A Midsummer Night's Dream

[Cassander Tuireann]

ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ACADEMY PROUDLY PRESENTS:
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

HUMANS
HERMIA A short noble's daughter, loves Lysander
HELENA Tall, willowy noble's daughter, loves Dimitrius
LYSANDER A poor poet with his head in the clouds, loves Hermia
DEMETRIUS an aggressive nobleman, pursuing Hermia
DUKE THESEUS Duke of Athens, engaged to Hippolyta
HIPPOLYTA Queen of Amazons, engaged to Theseus
EGEUS Hermia's father. He hates Lysander and wants Demetrius for a son-in-law.
NICK BOTTOM A foolish weaver and terrible wannabe actor
PETER QUINCE A carpenter who gets his friends together to put on a play for Duke Theseus' wedding
FLANCIS FLUTE An adolescent bellows-maker who plays a woman in their play
ROBIN STARVELING, TOM SNOUT, SNUG Quince's friends in the play.
PHILOSTRATE Theseus' master of revels, who chooses Quince's play for Theseus' wedding entertainment.

FAERIES
PUCK A mischievous sprite (may be played by a female or young-looking male).
OBERON King of the Faeries
TITANIA Queen of the Faeries
PEASEBLOSSUM, COBWEB, MOTE, MUSTARDSEED Titania's faerie-serving girls

BRIEF SYNPOSIS
Lysander and Hermia are in love, but Demetrius wants Hermia for his wife and Egeus, Hermia's father, gives her three choices: she can marry Demetrius against her will, she can become a nun or she will be executed. Lysander and Hermia devise a plot to elope into the forest, but before they do so, Hermia confides in her best friend, Helena. Helena is in love with Demetrius and tells him what Lysander and Hermia are up to. Demetrius follows them into the forest with a lovesick Helena in his wake.

Peter Quince has gathered together some of his friends to put on a show for the Duke's wedding (oh yeah, side note: he's getting married) and Bottom wants the role of every other character but the lead, which he's given. They head into the forest to rehearse on the same night.

The forest is full of faeries and magical creatures. Titania and Oberon have been cheating on each other with other people. Titania is raising a human boy that Oberon wants for his servant, but she won't give him the boy. Oberon decides to be a bad husband and embarrass her. He sends Puck off to retrieve a flower, that, when its juice is squeezed onto the eyelids of a person, will cause them to fall in love with the first person they see when they awake. While Puck is gone, he eavesdrops on Helena and Demetrius. When Puck returns with the flower and after squeezing some of its juice on Titania's eyes, he sends Puck off to charm a "young Athenian noble". Meanwhile, Lysander and Hermia go to sleep, but they sleep a little apart from each other and Puck mistakes them for Demetrius and Lysander and squeezes the juice on Lysander's eyes. On his way back to Oberon, Puck decides to give Bottom a donkey's head because Puck is mischievous and he knows Bottom is an idiot. Bottom, unaware, scares all his friends away and accidentally wakes Titania up. She instantly falls in love with him.

Helena has lost her way and stumbles upon the couple, thinks Lysander to be dead and wakes him up. Instantly, Lysander falls in love with her. He chases her through the forest until Oberon and Puck see them and realize the mistake. Demetrius wakes Hermia up and pisses her off. She storms away and he lies down for a nap, so Puck squeezes the flower's juice on his eyelids and when he wakes up the first person he sees is Helena. Now both Lysander and Demetrius are chasing after Helena, who is a drama queen and Hermia is majorly pissed. (And meanwhile, Titania and Bottom are having wild donkey sex.) Oberon and Puck use their faerie magic to lead them into the mist to duel with each other over Helena and they all end up falling asleep together. Puck gets the antidote and squeezes it on Lysander's eyes. Then Oberon squeezes it on Titania's eyes and she falls back in love with him and gives him the boy as his servant. Puck removes the donkey's head from Bottom.

In the morning, the Duke finds the four lovers and declares that it shall be a triple wedding. Egeus isn't happy, but no one really cares about him at this point. Bottom wanders back into town and the players put on their play at the wedding. They all go home, consummate their respective marriages and live happily ever after.

It's set in Athens, ancient Greece.

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So here's the deal. Parts are first-come, first-serve. Post here with the name of your character and the part they want. If you have more than one character, you must wait ONE WEEK after posting with the first character to claim a second role, and so on. This ensures that you don't get to hog the whole play just because you have five million characters. Characters who are theater majors/minors get privilege over characters in other majors (any student may audition, but you must wait two weeks before claiming a role if your character is not a theater major/minor). At this point in the casting, it's first-come, first-serve, so claim away! We are also doing DOUBLE CASTING, so you may claim one leading/supporting role and one cameo/small role. The two roles may not conflict.

Remember it only makes sense for your character to be in this play if they are a good actor and familiar with Shakespeare and elevated speech. And your character must MAKE SENSE for the role. For example, if he's 6'3", burly and manly, he wouldn't be cast as Puck. For audition, (which is implied) your character has performed a monologue and read sides (excepts from the play and for the character they were auditioning for). Then, the casting director narrowed down the list for callbacks and they did sample scenes with each other. Then, the cast list was posted on the school's callboard. None of this has to be played out.

CAST LIST

HUMANS
HERMIA
HELENA Julia Estonia
LYSANDER Cassander Tuireann
DEMETRIUS Amri Dukhkin'
DUKE THESEUS
HIPPOLYTA
EGEUS
NICK BOTTOM
PETER QUINCE
FLANCIS FLUTE Geniveve Hermia Zak
ROBIN STARVELING Claire Anette Underwood
TOM SNOUT
NSUG
PHILOSTRATE

FAERIES
PUCK
OBERON
TITANIA
PEASEBLOSSUM Geniveve Hermia Zak
COBWEB Claire Anette Underwood
MOTE
MUSTARDSEED Taylor Relics

[Sebastian Kendrick]

CLICK HERE FOR THE OFFICIAL REHEARSAL THREAD