Act Up Theatre Company presents:
William Shakespeare's A Midsummer
Night's Dream - August 15,16,17 BOOKED FULL

Produced by the Act Up Theatre Company in the Second Life® virtual world, and in the live theatre tradition of "In the Pink", "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare.

One of Shakespeare's best-loved and well-known plays, it portrays the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of amateur actors, their interactions with the Duke and Duchess of Athens, Theseus and Hippolyta, and with fairies who inhabit a moonlit forest.

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" is one of Shakespeare's most popular works for the stage and is widely performed across the world.

Click here for show times and details - All Shows are now fully booked. We apologise for any inconveniance

Teleport to Ivy Falls: secondlife://Ivy+Falls/197/46/30/

Media Release:

Designers and Performers bring virtual magic to 'Midsummer'

A collaboration of artists and designers in the Second Life® virtual world are breathing new life and love into one of William Shakespeare's most popular comedies, and staging it live, for a global, online audience this month.

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" is a production of the Act Up Theatre Company, in association with Ivy Falls Talent, and is set to impress with three spectacular performances in August.

Director Marin Mielziner has been working with a large cast and crew transforming the bard's famous work into a (virtual) reality, while production manager Rekka Berchot has raised and constructed a large-scale stage that promises to wow audiences!

The addition of voice capabilities to the Second Life® virtual world has made posible theatre productions such as this, which will feature live actors, connected from around the world, behind each and every character.

Mielziner, an accomplished director in her 'first-life', has been coaching the cast online for weeks leading up to the show, and is polishing their performances as Berchot's construction literally grows around them.

The set - a dark and twisted forest clearing - has been custom-built using a variety of unique textures, scripts, and sculpted objects, and will not be fully revealed to audiences until the first performance on August 15, 2008.

Production Information

Venue

A custom-designed space utilizing new textures, flexi and sculpty prims has been constructed at Ivy Falls to house the production in an amphitheatre setting accommodating medium to alrge audiences with minimal lag.

Sponsors

The Act Up Theatre Company and Ivy Falls gratefully acknowledge the sponsorship contributions of D.E Designs, Exile, Omituiset/LiveYourFairytale store, Organica Specialty Trees, Eclectic Home and Fae Faire and garden Shops,

Audience Information

Audiences will arrive at the courtyard of the Ivy Falls Theatre, where they will be briefed prior to each performace by an usher. It is important that all audience members have voice enabled, but MUST have their microphones turned off.
Special outfits for those who wish to participate and blend into the set will be provided. These free designs will become collectors' items! We request that guests limit their prim attachments to help reduce server demands and enable a smooth presentation for others.
Programmes in the form of in-world books will also be provided.
There is no charge for attendance - however opportunities to donate to the production are welcome and can be made prior to, or following the show.
- Please contact Rekka Berchot for advance reservations

About the Play

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" is usually dated 1595 or 1596. Some suggest that the play might was written for an aristocratic wedding, though this suggestion may arise from the "play within a play' in the final act. Certainly it would make for an interesting experience in self-reflective narrative has this been Shakespeare's intention. Others argue that the play was written for Queen Elizabeth I to celebrate the feast day of St. John.
In any case, it would have been performed at The Theatre and, later, The Globe in London.

Some features of the plot and characters can be traced to elements of earlier mythologically-based literature - particularly that of Ancient Greece. The story of Pyramus and Thisbe which plays out in the final act is told in Ovid's "Metamorphoses" and the transformation of Bottom into an ass is descended from Apuleius' "The Golden Ass". Lysander is an ancient Greek warlord while Theseus and Hippolyta were respectively the Duke of Athens and Queen of the Amazons. Some speculate that Shakespeare was also working on "Romeo and Juliet" at about the same time that he wrote "A Midsummer Night's Dream", and as a result, the characters of Pyramus and Thisbe could be interpreted as a comic reworking of the tragic play.

Synopsis

It is Theseus the Duke of Athen's wedding, and as he and his fiance Hippolyta prepare for their nuptials, he is approached by an angry father, Egeus, whose daughter Hermia refuses to comply with his wish for her to marry his chosen man, Demetrius.
Instead she elopes with her lover Lysander and informs her best friend Helena. But Helena has recently been rejected by Demetrius and decides to win back his favour by revealing the plan to him.

They retreat to an enchanted forest where a lover's quarrel between Oberon and Titania, king and queen of the fairies, is unfolding over posession of an Indian boy.
Oberon seeks to punish Titania and recruits the mischievous Puck to help him apply a magical juice from a flower which makes the victim fall in love with the first living thing seen upon awakening. He instructs Puck to retrieve the flower so that he can make Titania fall in love with some vile creature of the forest.

Having seen Demetrius act cruelly toward Helena, Oberon orders Puck to spread some of the elixir on the eyelids of the young Athenian man. Instead, Puck accidentally puts the juice on the eyes of Lysander, who then falls in love with Helena.
Due to Puck's errors, both lovers now fight over Helena instead of Hermia. The four pursue and quarrel with each other most of the night, until they become so enraged that they seek a place to duel each other to the death to settle the quarrel. Oberon orders Puck to keep the lovers from catching up with one another in the forest and to re-charm Lysander for Hermia, to prevent them all from killing each other.

Meanwhile, a band of labourers have arranged to perform a crude play for Theseus' wedding, and venture into the forest, near Titania's bower, for their rehearsal.
Nick Bottom, a stage-struck weaver, is spotted by Puck, who transforms his head into that of an ass. Titania is awakened by Bottom's singing and immediately falls in love with him.

While in this state of devotion, she encounters Oberon and casually gives him the Indian boy. Having achieved his goals, Oberon releases Titania and orders Puck to remove the ass's head from Bottom. The magical enchantment is removed from Lysander but is allowed to remain on Demetrius, so that he may reciprocate Helena's love.

The fairies then disappear, and Theseus and Hippolyta find the lovers during an early morning hunt. Theseus over-rules Egeus's demands and arranges a group wedding. The lovers decide that the night's events must have been a dream. After they all exit, Bottom awakes, and he too decides that he must have experienced a dream.


Ivy Falls is proud to partner with the Act Up Theatre Company to stage this unique live theatre performance and is committed to the production and promotion of live events and arts in the Second Life® virtual world.