Midsummer Night’s Dream sweeps audience
Junior Savannah Smith, as Robin Goodfellow, curiously observes senior Daniel Aramouni, as Lysander, during a dress rehearsal of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
April 27, 2015
Senior Charlotte Benjamin and sophomore Isaac Sorell perform a scene from William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” as Titania and Bottom during a dress rehearsal of Manhattan High’s production of the show.
Sophomore Hannah Phillips performs a scene from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” as Helena during dress rehearsal in Rezac Auditorium. Phillips was injured in P.E. class only days before the show’s opening night, and had to re-work some of her blocking for wheelchair use. “It was difficult learning how to drive the wheelchair around the stage, but I feel pretty good about the show,” Phillips said.
Senior Willie Michaels and sophomore Hannah Phillips share a stage kiss as Demetrius and Helena during a dress rehearsal of Manhattan High’s production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
Junior Savannah Smith, as Robin Goodfellow, curiously observes senior Daniel Aramouni, as Lysander, during a dress rehearsal of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
Juniors Savannah Smith and Austin Grand Pre, as fairies Robin Goodfellow and Oberon, act alongside senior Charlotte Benjamin and sophomore Isaac Sorell, as fairy, Titania and enchanted human, Bottom, in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
Seniors Willie Michaels and Daniel Aramouni, sohpomore Kayla-Rose Marieneau and junior Austin Grand Pre act in a group scene from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Manhattan High’s spring play.
Junior Austin Grand Pre and Charlotte Benjamin dance and converse as their characters in Manhattan High’s production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” fairy king and queen, Oberon and Titania.
Sophomore Isaac Sorell and freshman Noah Shirk act in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” as comical commoners-turned-actors.
From tense to laugh-out-loud moments, this year’s spring play, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” put on by Manhattan High’s performing arts department, more than satisfied its audience.
“They are are doing a really great job with costumes and Shakespeare,” sophomore Taylor McMorris, a member of the audience of the second-night performance of the play, said.
The set for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” designed to portray an ethereal fairy-inhabited forest, included trees, flowers and vines, and featured, as is tradition in productions of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” the moon and dreamlike lighting throughout. The costumes of the forest fairy characters matched this whimsical theme and added to the otherworldly atmosphere created by stage technicians and set designers.
“It was very funny, and I really liked the fairies’ costumes. They were really pretty,” senior Elora Root, also part of the audience for the show, said.
Sophomore Hannah Phillips, who played Helena, one of the play’s main characters, had an accident in P.E. class that landed her in a brace and wheelchair just days before opening night. However, the show went on as planned.
“It was difficult learning how to drive the wheelchair around the stage, but I feel pretty good about the show,” Phillips said.
Being in a wheelchair didn’t stop her from doing her best to keep to the original blocking and script of the play.
“We feel really accomplished and proud of Hannah. She’s a trooper. She is growing up onstage so much,” senior Takeira Robinson who, played Hippolyta, said.
Shakespeare is one of the most famous playwrights in history, and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is one of his best-known plays with some of the most well-known lines he wrote, and the cast worked hard to keep the wit in the dialogue.
Manhattan High’s production was directed by Luke Stramel and produced by Linda Uthoff, drama teacher, expressed pride in the show’s cast and crew.
“I am really proud of them. Shakespeare is not easy to do. I’m really proud of the director, and the costumes were beautiful. They did a really great job,” Uthoff said.
