Saint Martin’s to stage “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”
March 22, 2012
LACEY, WASHINGTON—What happens in the forest stays in the
forest —or it would have but for William Shakespeare, who
revealed it all in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
In Shakespeare's most delightful, raucous and lyrical comedy,
two pair of young Athenians escape the tyranny of their parents'
rule and enter the unpredictable netherworld of the forest.
There, the fairies start manipulating events. A spat between the
fairy king and queen prompts the king to have his minion, Puck,
make the queen fall in love with an ugly animal. Puck also doses
one of the young Athenians with love potion so he’ll fall in
love with the girl who adores him.
David Hlavsa, Ph.D., theater arts professor at Saint Martin’s
University, is directing the play. It can be seen at 7:30 p.m.
April 13-14 and April 18-21 at Olympia’s State Theater, 204 4th
Ave. East. A matinee will be at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 15. Tickets
are available at the door: $12 General Admission; $7 for
students, seniors and the military.
According to Hlavsa, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” deals a lot
with our dream life and what we’ve suppressed. Nowadays, the
play is either presented in a flowery, gauzy style rooted in the
19th century or in a darker approach dating from the 1960s.
He’s chosen the latter, setting the Saint Martin’s production
in the early 1970s, an era marked by tensions between the rigid,
authoritarian establishment and an experimental, sensual
counter-culture. The musical tradition will be drawn more
from Joan Jett and David Bowie than from Felix Mendelssohn, and
the fairies will be of a decidedly “glam-rock proto-punk”
persuasion, he says. But it’ll be true Shakespeare at his
storytelling best.
“Shakespeare always gives you much, much more than you can
work with,” Hlavsa says, “Story, spectacle, poetry — you try to
get it all, but you also have to make some choices. We’re
emphasizing the play’s farcical elements.”
For further information, please contact Hlavsa at 360-438-4345
or dhlavsa@stmartin.edu.
Saint Martin’s University is an independent four-year,
coeducational university located on a 380-acre wooded campus in
Lacey, Washington. Established in 1895 by the Catholic Order of
Saint Benedict, the University is one of 14 Benedictine colleges
and universities in the United States and Canada, and the only
one west of the Rocky Mountains. Saint Martin’s University
prepares students for successful lives through its 21 majors and
six graduate programs spanning the liberal arts, business,
education and engineering. Saint Martin’s welcomes 1,250
students from many ethnic and religious backgrounds to its main
campus, and 650 more to its extension campuses located at Joint
Base Lewis-McChord, Everett College, Centralia College and
Tacoma Community College. Visit the Saint Martin’s University
website at www.stmartin.edu.
For additional information:
David Hlavsa, Ph.D.
Theater Department
360-438-4345
dhlavsa@stmartin.edu
Sarah Holdener
Director of community relations and event management
Office of Marketing and Communications
Saint Martin’s University
360-412-6140
sholdener@stmartin.edu