During the COVID-19 pandemic, the cast and crew of Santa Monica College (SMC) Theater Arts prepared for their next project, “A Tale of a Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Performances are being shown in the Theater Arts Complex, but due to the pandemic, the production is being streamed online. This piece is the fourth piece after “Les Romanesque”, “The Seven Ravens” and “Radio Ghost Stories” to be presented in a completely distant performance.
The comedy “A Tale of a Midsummer Night’s Dream” was written by SMC’s own Dr. Adrianne “Doc” Harrop, who has taught in college for 42 years. “We spent hours on a 20 minute scene. We spent six hours building it up because we don’t teach film, we teach theater. We’re not film people, ”said Harrop.
Stage manager Gwenevere Hodgson and leading actress Auryn Rothwell, both SMC students, explained the challenges the crew faced behind the curtain. “When you watch a show electronically, you don’t get so emotionally involved [as] They’re watching a live performance, ”said Hodgson.
Harrop shared the actors’ reaction to police requiring actors to wear masks during their performance. “[Our cast] only [goes]”Wait a minute, you can’t trade with a mask.” The main part of the acting instrument is the face, “said Harrop.
Rothwell pondered what it was like performing in front of a live audience before COVID-19 versus acting for an iPhone camera: “It’s annoying, but as long as people enjoy it, that’s all I do counts. I’d love to hear the reactions live, but as long as they see it, that’s all that matters, ”said Rothwell.
Both Hodgson and Rothwell talked about how they once underestimated Shakespeare. They later discovered that he was not just a man who seemed to be writing random gibberish that needed translation, but an authentic poet. “I’m excited for the chance that people will see this, and possibly see what I saw in Shakespeare, after much longer than I should have seen,” said Rothwell.
Commenting on how she tried to adapt the show for a modern audience, Professor Harrop commented: “I kept a lot of the most important stuff and I kept the characters. But I’ve added a narrator so the narrator can just skip parts of the piece and give the audience what parts of the piece they need to know. ”She made many adjustments to the piece, including shortening the original three-hour runtime.
The production team had set itself the goal of presenting a varied cast and a carefree production. “It reflects the Los Angeles melting pot,” said Harrop. “It’s frothy, fun, and uplifting, which is what we need because it was dark and bleak. So we could use some uplifting comedy. ”
The performance of ” A Tale of a Midsummer Night’s Dream ” can be viewed via the theater arts section on the SMC website at the following link: https://www.smc.edu/calendar/index.php?eID=3084, Admission is free.
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