NEWPORT, R.I. – An innovative production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” set beneath a circus tent and cut down to a 90-minute tale of star-crossed, uncrossed and crisscrossed lovers in a realm of fairies will open in December at the Casino Theatre.
Salve Regina University’s department of performing arts production of this William Shakespeare comedy will be presented on Friday, Dec. 3 and Saturday, Dec. 4 at 8 p.m., and on Sunday, Dec. 5 at 3 p.m. The newly renovated Casino Theatre, designed by Stanford White, is located at 9 Freebody St.
Tickets for the performances are $15 for general admission, $10 for seniors (65-and-older) and $7 for students. Tickets are available at www.tinyurl.com/SalveCasino or by calling toll-free (866) 811-4111. More information can be found by visiting the Salve Regina University website at www.salve.edu/academics/departments/per.
A special open dress rehearsal will be held on Thursday, Dec. 2 at 8 p.m. Tickets for the rehearsal will be $5 for the general public and are only available at the box office on the night of the performance.
Directed by Suzanne Delle, assistant professor of Theatre Arts at Salve Regina, this distinctive version of the iconic play is set within a circus tent. By day, the circus is filled with acrobats, clowns and tight wire acts. At night chaos begins among the circus performers.
When Oberon (Jonathan Olivera, a senior theatre minor from Providence, R.I.) orders Puck (Owen Murphy, a junior theatre major from Marion, Mass.), his faithful lead circus clown, to retrieve a flower to use as a love potion originally intended for Titania, (Alexandra Clayton, a sophomore theatre major from Longmeadow, Mass.) things don’t go as planned.
Through a series of schemes and mistakes innocent lovers (freshmen theatre majors, Steven Bianco from East Longmeadow, Mass. and Morgan Grambo of Goshen, Conn., senior Annie McConville from New Hampshire and Providence-based actor Kevin Broccoli) become tangled and confused.