Press - A Midsummer Night's Dream

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
by William Shakespeare
directed by Mark Rucker
January 21 - Feburary 20, 2011
Segerstrom Stage

Led by the wildly inventive director Mark Rucker, off go four young lovers into The Woods on a midsummer evening—when strange and wonderful things are likely to happen.  This shimmering Shakespearean fantasy features the antics of supernatural creatures—the fairies led by Oberon and Titania and, of course, the impish Puck, who creates chaos in the night.  But what fun to join in the dream, knowing that by daylight all will be well in a mystical, moon-drenched masterpiece.

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Elijah Alexander and Susannah Schulman (center) are watched by the fairies s in South Coast Repertory's 2011 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare. Photo by Henry DiRocco/SCR.		Nick Gabriel and Rob Campbell in South Coast Repertory's 2011 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare. Photo by Henry DiRocco/SCR.

(l. to r.) John-David Keller, Patrick Kerr, Michael Manuel, Richard Doyle, Hal Landon Jr., and William Francis McGuire in South Coast Repertory's 2011 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare. Photo by Henry DiRocco/SCR.		(clockwise from bottom left) Dylan DoVale, Ryan Jones, Jaycob Hunter, Jordan Bellow, Rudy Martinez, Emmett Lee Stang, Susannah Schulman, Jennifer Stang and Patrick Kerr in South Coast Repertory's 2011 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare. Photo by Henry DiRocco/SCR.

Nick Gabriel, Kathleen Early, Dana Green and Tobie Windham in South Coast Repertory's 2011 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare.  Photo by Henry DiRocco/SCR.

Elijah Alexander and Susannah Schulman in South Coast Repertory's 2011 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare. Photo by Henry DiRocco/SCR.		(l. to r.) Hal Landon Jr., Richard Doyle, Patrick Kerr, William Francis McGuire, Michael Manuel and John-David Keller in South Coast Repertory's 2011 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare. Photo by Henry DiRocco/SCR.		Susannah Schulman in South Coast Repertory's 2011 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare. Photo by Henry DiRocco/SCR.

Richard Doyle and Patrick Kerr in South Coast Repertory's 2011 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare. Photo by Henry DiRocco/SCR.		Playwright William Shakespeare.		A Midsummer Night's Dream logo courtesy of South Coast Repertory.

Playwright Bio

William Shakespeare is considered the greatest English-language writer of all time. Born into a middle-class family in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564, his 38 (or so) plays have been performed hundreds of thousands of times in countries all over the world. They’ve inspired countless works in every art form. His words have become such a part of our language that every day, people quote lines from his plays without even realizing they’re quoting Shakespeare. Because so little is known about the Bard, he has been the subject of endless conjecture, as well as conspiracy theories that claim the man we call Shakespeare didn’t write the plays attributed to him. (Hollywood is giving one of those theories the big-budget treatment in 2011 in Roland Emmerich’s Anonymous.) What most everyone does agree on is that whoever wrote them was a genius. Among his greatest works are Hamlet, Macbeth, The Taming of the Shrew, As You Like It, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear and The Merchant of Venice.