Theater Department Gives New Twist to Shakespeare

By Broadside Correspondent Sarah Buchanan

The Theater Department is performing Ken Ludwig’s “Shakespeare in Hollywood”, a fun comedic take on what would happen if Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Nights Dream met old school Hollywood. Shakespeare’s king of the fairies, Oberon, and his goofy assistant Puck are literally transported into the 1934 movie set of The Midsummer Nights Dream and manage to turn things upside down in a way only they could manage. As people fall in and out of love and are transformed into donkeys, a hilarious mayhem ensues.

Because the play is based on both historical figures and fictional characters, the cast did a lot of research on the original movie version of Shakespeare’s play and other films from the Golden Age of cinema. Mason student and actor Joshua McCreary, who plays the role of movie mogul Jack Warner, said, “It was a challenge playing characters that actually existed” but that it was a “smooth process and a fun play.”

Faculty director Mary Lechter said that she focused on the original 1934 production and played with how the “magic of Hollywood” and the “magic of A Midsummer Nights Dream” could collide and combine.

She and her cast explored many of the parallels and echoes between the actual and fictional worlds including the similarity of the relationships between Oberon and Puck and Jack Warner and his assistant Daryl.

The sets for Shakespeare in Hollywood were also inspired by the movie The Midsummer Nights Dream. Designer Dana Maier has previously worked on Mason’s Theater Department’s ‘Trojan Women” where she filled the stage with sand for an impressive effect. Audiences should look forward to her ideas, especially for Jack Warner’s Hollywood Mansion Garden and Graumann’s Chinese Theater. Other elements of the set include a magic forest and pieces of a Warner movie set.

Shakespeare in Hollywood promises high energy and hilarious acting. The cast is talented and excited about the upcoming performances.

“Shakespeare in Hollywood” will be performed in TheaterSpace, a black box studio located on the bottom floor of the Performing Arts Building.

Performances are on weekends starting Thursday, Oct. 23 at 8 p.m., and ending with a matinee at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 2. A limited number of free student tickets are available at the Center for the Arts Box Office.

You can also purchase tickets at the CFA or at the door. Prices start at $10 for students, faculty, staff, and seniors, and $12 for general admission.

For more information, visit www.gmu.edu/departments/theatre/.