A Midsummer Night’s Dream

UCLA TFT Visiting Associate Professor Ellen Lauren, co-artistic director of New York’s SITI Company’s interpretation of the play places Shakespeare’s tale of lovers, fairies, royals and mechanicals in early 1930s California, harkening to a time when thousands migrated from the Dust Bowl states to find a new life. It was also a time of innovation and experimentation in Hollywood. For so many, hardship was alleviated by escaping into the dreamlike world of darkened movie theaters.