Horizon troupe stages youthful ‘Dream’

The area sure is getting its summer dose of Shakespeare.
Last week it was the Beautiful Kids offering a rare local staging of the great
tragedy "Hamlet."
This week we get the Horizon Youth Theatre, providing an abridged staging of the
great comedy "A Midsummer Night’s Dream," in trimmed down form.
The production marks the return of the company’s founder Scott Regan as director. He
said after a few summer’s of plays including "Peter Pan," he wanted to
stage something for the older actors in the troupe.
"A Midsummer Night’s Dream" is the most accessible play in the Shakespeare
canon for young people, and with its chorus of townspeople and forest creatures,
it offers ample parts for the troupe’s younger members.
"A Midsummer Night’s Dream" is on stage Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. and
Sunday at 2 p.m. in the first United Methodist Church, 1526 E. Wooster, Bowling
Green. Tickets are $5 and available from Grounds for Thought in downtown Bowling
Green.
The young cast handles the Bard’s language with aplomb. Regan has trimmed the script
down to the narrative essentials, tucking this "Dream" into one hour
with no intermission. He did this, he said, by eliminating "a lot of
poetry."
Still Shakespeare is Shakespeare. Hearing young actors, especially the two love
struck girls Hermia and Helena is delightful, reminding us that these teens are
the age of the characters. When they bicker, it’s like being back in high
school.
The troupe has transplanted the action from Athens to New Orleans. That means peppy
traditional jazz is used between scenes, and the Mardis Gras setting gives all
the actors a chance to step out with brief individual flourishes on roller
skates, with a hula hoop or a few dance steps. Christina Gavarone serves as the
master of the revels, introducing the play and overseeing the festivities.
The plot, though, is still full as ever of myth, magic and mischief. Framed by the
wedding of Theseus (William Cagle) and Hippolyta (Emma Southwick), the story
brings together three distinct groups of characters.
We have the lovers Hermia and Lysander (Connor Long) who are running away from the
city because her father (David Myerholtz) insists she marry Demetrius (Zachary
Peek). Helena who loves Demetrius learns of the lovers’ plan to flee and tips
off Demetrius hoping this will mean her rival’s death and endear her to him.
Then we have the workmen intent on staging a classical drama for the royal couple on
their wedding day. Peter Quince (Kelsey Brock) tries to organize the
proceedings, but is stifled at every move by Bottom (Tucker Pendleton) a pompous
showboater, who has ideas about everything especially if they putting him at
center stage.
These clueless thespians include Snug (Adam Panter), Flute (Derek Griffin), Snout
(Martin Simon) and Starveling (Grace O’Hare). Their bumbling attempts to put on
a classical tragedy end the play on a note of hilarity.
Before that point these rude mechanicals encounter Puck (Mikayla Trimpey), the
mischievous henchman of the king of the Forest Oberon (Daniel Nabinger). Oberon
is feuding with his queen Titania (Cara Brosius), and as a trick he has Puck
infect her with the essence of a flower that means she will fall in love with
the first person she sees when she wakes. That happens to be Bottom, whose
already fat head has been transformed into a donkey’s head.
Oberon also orders Puck to put the liquid into the eyes of Demetrius and then lead
Helena to him, but instead infects Lysander who now loves Helena, instead of
Hermia.
Then to undo the confusion he must infect Demetrius with this love magic. Lysander
goes from being unloved to being fawned over by two men. She interprets this as
mockery by the men and Hermia. The argument between the two young women, whose
fates have been reversed, is a comic high point. All this ties up in the end
with everyone with the sweetheart they desire, leaving the audience with plenty
to smile about.