#MidsummerMondays: Creating the Dream

Lisa Taberner will star in our Senior Youth Theatre’s upcoming production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and is a member of our Youth Marketing Committee. She provides an update on how rehearsals are going…

“We will meet; and there we may rehearse most

obscenely and courageously. Take pains; be perfect: adieu.”

Well The Courtyard Youth Theatre’s senior group is certainly taking pains to be perfect for our performance in July. At the end of November we auditioned for our preferred roles in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, having chosen one of four monologues offered to us from the play, in addition to a monologue from any other play from our choice. We were asked to choose and perform our monologues in a way that would reflect the character that we were auditioning for, and as “the panel” (Dan Pegler and Ellen Dorsett) took notes, we recited our lines and did our best to get into the mindset of our chosen character.

The following Friday (having spent a week in anticipation!), we arrived at The Courtyard and were finally given our parts! Dan spent a great deal of time working through his audition notes and casting each role, and as we all started reading through the script together, it became clear that his choices were well made. Following the read-through, we did a bit of character work before taking a break for the Christmas holidays.

We are now well into our preparation for our four performances later this year, and without giving anything away, this show is going to be “a very good piece of work, I assure you,” to quote Nick Bottom of Shakespeare’s comedy.

Bringing The Bard’s story to life in a new and interesting way is no small task. So, under Dan’s guidance, we are hard at work to produce something fantastic which will twist this classic in exciting ways, and hopefully leave the audience with a slightly different view of the tale of the “lovers and mad men (who) have such seething brains.”

A Midsummer Night’s Dream will be in the Main House from Thursday 27 – Saturday 29 July.