Valley Shakespeare Festival slates virtual performance of 'Midsummer Night's Dream'

VSF founder Tom Simonetti and Jessica Breda in a scene from the 2015 summer production of Midsummer Night's Dream./ Contributed photo

During this time of social distancing, VSF is meeting its mission of bringing theater to you, in any way possible.

Valley Shakespeare Festival will be doing a virtual live performance of Midsummer Night’s Dream on Tuesday, May 5, at 7 p.m. The audience will be allowed and encouraged to interact with the cast through chat features on YouTube!

Watch live and interact with the show: https://www.youtube.com/user/VSFestival

Founder and Artistic Director Tom Simonetti said, “Like many other regional theaters, our 2020 season was blown apart by this pandemic. We started looking for ways that we could serve our communities that were hit hard: the Lower Naugatuck Valley and arts community. So of course, a comedy about mythic fairies, two sets of lovers, and an eager troupe of performers seemed perfect!”

In case you are not familiar with the play or if you need a refresher, Midsummer is about young lovers Hermia and Lysander, kept apart by strict Athenian law, escape to the woods where tyrannical parents can't find them – but mischief can. 
Elsewhere among the trees, the fairy king and queen are having a marital spat with disastrous consequences for one Nick Bottom. Rediscover your favorite characters in a lively virtual production of midsummer romance and magic.

FREE! with a suggested $10 donation during the Great Give. 
That is right, the virtual performance is happening during the annual Great Give, a 36-hour online giving event hosted by the Valley Community Foundation and Community Foundation for Greater New Haven.

“The Great Give is such an important time for nonprofits in the Lower Naugatuck Valley, especially in harder times,” said Simonetti. “The Great Give is where all gifts are matched by the Valley Community Foundation, the Greater New Haven Community Foundation and by local businesses.”

This live virtual performance of Midsummer Night’s Dream will also include live music! Renowned cellist, Natalie Sephar, who has toured the world with Andrea Bocelli, Micheal Buble, and the Transiberian Orchestra, is providing some fun music between scenes and playing everyone’s favorite mischievous fairy, Puck!

He added, “I presented the idea of doing Midsummer online to a few original cast members from our 2015 Free Shakespeare in the Park production, and they were excited for the challenge! 

"We have a few VSF fan favorites involved in the performance: Jessica Breda (who originally played the Fairy Queen Titania for VSF in 2015), Mitchell Kawash (toured in Pericles, and featured in many Shakespeare in the Bar productions), Tara Salese (who originally played Hermia), and Adam Kezel (The Comedy of Errors, Much Ado About Nothing and Shakespeare in the Bar: Titus Andronicus).”

Schools and parents should take advantage of this rare opportunity to not only participate in live performance, but to see a new interpretation of a text that is very widely read. 

VSF is dedicated to providing access to theater for all. We are currently rearranging our season because of the COVID-19 crisis, and are working with the City of Shelton to move our annual Free Shakespeare in the Park production to early September.

The free production in the park this year is As You Like It, which is about how communities come together after a crisis, and could not be more apropos for the time we are living in.


This is a press release from Valley Shakespeare Festival.