TOWAMENCIN- Many high school students would likely shudder when they hear the name Shakespeare, but not North Penn’s Thespian Troupe #5464. A group of brave students took on the challenge when Co-Directors Andrea Roney and Debra Buckner announced the 2018 fall play in late summer. Since early September, North Penn Theatre has been working hard on their production of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

There are 18 students involved in the behind the scenes aspects of the shows, and 24 actors on stage. They have been working tirelessly since September, and were extremely proud to share their finished product with us this past weekend.

“When you’re part of any North Penn Theatre production, you get to work with a lot of incredibly talented people in the cast, crew, and staff. It’s always a pleasure and such a great learning experience!” said senior Maddy Burk, who played Titania.

The plot follows the story of four lovers: Hermia, played by Sammi Stec, Lysander, played by Paul Klemmer, Helena, played by Molly Hofstaedter, and Demetrius, played by Jaemon Crosby. Hermia’s father, Egeus, demands that she marry Demetrius, or face severe consequences. Hermia and her true love, Lysander, run away to the nearby magical forest, and are soon followed by Helena and Demetrius. When the pairs eventually doze off in the woods, trickster Puck puts flowers from Cupid’s arrows, also known as ‘love juice’, on the eyes of Titania and Lysander, who fall in love with the first person they see, Helena and Bottom, an ass, respectively. The pairs have quite a bout of shenanigans and quarrels, before Puck reverses her mistakes and the initial lovers wed.

Audience member Bella Botero, a sophomore at North Penn, said “I thought the play was really good! The actors did an awesome job! I thought it might be difficult to understand since it is Shakespeare but it ended up being pretty easy.”

“Producing and directing A Midsummer Night’s Dream has been a particularly interesting creative journey as we — the NPHS Theatre Staff of adults and the student actors and technical crew — worked to tell this story in a way that would keep true to Shakespeare’s intentions and still speak to modern audiences, particularly high school students. We had the idea of a Steam Punk concept, but didn’t want to shove the play into it, but discover an authentic way to tell the intertwining stories within the fantastical world of Steam Punk.  Right up to and past opening night we were all still assessing the acting, the set, the costumes, the lighting, the music — to make sure the story was clear, clean, and true while playing with the Steam Punk concept. It’s been a journey with rich rewards as we watched not only the student company but the audiences engage with this play and have fun. We produce plays, but it’s a lot of work and care to get to the point of playing. We’re all feeling great satisfaction about the production and can’t wait to share it with 1000+ thespians and their directors at the Pennsylvania State Thespian Conference on December 1st in the NPHS auditorium.” said co-director Andrea Roney.

“It really is an amazing and indescribable feeling. After finally getting to perform these last few nights after all the time we have invested in it and getting such a good response from the audience is such a tremendous and exhilarating feeling, and I couldn’t be more happy with how everything turned out!” expressed junior Jaemon Crosby, who played Demetrius.

Senior Molly Hofstaedter, who played Helena, expressed similar sentiments, “Even after 10 years of doing shows, Midsummer is my first Shakespeare production, which has been so valuable to me as an actor. This cast and crew is so hardworking, and I’m so proud of everyone involved and how committed and positive they’ve been about learning the language of Shakespeare and telling this awesome story to our community!”The company performed  A Midsummer Night’s Dream on November 16-17th at 7:30 p.m. and November 18th at 2 p.m. to rave reviews. Be on the look out for tickets to the spring musical, Mamma Mia!, which will go on sale in early February.