Traverse City Record-Eagle

Arts & Entertainment

June 22, 2012

'Midsummer Night's Dream' at Interlochen

by lisa perkins lperkins@record-eagle.com

INTERLOCHEN — Sunset amid statuesque pines might be the perfect setting for a performance of Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream."

The fifth annual Interlochen Shakespeare Festival will present the classic story of passionate lovers, bumbling actors and powerful fairies at the new outdoor Upton-Morley Pavilion beginning Thursday, June 28.

"The sun will be setting, the stars will come out. The surroundings capture 'Midsummer Night's Dream' which lends itself so beautifully to an outdoor performance," said festival founder Bill Church.

Church is also the director of theater at Interlochen Center for the Arts and director of comparative arts at Interlochen Arts Academy.

"We chose the play specifically for its tie to nature," he said.

Noah Durham, who plays Puck, looks forward to performing a favorite character in the new venue .

"I love this roll of the mischievous trickster who does the dirty work in the fairy world," said the Interlochen alumnus, summer arts camp instructor and teacher at the American Dance Institute in Washington, D.C.

"He causes humans to fall in love, fall out of love and creates chaos but the kind of chaos that makes humans learn, grow and find themselves," he said.

The Shakespeare Festival will be the first full theater production in the venue that opened last summer. The outdoor theater offers 350 seats, up from the 175 available at their former home.

"We are pleased to be able to increase the size of the audience since we have always sold out in the past," Church said.

Performances will be held at 8 p.m., June 28, 29 and 30 and July 5, 6 and 7. Tickets are $26 and are available at https://tickets.interlochen.org/. For more information, call 800-681-5920.

Text Only