see how well the kids will grasp the various themes.

My group will be working with CHAT (Churchill Activity and Tutoring) a christian based organization that strives to provide opportunities to underprivileged children in the Richmond area. In preparation of meeting our group in the next few weeks we have begun to cut our script and jot down preliminary thoughts regarding staging. We have read carefully though about half of our scene, cutting repetitive lines. Our group has also discussed the major themes Shakespeare sought to convey in the last scene of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the ways in which we can preserve his vision of the play, while keeping it an appropriate length for our production. We will continue to work towards a final version of our script over the next week or so and look forward to meeting our group!

As a class, LDST 368 – Leadership on Stage and Screen will be putting on a low-budget production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, working with several Jepson Community Partners throughout the semester.

This blog will chronicle the production process from forming groups to cutting the script to casting, rehearsing, and performing the production. It is an informal record of our thoughts, feelings, and observations throughout the process.

This blog is beginning in the Fall semester of 2015, with the fourth show of the Jepson Shakespeare Project. Previous productions include The Tempest (Fall 2012), The Merchant of Venice (Fall 2013), and The Winter’s Tale (Spring 2015).