{"id":2068,"date":"2022-12-21T11:04:27","date_gmt":"2022-12-21T11:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tads.org.uk\/?page_id=2068"},"modified":"2023-01-03T13:52:18","modified_gmt":"2023-01-03T13:52:18","slug":"a-midsummer-nights-dream-july-1989","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/tads.org.uk\/?page_id=2068","title":{"rendered":"A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream: July 1989"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Shakespeare’s much loved story of love and dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One summer we were asked by a church warden of one of the villages controlled by the vicar of Ripple, Strensham, Earls Croome and Hill Croome to perform \u2018A Midsummer Night’s Dream\u2019 as part of a churches festival, out-of-doors at Ripple Court. We accepted and I was asked to direct. It was at once evident that we could not raise a cast suitable, or indeed large enough for a full production so I truncated it severely, leaving out the lovers and the Theseus scenes; only the fairy and rude mechanicals scenes were used.
I had to meet the festival organiser and his helpers to discuss rehearsals, access etc. at the home of one of them. It was at a house in what were, I think, the stables and coach-house of the demolished Strensham Court. A very select and secret development – so select that the meeting was interrupted by an angry resident objecting strongly to the presence of \u2018strange\u2019 cars on the drive. Apparently they all lived in splendid isolation, meeting only each other for coffee etc.

The Ripple Hall production was at the lower end of a long wide lawn in front of the house. It wasn\u2019t ideal; there was no \u2018backdrop\u2019 of trees, bushes or plants, only a \u2018side entrance\u2019 from a shaded path. Ripple parishioners were not much in evidence as an audience, which numbered abort fifty. The performance was in afternoon sunlight so the \u2018midsummer night\u2019 atmosphere was non-existent. Pat Davis, in the absence of a suitable male, was an unconvincing Oberon. On the plus side we had a very good Puck – a young woman whose name eludes me – and a small choir, assembled by Peter and Ann Brown from the Choral Society and clad in cloaks and cowls, who sang two songs; \u2018Ye Spotted Snakes\u2019 was good. The audience was further away from the stage than I wanted- moved, I gathered, by the audience themselves, not wishing to participate in any way. We had to shout very loudly, often when on the move, which was tiring.

We later performed it more effectively at Mitton Manor in the evening. Puck’s closing speech – \u2018Now the hungry lion roars\u2019 etc. with a light on her in the dusk, was very successful. But on the whole, I think Shakespeare out-of-doors – unless there’s lot of lighting and very good projection and diction, not a good idea.<\/p>Geoff Guy, Director and Script Editor<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Another of Geoff Guy’s masterpieces. (Will Shakespeare had a bit to do with it as well) Learned to project our voices in a force ten gale. Karen Jordan’s Puck certainly put a girdle round the earth in forty minutes.<\/p>Jane Hughes as Titania<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shakespeare’s much loved story of love and dreams. One summer we were asked by a church warden of one of the villages controlled by the vicar of Ripple, Strensham, Earls Croome and Hill Croome to perform \u2018A Midsummer Night’s Dream\u2019 as part of a churches festival, out-of-doors at Ripple Court. We accepted and I was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":583,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"header-footer-only","meta":{"editor_plus_copied_stylings":"{}","_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2068","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tads.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tads.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tads.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tads.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tads.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2068"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/tads.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3008,"href":"https:\/\/tads.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2068\/revisions\/3008"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tads.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tads.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}