A Midsummer Night’s Dream: A Review

by Kevin Dudley, a junior in the Performing Arts Design Program

The University of Utah Department of Theatre’s Babcock Theatre opened its 2011/2012 season with William Shakespeare’s a Midsummer Nights Dream. It is believed this classic Shakespearian play was written in 1594 or 1596. However the exact date is unknown. It is know that the play was first published in 1600. A Midsummer Night’s Dream was likely first performed as a bridal masque and preformed at the wedding of nobility. Today, it is one of the Bard’s most well-known and frequently preformed plays from his body of work.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the whimsical tale of love offered and love spurned, of jealousy, magic, and dreams woven into three disjointed plots. Lysander loves Hermia and Hermia loves him. Hermia’s father has determined Demetrius is a more worthy suitor. Demetrius was once betrothed to Helena but threw that love over for the beauty of Hermia. Helena still loves Demetrius. Lysander puts together a plot to run away with Hermia and they share with Helena. Helena tells Demetrius in hopes to win his favor. The four find themselves in the woods and all victims of mischief of Oberon, the King of the fairies and Puck. Oberon uses the sport of the lovers to distract himself from his war with his Queen, Titania, whom has refused to deliver a changeling child Oberon wants. In the meantime, a band of Rude Mechanicals finds themselves in the forest to rehearse a play that will be offered to Theseus on his wedding night as he seeks the affection of Hippolyta. The Mechanicals become entangled in Oberon’s plot when Puck changes Bottom, the lead actor, into an ass and enchants Titania with a love potion. She of course is destined to fall in love with Bottom in his unnatural state.

Risa Brainin directed the University of Utah’s production. Under her direction the play, set in modern day, was presented with a slightly different interpretation; Oberon, (Summer Spence) is the alternative personality of Hippolyta. Hippolyta finds herself trying to resolve the conflict that results from being a once great warrior who now must submit herself as not only the subject to Theseus (Stuart Ford) but as his bride. In this production Hippolyta has a child who’s she fears will be taken by Theseus. Theseus’ alternative personality becomes Titania and the dream world exists in mind of Hippolyta. Risa Brainin also uses this device to explain the conflict over the changeling child that exists between the two Fairies. I found the interpretation thought provoking and interesting. I hadn’t considered a more complex or darker interpretation to this classic tale. It also puts a woman in the position of power and manipulation in contrast to what would have been the traditional interpretation of the script.

The result of Risa Brainin’s interpretation; however, gave much of the personality of Puck to Oberon. As a result, the most whimsical, and usually favorite character of the script was lost. Puck has traditionally been the narrator of the story who weaves the three otherwise unrelated plots together as well the central character to mischief and magic. With this interpretation we find Oberon taking much of that role.

Oberon and Titania were not the only characters where an unorthodox approach was taken. Bottom and Flute were also played females. Actor Marin Kohler played Bottom with a fresh but traditional edge that was very successful. When paired with Chelsie Cravens’ high energy and zany interpretation of Flute the performance of Pyramus and Thisbe was a delight.

The sets designed by Nayna Ramey gave us the idea that we were at the beach watching the plot unfold. The designer used poles and wooden folding chairs to signify the shift into the Hippolyta’s dream. The change was subtle but effective as the poles went from a vertical to diagonal presentation and the chairs went from their upright orientation to lying on their side. The minimal set was effective and did not in detract from other elements of the text and instead allowed the audience a richer experience in the interpretation of that text.

Ethan Olsen designed the lighting. Mr. Olsen was able to reflect the airiness of the beach in a subtle but sometimes stark and dramatic lighting plot. He successfully added to the environment of the production.

The University of Utah’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream presents a fresh take on the classic tale by William Shakespeare. The cast provided solid performances, as a whole, with some notable fresh interpretations of some of the trademark characters. This is a production that is worth seeing because it is anything but traditional; which entertains as well as challenges the audience by providing a richer subtext.

Review: Dance for the Camera Festival Screening 9/16

Kitty Sailer, Dance MFA candidate

   Award-winning director Katrina McPherson presented four dance films this weekend at The Post Theater. This event, coordinated by Professor Ellen Bromberg, was sponsored by the Departments of Modern Dance and Film & Media Arts, as part of the 8^th International Dance for the Camera Festival at the University of Utah. The Festival offered three nights of screenings, as well as a week of classes with McPherson, who is considered one of the preeminent dance film-makers in the world. The University community is lucky to have her here, under the auspices of an inter-departmental event.

   The first film, There is a Place, was made in 2010, in a small town in Scotland. As it begins, a man, dancer Sang Jijia, sits in a long row of chairs. The chairs are ordinary plastic, and the room could be a forgotten classroom, with utilitarian windows, desks pushed to the wall, and a cold wood floor. Then he moves, and the ordinary room melts away from the power of his physicality. He is both sinuous and percussive, especially in a memorable section that moves horizontally across the screen, rotating and falling along a long narrow table. The articulate editing of Simon Fildes gives the film a rhythmic quality, using the repeated noise of the slap or scrape of the table as a textured sound score. The rhythm builds in intensity, and then near the end of the film we are rewarded with cut-away shots to the same dancer on a picturesque hillside, which offers a beautiful juxtaposition to the ordinary bleakness of the room. Still, it is that room that gives meaning to the movement—the long row of chairs seems to be a brink, or the edge of some life, and the dancer is poised upon it, almost ready, it seems, to move toward the light.

   That film was my favorite of the evening. For those audience members that may be unfamiliar with the art of Dance for the Camera, McPherson offers an expert example. She wields her camera with a keen eye for the movement, the bodies, and the space. In the second film, Moment (1999), filmed in a domed chapel space, the camera leads us on a rollicking exploration of the casual location. We spy the dancers from behind piles of chairs, and experience vertigo as the camera rakes the ornamental ceiling. In Sense-8 (2001), McPherson provides us with a glimpse inside a Contact Improvisation dance company with both sighted and visually-impaired dancers. This is one example of a dance film with a culturally relevant message; the last film, Adugna (2001), is another. Adugna Community Dance Theatre commissioned McPherson to make this fund-raising film for their budding outreach dance company in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. What emerges is a cinematic documentary of passion and hope. Thus the evening ends with a note of triumph—four very different films, provoking dialogue and respect in a new interdisciplinary field with much room left for growth.  


(If you are interested in writing a critique on a College of Fine Arts event, contact Rachael Shaw at rachael dot shaw at utah.edu)

Interdisciplinarity anyone?

Students in the College of Fine Arts have been talking- and you want to work together.

The new facebook group, University of Utah Interdisciplinary Collaborations, has exploded with people all over this campus who want to work with other artists, engineers, philosophers, etc. and we want to know what  students in the Fine Arts want?  What would make your experiences in the College more productive?  More effective?  More earth-shattering?

The only way to make things happen is to get people talking.  Get the conversation started here and share with your friends.

Welcome to the Fine Arts Student Blog!

Hello Students of the College of Fine Arts.  Welcome to the new blog that can be used as a resource for questions you may have for other students in any department inside the College of Fine Arts.  Let us know what you are doing by posting about your recent or upcoming projects, and find other students in the college for collaborations, and creative opportunities.  Welcome, post, communicate.