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Director's Note

A Midsummer Night's Dream is an exciting story of escaping reality with magic, comedy, and wonder. Two couples run away from the strict laws in pursuit of love. They soon enter into a world of wonder when they encounter mischievous fairies and have some pretty epic "fights". Meanwhile, a group of actors rehearse and perform a funny, albeit terrible, play about love. In this story, chaos, hilarity, and conflict reign supreme.

In High School (especially in a somewhat Post-Covid time), our students fully understand what it feels like to have your identity and relationships shift in front of your eyes, and sometimes without cause or warning. Midsummer was the perfect choice to escape reality while also reflecting the world around them. Despite the challenges this "new normal" time brings, inspiration can be found all around us. The concept behind our production of Midsummer came to me while hearing students singing various *NSYNC/Backstreet Boys songs - which I hadn't heard in decades. Immediately struck with nostalgia, I decided to dust off my old CD's (I know, right?!) and take a trip down memory lane. As I listened to these songs again, I really made a connection that most, if not all, dealt with the complications of love. Thus, our "Boy Band meets Shakespeare" play was born! This concept was enough to entice our hesitant actors to dive right in and realize that Shakespeare can be fun, despite the hours of text analysis and "homework" required to perform. We have faith that our concept aligned with the brilliant words of Shakespeare will allow you to sit back and escape into a world of nostalgia and magic ... and possibly dance or sing along if you feel so inclined!

Finally, I would be remiss to write a director's note without acknowledging how blessed I am to be surrounded by a group of teachers and staff who have helped me create this wonderful opportunity for our students. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. It takes a village, and mine came out of and back into the woods to make this vision as magical as it has been.

"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind." ~Helena. Act 1, Scene 1

Enjoy the show!
~Brett Harwood, Director

Plot Summary

At the beginning of the play, Theseus, the Duke of Athens, prepares for his marriage to Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons. He is interrupted by Egeus, who asks for the Duke to intervene in a dispute: his daughter, Hermia, will not agree to marry Demetrius (whom Egeus has chosen for her) because she is in love with Lysander. Theseus offers her one of two options: she must either die or accept life as a nun. Lysander and Hermia plan to run away to the woods and elope. They share their secret with Helena, Hermia's friend, who is desperately in love with Demetrius. At night, Lysander and Hermia escape from Athens; but they soon lose their way in the woods. After Helena tells Demetrius of their intention to defy the law, Demetrius decides to follow the lovers into the woods. In turn, Helena follows Demetrius in the hope that he will give up on Hermia and choose her instead. Meanwhile, a group of workers is preparing a play to present before Theseus and Hippolyta on their wedding day. 

Nearby, Oberon - King of the Fairies—is fighting with his queen, Titania. She refuses to hand over a boy to Oberon to use as a page. Oberon plots a way to get revenge on Titania and sends his fairy servant, Puck, to fetch a purple flower with juice that makes people fall in love with the next creature they see. Afterward, Oberon overhears Demetrius mistreating Helena and tells Puck to anoint 'the Athenian', so Demetrius will fall in love with the first person that he sees. Puck mistakes the Athenian and puts the flower juice on the eyes of the sleeping Lysander. When he is woken by Helena, he immediately falls in love with her and rejects Hermia. When Demetrius rests, Oberon puts magic juice on his eyes, which makes him fall in love with Helena as well. 

The workers' rehearsals in the woods are overheard by Puck, who plays a trick on them by giving Bottom a donkey's head. After frightening the others away, Bottom is lured toward the sleeping Titania. On waking, the fairy queen falls in love with the donkey and entertains him with her fairies. Meanwhile, Demetrius and Lysander, still under the spell of the flower juice, pursue Helena. Hermia is jealous and confused about the lack of attention paid to her. Oberon and Puck watch the chaos, and Oberon commands Puck to fix this problem. The couples' arguments have tired them all out as they have chased one another through the woods. Puck eventually distracts the two men from their pursuit of Helena by impersonating their voices and they get lost in the woods. The couples fall asleep, exhausted. Puck places restorative juice on Lysander's eyes.

After an afternoon of being pampered by Titania's fairies, Bottom falls asleep beside her. Oberon restores Titania's sight and wakes her. After expressing her dismay at the sight of Bottom, she reconciles with Oberon. Bottom's donkey head is removed and he returns to the city to rejoin his friends as they prepare to perform their play. The couples are woken by Theseus and Hippolyta. Lysander falls back in love with Hermia and Demetrius realizes that he does, in fact, love Helena. 

Happily reunited the couples agree to share the Duke's wedding day. The very bad play, Pyramus and Thisbe, is presented before the wedding guests. Puck ends the story by asking the audience to clap if they enjoyed the show and if they didn't, pretend it was all a dream.

Special Thanks

The world of Midsummer could not have been made possible without the help of an incredible group of people:

• Northwood's Administrative Team for their support of the theatre program and this production.
• Our Academy Head, Ryan Sullivan, for his constant help and support to make this the best show possible.
• Dr. Brian "Doc" Semos for bringing the world of Midsummer to life with his magical set design and construction.
• Vincent Sumbry and Heather Minneman for their lighting/sound expertise, among many other things.
• Corinne Haas and Joelle Solar for helping with the awesome boy band-inspired choreography.
• Katie Keddell and The St. Pauls Schools for lending us many of their amazing costumes.
• Mr. Corey Ahearn for giving us his time, expertise, and talents to this show!
• All the Northwood students who painstakingly cut out so many leaves and helped create a magical forest on stage.
• Our families for supporting and encouraging us as we explore our passion for theatre!

Meet the Company

Corey Ahearn

Egeus, Father to Hermia

Mr. Ahearn is in his 14th year of teaching English at Northwood. His passion is Shakespeare and his calling is education, so he's in good shape. He is currently teaching the pilot of a class he created called "Shakespeare, Race and Gender" and fully believes that Shakespeare, like bread, is for everyone.

Chinaza Amagwula

Helena, in love with Demetrius

Chinaza is excited to be a part of her first big high school production. Theatre has been an interest of hers for a while. In 5th grade, she was a part of "The Lion King, Jr" where she played the role of Scar. Being on stage and performing song and dance numbers was an exciting feeling and she can’t wait to do it again. She is excited to have the opportunity to play a challenging character such as Helena and to learn new choreography that she is excited to share with you. Chinaza hopes to study theatre in college and hopefully move on to being on the big screen.

Virginia Almendarez

Hermia, Daughter of Egeus

Virginia is so excited to be in this production. She has worked hard along with the rest of the cast and crew to make this possible. She is so excited for this play to come to life. As the director had said, "Shakespeare is meant to be seen, not read." Virginia hopes that this play changes some people's minds about Shakespeare and that it can be enjoyed without it being boring and/or confusing. She hopes her family and friends will enjoy this play and thanks them for being supportive and sharing with others that she is part of it. She feels very proud of it and she also hopes that the audience will have fun and get out a couple of laughs.

Misty Bailey

Crew - Sound

Misty is a senior and enjoys supporting her peers who show great interest in theatre. This is her second year on the crew. She thanks her father for driving her home at 6:00pm for almost two weeks and her mother for her birth. She bids y’all adieu.

Evan Buskirk

Snout, a Tinker

This will be Evan's first High School play/musical, but not their first performance. Evan has always loved theater and dance and has been in many dance recitals as well as both dance concerts and the theater showcase last year. They are very excited and happy to have been given this opportunity. They would like to thank everyone who has made this possible, and they hope you enjoy the show!

Eva Caron

Crew - Sound

Eva is so excited to be working on the production of Midsummer! She has worked on Northwood's production of "All Together Now!" and "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee." For this show, she will be working on the mic board.

Isabella Choong

Crew - Lighting/Sound

Isabella is in the 11th grade and this is her second year doing tech. She got interested in theater through friends who performed in school productions and later learned about joining tech crew. Isabella is excited to work on her first show since December 2021 with "A Midsummer Night’s Dream".

Ada Fetalcorin

Moth, a fairy

Ada is a junior at Northwood and is eager to be in this year's production of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." This will be her second time on stage, the first being in last year's musical revue, “All Together Now!” She loved watching this show come to life and hopes that you enjoy it as much as she did. She would like to thank Cunningham Falls State Park for having one bar of service near their bathroom, just so she didn't have to walk all over the campground in search of a spot the weekend she was expecting the cast list to come out and, more importantly, everyone who was involved in the show. No matter how big or small your involvement was, thank you! Finally, she thanks you for coming tonight and "bids" you a good evening.

Jordan Holt

Starveling, a tailor

Jordan is a senior at Northwood High School and is thrilled to be a part of a Midsummer’s Night Dream, playing Starveling/Moonshine. She had previously been in a production of Legally Blonde, but this play is the first Northwood production she will performing in. She was a part of the Washington Performing Arts Children of the Gospel for ages 11 to 17 and also plays the flute. She is so proud of the cast and crew’s dedication to this production and hopes you can sit back and enjoy this hilarious show!

Sophia Johnson

Titania, Queen of the Fairies

Sophia is very enthusiastic about her role as Queen of the Faries because she loves the majesty of the title and the attitude that comes with it! She's been doing theatre for the last 4 years and this is her first time doing Shakespeare. After her performance in last year's showcase, she's very excited to show an audience more of her acting! Finally, she thanks those who've supported her theatre journey!

Millie Lach

Crew - Sound

Millie is so excited to be working on her third show at Northwood on tech! She has been doing audio for all three high school shows but did other tech things in middle school. She hopes you enjoy the show and hopes it isn’t too loud.

Lourdes Landeros

Comms

Lourdes is a Sophomore at Northwood, and has participated in school theater separately throughout elementary and middle school. In those years she acted on stage, this is the first time she has done tech crew. She finds being backstage ready to help very exciting and is looking forward to continuing that position in the future.

Nathaniel Lehman

Flute, a Bellows-mender

Nathaniel is thrilled to be a senior at Northwood this year. He has been in every production he could since middle school and is excited to continue in college. Some other shows Nathaniel has been in at Northwood include "Into The Woods" and "All Together Now!" Nathaniel wants to thank all his friends and family for coming out and supporting him.

Jonathan D. Lopez-Ventura

Bottom, a Weaver

Jonathan has been very excited to continue his work in acting with this new show. Despite being seen on stage nearly two years ago, he is still well-energized to be working with Northwood. His first production ironically was Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night", then later his musical debut in "The Little Mermaid" at Paint Branch High School. After the dreaded virus, he returned for another performance of a lifetime. When the curtains open, he'll be there waiting for all of you to see not only him but everyone else on stage!

Charli Mattison

Peaseblossom, a fairy

Charli is excited to be in her 3rd play at Northwood! She is a strong believer that the productions at Northwood are the best part of the school and that the community of theater kids is like no other. Now, mortals, enjoy the show!

Quin McMenamin

Quince, a Carpenter

Quin has been acting for years. From a young age, his passion for acting shone through into multi-medium performances in elementary school with miming, puppetry, and traditional acting. Quin has also spent some time in commercials. Years ago he acted alongside his mother in a political ad for Gabriel Giffords. More recently he was in a Better Business Bureau ad for the Southern Arizona AIDs Foundation, which won an award. On stage, he’s been in many plays ranging in all kinds of genres, from sci-fi to westerns, to comedy, and to contemporary. His most recent role in Northwood’s theatre department was as Vice Principal Doug Panch in "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee".

Candia Melvin

Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons

Candia Melvin is very excited to be a part of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the role of Hippolyta. She has appeared in productions such as Scuttle in "The Little Mermaid". She was also in Matilda and she was cast as Michael and a part of the ensemble. Her most recent production was "Les Miserables" and she was in the ensemble. Candia would like to thank her family and friends for supporting her in her productions.

Alexis Miskelly

Theseus, Duke of Athens

Alexis is ecstatic to play Theseus in "A Midsummers Night's Dream". This is her Senior year and she is thrilled to be in her first-ever play! However, this is not her first production. She was part of the ensemble for "Into the Woods" at Northwood during her freshman year and performed with the Free Theatre from 2019-2021. In her free time, she loves to paint, write, and study nature. Finally, she wants to thank her family for being so supportive.

Khadija Ndiaye

Oberon, King of the Fairies

Khadija is a junior at Northwood and is thrilled to be in her third Northwood production. This is also her first play and her first time performing Shakespeare. She hopes you enjoy the show as much as she enjoys being a part of it!

Michael Nielson

Philostrate, Master of the Revels

This is Michael's first production ... ever! They are really excited to be doing this and they've had a lot of fun in the process of it all. Michael came into this with zero experience and an older brother's "legacy" to look up to. They never really expected to get in, they just picked the line that looked the easiest from a random character, auditioned, and this is what it turned into! While they cannot compete with the energy and silliness of their older brother, Michael is proud and can’t wait to show YOU what they’ve accomplished!

Aïda Nyabingi

Lysander, in love with Hermia

Aïda Nyabingi is a senior at Northwood High school and is performing in her 6th show here. Previous performances include, Into The Woods (2019), Wolves (2020; that was not performed due to Covid- 19), Help Desk (2021), All Together Now! (2021), and The 25th annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (2022). This is Aïda’s first Shakespeare play and she always looks forward to new experiences on the stage. She’d like to thank all the people involved and support her! Enjoy!

Andru Orosco

Crew - Lights

This is Andru’s third time working lights for theatre. He is very glad to be back and excited to help everyone SEE the play this year.

Flor Palma

Snug, a Joiner

Flor is thrilled to be in her third production here at Northwood! They are in 10th grade and excited to be back on stage again. You might know him from her last production at Northwood’s “25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" but has also been included in Northwood's "All Together Now!" last year. Flor is thankful to be in this production and would like to thank everyone they met along the way.

Melany Portillo Ventura

Crew - Spotlight

Melany is 15 years old and a freshman at NHS. At the age of 10, she worked as the director of her school's adaptation of the book, "One." Since then, she has shown an interest in theatre. This is her first time working in a high school production and it is her first time running the spotlight. Melany is very excited to continue to participate in future productions. She is following a computer science pathway at the TESS Academy. She has received many awards for academic excellence and is a homeroom classroom representative. Melany would like to thank her family and friends for supporting her, and she hopes you enjoy the show.

Kalli Rickard

Crew - Props/Run Crew

This is Kalli's first production with Northwood High School. They are apart of the run crew and help build and create some of the props. One of the major props she worked on is the wall costume worn by one of our wonderful actors.

Madison Riggs

Crew - Assistant Stage Manager

Maddie is thrilled to be working with Northwood Theater again! This will be her second year and third play working on the tech crew. Maddie is so excited to be working as assistant stage manager on this play and hopes to get to learn even more about theater tech!

Miles Riggs

Crew - Set/Props/Run Crew

This is Miles’ 3rd show at Northwood, you may recognize his name from "All Together Now!" and "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee", the shows from last year where he worked both props and run crew.

Willa Rothenberg

Crew - Stage Manager

Willa Rothenberg is a Junior at Northwood High School. She has been involved in theatre since 6th grade, as a part of the tech crew. In 8th grade she starred in "A Midsummer Night's Dream", and since starting at Northwood she has been involved in theater. This is her second-time stage managing at Northwood. "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is one of her favorite Shakespeare plays, and she is so excited to make it come to life at Northwood.

Eli Schreiber

Quince, a Carpenter

Eli Schreiber is a Senior at Northwood High School. He loves theater and has been in shows such as “Did the Butler Do It?”, “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”, and “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee”. Eli thanks his family for their love and his friends for their support.

Zachary Singer

Demetrius, in love with Hermia

Zachary is a sophmore in his thrid show at Northwood! In addition to performing at Northwood, he has also been a part of a handful of community theater productions. Throughout the rehearsal process, he has come to appreciate this play more and more, as the meaning behind shakespeare's words gradually became more clear. He finds theater rehearsal a great way to have fun after a long day full of long classes and is very glad to be a part of this production. He would finally like to thank you for coming to the show and supporting Northwood's theater program!

Kameron Sturdivant

Puck, or Robin Goodfellow

Kameron is excited to be playing the role of Puck in Midsummer: his first Shakespeare play! Kameron has been doing theatre for 7 years. His most recent roles have been Charlie Brown in "You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown" and Micheal in "Peter Pan". Kameron would like to shout out his friends and family for supporting him all these years.

Tanishia Vainqueur

Fairy

Tanishia is excited to be a Fairy in "A Midsummer Night's Dream." She enjoys studying foreign languages. Tanishia loves the adrenaline rush of jazz funk, hip hop, Modern dance and folklore dance cultures. She would like to thank her parents for always lettering her to pursue her dreams and for encouraging her to stay humble.

Raynah Williams

Cobweb, a fairy

This is the second major show Raynah's been in. They've only been in one other show in middle school called "Sarah At Sea", where they played a minor character, John Russell. They have a bit of dance and singing experience from both middle school and the last year. They would like to thank all their family and friends for their support and they look forward to being in this production.

Shelby Wilson

Crew - Stage Right

Shelby is a sophomore at Northwood and has been involved in tech crew since 6th grade. She’s involved in many tech positions outside of school. She is excited to be on tech crew in the show.

Melany A. Portillo Ventura

Assistant Stage Manager

Melany is a freshman and a member of the TESS Academy here at Northwood High School. Previously, she worked the lighting system in the Winter Dance Show and was the lead spotlight operator in "A Midsummer Night's Dream." This is officially her second show doing Northwood Theatre, and her first show working as a stage manager. Melany is thrilled to be a part of this production. She would like to say thank you to her friends and family for supporting her.

Upcoming AMTAD Events

Winter Concert
feat Chorus, Symphonic Band, Orchestra & Jazz Ensemble
December 1, 2022 - FREE Admission

Winter Dance Concert
December 14 & 15, 2022 - $7 Admission

And The Tony Goes To ...
A Musical Theatre Showcase
January 19, 2023 - FREE Admission

Chicago: Teen Edition
March 22-25, 2023 - $5 Students $10 Adults