A Midsummer Night's Dream

Love is a timeless topic which Shakespeare explores in depth in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream “. Shakespeare utilizes the format of a play within a play to communicate the complexities of love. Love is a force that characters cannot control. The play includes scenes of lovers searching for fulfillment in the arms of characters who are unavailable. The magic love potion wreaks havoc between actual lovers and it is clear just how negatively it is portrayed. The entire play revolves around the difficulties of maintaining love and how foolish and insecure the pursuit of love can make us. It also touches on the fickleness of love, that love can be

As the show captivated my senses, it captured my heart, and turned from what I thought would be a trite show like the soap operas my mother enjoyed into a breathtaking experience. The dancers leaping and flipping across the stage were astonishing, and filled me with a sense of wonder. I was not consciously aware of it at the time, yet in some way, I aspired to emulate them in my own life. Now I in no way wanted to be a broadway star; however, I wished to gain even just an ounce of the talent they possessed. Exiting the theatre, I had a different attitude than when I had first gone through the doors. I had finally found something that I did not just enjoy, but that I was fervent

Shakespeare’s usage of metaphor and simile in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is best understood as an attempt to provide some useful context for relationships and emotions, most often love and friendship, or the lack thereof. One example of such a usage is in Act 3, Scene 2 of the play. Here, the two Athenian couples wake up in the forest and fall under the effects of the flower, thus confusing the romantic relationships between them. Hermia comes to find her Lysander has fallen for Helena. Hermia suspects that the two have both conspired against her in some cruel joke, and begins lashing out against Helena. She says “We, Hermia, like two artificial gods, / Have with our needles created both one flower, / Both one sampler sitting on one cushion, / Both warbling of one song, both in one key; / As if our hands, our sides, voices, and minds, / Had been incorporate. So we grew together, / Like a double cherry, seeming parted; / But yet a union in partition / Two lovely berries moulded on one stem: / So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart; / Two of the first, like coats in heraldry, / Due but to one, and crowned with one crest.” (Shakespeare 2.3.206-13). Shakespeare writes this list of vibrant metaphors to establish the prior relationship between these two characters and to make it evident how affected Helena is by this unexpected turn of events, as well as to add a greater range of emotion to the comedy, thereby lending it more literary and popular appeal.

The lightning and sound made it easy to hear and see from different seats. The atmosphere of the playhouse was great and welcoming. Many of the staff are volunteers, that did a great job of helping us find our seats, foods, and drinks. Many of the actors socialized with the audience before the performance. My wife and I had a discussion with one of the actors, J. Tony Brown, before we were seated. He told us of the next play they were going to perform at the Shakespeare Tavern, and explained many aspects of Henry the Sixth to us. I thought this made the night more special for my wife and I. The actor was very knowledgeable and welcoming, he asked questions of us as we asked many of him. He also did not give me any grief for wishing him good luck, and received it well. I questioned the good luck as soon as it left my lips, and was very embarrassed upon further research in theatre superstitions. I might have also said Macbeth to him, but I do not recall doing

I went to the performance of, “Of Mice and Men” and words can not describe how incredible it was. You could tell how much effort was put by all into making this show the best. In the beginning I had no Idea what the play was even about, who the characters were, what was going to happen, it was all a surprise to me. I did know though that the cast was small and the stage is also not the biggest but I knew it was going to look incredible. I had expectations for the stage, but when I walked I saw that they surpassed them, like always of course. I had the privilege to see the show twice, once doing the show rehearsal because I was taking pictures for the newspaper, (watch out for those!) And the second time I went to the free show. SO basically I got the best of both

I really did appreciate the lightning effects, it wasn’t too dark or too much light. I also have to give them credit for using a spotlight on the one talking at several times. Not to mention a scene where Romeo got into a fight with one of the Capulet’s when the light started flashing while they were fighting, due to the darkening when I didn’t see anything reminded of a comic where you see one thing in this picture and something else in another.

I remember walking into the theater room, my hands sweating with nerves and my throat as dry as the Sahara Desert. I took my seat at the front, running over my lines once again, making sure my

“Audiences can gain a better understanding of ways to behave in a specific relationship through comparing past and present representations of them in texts.”

For my twentieth birthday, my aunt took my mom and me to see River Dance. I had never seen it before, but both my mom and aunt had and sung its praises.

February 2, 2015. It was just an ordinary day with my daily routine of eighth grade, so I thought. My mom was over my grandma’s house earlier than usual. I went inside and they were talking about how they should do something for the girls and how we needed to go on a trip. Honestly I didn’t get excited at first because when they doing something with the girls I think of “Oh something for the older people.” I came out of the den and went into the living room and they were at the table. “Gone head and put your backpack in the car”, my mom said. I did what she said and went back inside to hear what they were talking about. My grandma then said “What do you think about going on a trip to the Orpheum?”

I arrive at the theater with my bag and find my freshman group. They were sitting in a circle, talking about what was gonna happen. None of us had been to one of these before, so it was all a little nerve racking for us.

The distinction between reality and dreams can be a fine line, often confounding our perceptions of what is real and what simply appears to be. Shakespeare’s mystical play A Midsummer Night’s Dream examines this concept as the worlds of law and desire struggle against each other. The four main storylines of the play: the royal wedding, the four lovers, the fairies, and the rude mechanicals quickly become entangled in a mix of magic and love. At the head of this chaos is Puck, the fairy servant who successfully wreaks havoc on the characters of the play before restoring order by the play’s conclusion. Along the way, the audience is captivated by the drama of the intertwining storylines as they try to determine which of the play’s numerous realities

Shakespeare’s play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, has been portrayed in many different ways. Along with the 1999 film, countless plays have reinvented this timeless masterpiece. In order to compare most effective acting, blocking, and prop usage, I have watched three different videos of Act III, Scene II, as listed above. Each had their perks, as well as faults.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream transformed and modernized into the 1960’s certainly wasn’t anything I would’ve dreamt of. On October 24, I attended Diamond Bar High School Theater’s production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” written by William Shakespeare.

This almost exact mirroring of the main themes and ideas of A Midsummer Night’s Dream enhances the quality and enjoyment of ‘the play within the play’ and the entire play itself. ‘The play within the play’ gave me something to compare my views on A Midsummer Night’s Dream against.