About the Play
Arne Zaslove's highly acclaimed version of A Midsummer Night's
Dream, the wildly popular 1950s rock and roll story of teenage love,
returns after a 10-year absence. Last produced in Seattle in 1994,
its success is legendary: only Angry Housewives had a longer run.
Conceived and directed by Zaslove, pop tunes marry Shakespeare's
traditional text, while the Athens High School gymnasium is transformed
for prom-night magic. It's fun, fantasy and frolic; it's bobby socks
and baseball caps! Bring the whole family and enjoy!
"People have said, 'we're so glad you changed the language,'
but we don't. We're faithful to the text," says Zaslove. "The
language is first, the language is all - it's critical. They understand
it because Shakespeare's poetry is universal - yet the popular songs
heighten it. The setting is the Athens High School gymnasium, transformed
into a magical forest for prom night. The combination makes Shakespeare
more accessible and relevant to modern audiences."
Zaslove's interest in pop culture, coupled with high school memories,
inspired him to add popular music to Shakespeare's magical fairy
story when he was teaching theater at the University of Washington,
where he co-founded the Professional Actor Training Program. His
"Midsummer" first hit the stage in 1968, then was re-staged
in the late 70s at the Floating Theater, whose home for this event
was at Seattle's Egyptian Theater.
Although some new songs have been added for this millennium version,
chart-topping favorites such as "Goin' to the Chapel,"
"Why Must I Be a Teenager in Love," and "Love Me
Tender" are still included.
In 1980 and again in 1994, the show was a sell-out at Zaslove's
Bathhouse Theater. The Moore Theater played host to the production
in the late 1980s. It continues to be produced by theater groups
around the country. Three actors will reprise their 1994 roles in
this production: Heather Hawkins as Titania, David White as Bottom,
and Art Anderson as Oberon.
"The rich rhyming verse in the play lends itself to a musical.
The songs grow out of the story," Zaslove continues. "It's
one of the best structured of Shakespeare's plays. It has three
distinct plots brilliantly interwoven that come together in the
end, with lovers, magic and clowns. It's innocent, it's ingenious."
More About Arne Zaslove
Arne Zaslove has been directing, producing, and writing for Seattle
stages for over 35 years. He is co-founder of the Professional Actors
Training Program at the U. of W. He was the Artistic Director of
the English Acting section of The National Theater School of Canada,
Montreal. He's served as the Artistic Director of the Bathhouse
Theater and The Floating Theater and created the Young ACT Company
as well as having served as Associate Artistic Director for the
Seattle Repertory Theater. He was the first American Fulbright Scholar
to study with the late Jacques Lecoq in Paris, and he has directed
and taught throughout the U.S. and Canada. Recently he has worked
with David Shiner in Berlin on Pomp Duck and Circumstance (the original
version of Seattle's and San Francisco's Teatro Zinzanni) and served
as Creative Consultant to Mr. Shiner on "Shiner in the Round"
at ACT.
You will soon be able to see Mr. Zaslove's documentaries on local
and national artists in a series entitled arTTalks to be aired on
SPS TV, channel 26, and the Seattle Channel as well as a program
devoted to teaching Shakespeare to Seattle area high school students.
In July he will perform his one-man show "Imagine Yourself"
at California's Esalen Institute and conduct a week of classes entitled
"The Mask As the Gateway to the Self."
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