February 28, 2014
A Midsummer Night's Dream Tickets on Sale
Tickets for the Prince Avenue Christian School Fine Arts production of A Midsummer Night's Dream are now on sale online. Cost of the tickets are $11 in advance online, and $15 at the door.
Click the appropriate buttons below to order your tickets for that performance.
The Prince Avenue Christian School Fine Arts Department presents A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a Shakespearian comedy concerning the enchantments and woes of love. The production, a collaboration of both middle and high school students, will be performed in the Prince Avenue Baptist Church Children’s Theatre at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, March 27-28, and at 2:00 and 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 29. Tickets are $11 in advance and $15 at the door.
While this is not the first work of Shakespeare to grace a Prince stage, it is the first one under the direction of Joseph Strickland, who said Shakespearian theatre is very different from other types. “When you pick up a piece of classical theatre, you have different goals than you would with other pieces of dramatic literature,” Mr. Strickland said. “The style of acting is different and the audience’s expectations are often very different, so the material has to be translated and communicated to the audience in a way that’s fun, exciting and exhilarating, but at the same time understandable.”
Mr. Strickland chose Midsummer because it is one of Shakespeare’s greatest comedic works, and it ties in many different elements, including fantasy, comedy and romance—but romance in the way that it often truly does go, with “cat-fighting” and “backstabbing” that can occur. “It’s a play that does not take itself seriously, and as a result, a lot of fun can be had,” Mr. Strickland said.
The Prince Fine Arts Department doesn’t focus solely on the performance aspect of its shows. The shows are intended for performance, but they also play a larger role in that the cast and crew grow in their craft as they are working on the show. “We don’t want them to be the same actor they were when they began the show,” Mr. Strickland said.
Freshman Alex Harding, who plays Lysander, one of the principal roles in the show, has never before performed anything in theatre at Prince. He said his favorite parts of the process so far have been learning the story of the play and getting to work with such fun and talented actors and actresses.
A common obstacle which can be intimidating when approaching a work of Shakespeare is the language. Harding said it’s “a different type of English,” so understanding both the story and his character has been the biggest challenge for him; however, it has still been a lot of fun.
Mr. Strickland said that at the beginning, the students were all daunted by the language barrier and thought they could never understand what they were saying. Now, however, after seeing the characters and events brought to life in rehearsals, the students—even down to the youngest, the sixth graders—have told Strickland that they clearly understand everything that happens in the show, even with a completely original, unaltered script. Many people may think that Shakespeare wrote for nobility and high class, but the reality is that he wrote to the uneducated, common folk. “The reality is simple,” Strickland said. “It’s tomfoolery, it’s buffoonery at times when you watch a Shakespearian show, but it’s done with a heart of gold. With a gentle heart and an empty head is where Shakespeare finds his humor.”
The fine arts faculty highly encourages people to come out and take this unique opportunity to see a Shakespeare production. “When you have a Shakespearian play right close to you, where you don’t have to go far away and you don’t have to go out and buy a big ticket, take the opportunity,” Strickland said. “You will be pleasantly surprised with this show; it is hilarious. It is one that the kids are proud of, and if you see it, you will definitely not regret it.”
–Bonny Harper