BRATTLEBORO — New England Youth Theatre’s Alumni Association is bringing a raw version of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” to audiences.
Preparations are based on how Shakespeare used to put on productions. Lacking printing presses at the time, hand written scripts would be given out to the actors.
“So all you get are your lines and the last little bit of your cue line, like four or five syllables, and then your lines,” said Shannon Ward, director. “And so that’s what I gave to all the actors, so they have to memorize just that, and they don’t get the context of the whole show, although a lot of them know this show already.”
The cast will gather on for a read through the script the day before the show then meet in the morning of the show to do a walk through. They won’t be expected to be perfect or near perfect.
“It’s a wink at the audience,” Ward said. “The audience is aware.”
Ward said the show is advertised as “unrehearsed,” and a stage manager will be sitting front and center with the script open in case anyone needs their lines called. Part of the fun, she said, is watching the actors figure it out on the fly.
“There’s a freedom in knowing that the audience knows that it’s OK to mess up and that everyone is is on the same page,” she said. “There’s something really freeing and fun about that.”
The performance is scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 3, at NEYT. Donations from attendees will go to Angel in the Wings, a financial aid program at the theater.
“NEYT is committed to making our programs accessible to anyone who wishes to attend,” neyt.org/financial-aid states. “The organization strives to never turn away a family because of financial need. We provide financial aid and scholarships made possible by our generous donors and the Angels in the Wings program.”
The Alumni Association hasn’t put on an Unrehearsed Shakespeare program since 2016. They started out informally as a small group of people, who were the first to graduate from NEYT, and performed shows at NEYT in which they raised money for the theater.
Over the years, the number of alums has grown and so has the organization. Ward heads the association as part of her job as outreach director at NEYT. She and about three other staff members are alums. Faculty teaching artists also have graduated from the NEYT.
“We do have a lot of retention in that way,” Ward said.
Ward sees the Unrehearsed Shakespeare shows as an avenue for alums who may come from out of town and still want to support the theater, as the performance is only what she called “a one-day commitment.”
Unrehearsed Shakespeare productions began at NEYT around 2011 or 2012, Ward said.
“A lot of us were in college,” she said. “We were all in town for holidays.”
Now, Ward said, the group has “a huge range of ages.”
“We have people who were in the first ever show at NEYT and then people who have literally just graduated in June,” she said.
NEYT’s inaugural show was in 1999 and was “A Midsummer’s Night Dream.”
Ward counted 18 actors participating in the upcoming performance, which is more than she recalls coming out for any of the five or six Unrehearsed Shakespeare shows in the past.
“This is exciting,” she said. “We had a lot of interest.”
After a recent reflection, Ward said she noticed her lasting friendships have all been from NEYT and participating in projects with other alums from the theater.
Any NEYT alums who want Alumni Association updates can email Ward at [email protected]. She said she’s trying to collect the contact info of all the alums.
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.reformer.com ’
