A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Nothing could be better suited to the month identified with brides and weddings than A Midsummer Night’s Dream, one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays. The setting: The city of Athens and a forest in the moonlight. The players: Four young lovers (Hermia and Lysander, Helena and Demetrius), a collection of amateur thespians (carpenter Quince, weaver Nick Bottom, joiner Snug, bellows-mender Flute), a duke and duchess (Theseus and Hippolyta), a band of fairies (King Oberon, Queen Titania, the faun Puck), and a magic flower that acts as a love potion. The tale: When the juice of the enchanted flower is spread on the eyelids of a sleeping person, said person falls in love with the first object he or she sees upon waking. That leads to people falling in love with the wrong people (or creatures), and to some lively adventures in the moonlit woods. The happy denouement: All the couples that should be together end up with their rightful mates.

One reason Cliffside Park resident Shinnick, a TNT co-founder, has returned to direct A Midsummer Night’s Dream is to demonstrate that Shakespeare is not stodgy. "People are force fed Shakespeare at school," says Shinnick. "They hear readings by fellow students who don’t understand what’s going on, so the text becomes embalmed as they hear it." Shinnick hopes audiences will discover that "the Bard was a popular and entertaining writer for the theatre."