Digital Midsummer Night's Dream

Santa Monica College’s Theatre Arts department prepared for the first play of the Fall 2021 semester with an abridged version of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” by William Shakespeare

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Santa Monica College's (SMC) Theatre Arts cast and crew prepared for their next project, “A Tale of a Midsummer Night’s Dream”. Performances are showcased in the Theatre Arts Complex, but because of the pandemic, the production will be streamed online. This play is the fourth to be presented in a completely remote performance following “Les Romanesque,” “The Seven Ravens,” and “Radio Ghost Stories”.

The comedy, "A Tale of a Midsummer Night's Dream," is adapted by SMC's own Dr. Adrianne "Doc" Harrop, who has been teaching at the college for 42 years. “We spent hours on a 20-minute scene. We’d spend six hours setting it up because we don’t teach film, we teach theatre. We’re not film people,” Harrop said.

Stage manager Gwenevere Hodgson and lead actor Auryn Rothwell, both SMC students, explained the challenges that the crew encountered behind the curtain. “Electronically watching a show, you don't get as emotionally involved [as] you do watching a live performance,” Hodgson said.

Harrop shared the casts’ reaction to police requiring that actors wear masks while they performed.  “[Our cast] just [goes], 'Wait a minute, you can't act with a mask on.' The main part of the acting instrument is the face," said Harrop.

Rothwell reflected on what it was like to perform for a live audience before COVID-19 compared to acting for an iPhone camera, “It's upsetting but at the same time as long as people enjoy it, that's all that matters to me. I would love to hear the reactions live, but so long as they see it, that's all that matters,” Rothwell said. 

Both Hodgson and Rothwell spoke about how they once underestimated Shakespeare. Later, they realized he wasn't just a man who appeared to write random gibberish in need of a translation, but an authentic poet.  “I’m excited for the possibility of people seeing this and potentially seeing what I saw in Shakespeare after far longer than it should have taken for me to see,” Rothwell said. 

Commenting on how she tried to adapt the show for a modern audience, Professor Harrop said, “I kept a lot of the major stuff and I kept the characters. But I added a narrator, so the narrator just skips through parts of the play and gives the audience what they need to know for parts of the play.” She made many adaptations to the play, including shortening the run time which was originally three hours long.

The production crew aimed to present a diverse cast and lighthearted production. “It reflects the melting pot of Los Angeles,” Harrop said. “It’s frothy, fun and uplifting, which we need because it’s been dark and dreary. So we could use some uplifting comedy.” 

Through the Theatre Arts section on the SMC site, the performance of ‘’A Tale of a Midsummer Night’s Dream’’ is viewable at the following link: https://www.smc.edu/calendar/index.php?eID=3084, Admission is free.