Never before has the Wagon Wheel Center for the Arts produced one of William Shakespeare’s plays, according to Executive Director Will Dawson. It has performed shows based on Shakespeare’s work – like this summer’s “West Side Story,” a modern take on “Romeo & Juliet” – but never the real thing. So with the debut of the comedy “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” Wednesday night, the Wagon Wheel made a little of its own history. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” directed by Andy Robinson and Ben Dicke, runs through Aug. 8 at the Wagon Wheel. In an interview Monday afternoon, actors Angel Lozada and Laura Plyler discussed their roles of Lysander and Hermia respectively, the play and doing Shakespeare for a modern audience. “My character is a little bit of a hopeless romantic that falls in love with one girl, and magically somehow – I’m not going to say how – falls in love with another girl and falls out of love with the previous girl, which is (Hermia),” Lozada said. “Basically, Hermia is the daughter of one of the civilians in the town and my father does not want me to marry Lysander, at first,” Plyler said. “We’re trying to, obviously.” Hermia is betrothed to Demetrius because that’s who her father wants her to marry, even though she doesn’t love him. “She’s kind of a feisty character. She’s known a lot in the play as little but fierce. So it’s interesting to try and find her loveable pretty princess side and also that hard, female-lead character,” Plyler continued. Written in the 1590s, the play weaves together events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons; four young Athenian lovers; and a group of six amateur actors (mechanicals). They’re all manipulated by the fairies, with the king of the fairies, Oberon, and the queen, Titania, also having their own issue. Puck, Oberon’s fairy servant, does his king’s bidding, but not always perfectly. To keep it all straight, Lozada said, “We rehearsed separately. From the beginning, a lot of it was separate, because until the end we all don’t come together. So the rehearsal process was very much separated – everyone in their own rehearsal times and groups. And then eventually we put the show together. And I think that was one of the hardest things, making the show cohesive and mesh because there’s so many different chunks to it.” “And Shakespeare’s language is very heightened anyways so it was very interesting,” Plyler said. “... It was just interesting to marry Shakespeare’s original heightened language just between the lovers and then the even more heightened language between the fairies and Oberon and Titania. It’s just a very cool, interesting perspective on that kind of world.” Plyler has the benefit for this show of having done Shakespeare before. She played Juliet in Florida State University’s Main Stage production of “Romeo & Juliet.” “It was just very interesting doing Juliet compared to, I guess, the lovers just because it’s a totally different play. It’s a tragedy and this is a comedy. So it’s cool. I love Shakespeare’s comedies. He’s quite witty,” she said. “Midsummer Night’s Dream” is Lozada’s first time at tackling Shakespeare. “It’s been very interesting tackling this,” he said. “I think as a cast, and just everybody, we’re doing a really good job of making sure that we’re showing with our bodies what it is we’re saying so that the audiences will be able to understand everything that is happening.” While some in the audiences may find the language difficult, Lozada said that with all the cast’s physicality, the way it’s staged and the way it’s been directed, the audience should be able to tell what the story is even if the actors didn’t say a single word. “I think we do a really good job of that,” he said. Plyler said Shakespeare’s works like “Midsummer Night’s Dream” have lasted over 400 years because of the genuineness of each character in those specific situations. “It’s just the way it pans out, it’s this huge love triangle that goes completely wrong. And I think that’s lasted so long because it could absolutely happen. It could,” she said. Lozada added, “I think these people did live in a time period hundreds and hundreds of years ago, but we can still relate to these emotions – love, hate, anger. All these different emotions we still feel today. Maybe the society they lived in was a little more heightened and different, but at the core of it we can still understand and relate.” The fairies in “Midsummer Night’s Dream” add a “very nice narration almost to the plot, to where you can follow both Oberon’s and Titania’s story along with the lovers’ story. They’re kind of the audience’s narrator,” Plyler said. “You will be able to see Jen Dow does a great job as Puck. She’s very specific with her text and images.” The fairies, while serving as Titania’s and Oberon’s helpers, also tell more of the story the audience wouldn’t get otherwise, she said. “And they also add an element of magic,” Lozada said. Despite the language and it being a very old story, the actors agreed it’s one the whole family could enjoy. “I think it’s very family friendly,” said Plyler, noting how the Wagon Wheel actors bring the characters to life. “We do a good job of making everything so clear,” Lozada noted. “It’s very family oriented.” Plyler said if people want to know more about the play before seeing it, there are plenty of synopses online or they could just read the play themselves. But the show is still very enjoyable for everyone regardless, she said. “Come with an open mind. Pay attention more than you would normally. Be prepared to take it all in,” Lozada advised. Tickets are on sale now at the Wagon Wheel Center for the Arts or may be purchased online at wagonwheelcenter.org The cost of admission is $32 for adults, $24 for seniors, $18 for students and $14 for children up to age 12. Call the box office at 574-267-8041 with any questions. Presented by Parkview Health Systems.
