Valley Shakespeare Festival to stage comedy

SHELTON - William Shakespeare’s fantastical comedy about young lovers, royals, fairies and magic, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, will come alive for four spellbinding nights on stage at Shelton’s Riverwalk-Veterans Memorial Park at 8 p.m. July 9-12.

The performances will be presented free of charge to all by Valley Shakespeare Festival.

This will be the company’s third year of free summer productions in the park.

Devotees of VSF’s previous productions will recognize several returning performers as well as some new faces in this summer’s cast.

Making their VSF debuts are, among others, Broadway veteran Gary Harger (playing the dual roles of Egeus and Peter Quince) and Matt Densky (as Puck), who most recently performed in the Madison Square Garden production of How the Grinch Stole Christmas and the U.S. Regional premier of Disney’s Little Mermaid.

Also joining the cast for the first time are New York actors Tara Reuter as Hermia, Kelsea Baker as Helena, Matthew Hansen as Demetrius and Erik Bloomquist as Lysander.  Playing the dual roles of Theseus and Oberon, VSF is happy to welcome stage and screen veteran Dave Herigstad. 

Among the returnees are locals Jessica Breda, who has performed in almost every VSF production, as Hippolyta and Titania; Tyler Huntley (Much Ado About Nothing, A Christmas Carol) as Flute, Peseblossom and Thisbe;  Gwendolyn Niles (Much Ado About Nothing, A Christmas Carol) in dual roles, and of course, Tom Simonetti as Bottom. 

Rounding out the cast are Brodey Ott, Ben Kingsley and Ansonia High School Senior Ashley Velleco, all taking on multiple roles.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a fast-paced, fun and “spirited” romp revolving around two sets of young lovers who flee into a forest and stumble onto a merry feud between the King and Queen of the Fairies of the forest.  

It is truly an ensemble effort with many of the actors playing dual roles as the action takes place in two completely different settings.  It begins in Athens where Duke Theseus is preparing to wed Hippolyta, the Queen of the Amazons, but quickly moves into the enchanted forest where all bets are off.  

With the change of scenery comes the change of roles as Duke Theseus becomes Oberon, King of the Fairies and his betrothed, Hippolyta, becomes Titania, Oberon’s wife and Queen of the Fairies.  
And, a burly group of craftsmen who are gathered in the forest to rehearse a play they have prepared to perform at the Duke’s wedding find themselves magically transformed into forest sprites, sparkly wings and all!

Hilarious mishaps and mayhem ensue as Oberon and Titania attempt to clean up the mess the mortals have made, all the while waging a mini-war between themselves using the fairies and mortals as pawns.

Being a true Shakespearean comedy, it’s no spoiler to reveal that all is resolved in the end, but it may be best to take Puck’s parting advice as shared in his epilogue: 

     

                                                                             If we shadows have offended,

                                                                            Think but this and all is mended,

                                                                            That you have but slumbered here,

                                                                            While these visions did appear.

After all, it is a midsummer night’s dream …


This is a press release from Valley Shakespeare Festival.