Drew Kaufman, set designer for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, said yesterday he was excited for tech rehearsal that night of a most unique play.
His set — constructed by the School of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies’ carpenters, painters and students — is heavy on Chinese architecture, reflecting tradition when the script calls for it and softer whimsy in more nature-friendly scenes.
It’s a set that’s been designed — as has the rest of the show — not only for casts made up of two different nations but for different audiences, too.
Though rehearsals are winding down, the adventures for the cast and crew of Midsummer are just beginning; after a run at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, the cast will relocate to the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts in China to perform there.
Costume coordinator and China native Helen Huang is hailed by the rest of the creative team as the brainchild behind Midsummer. She lived in Beijing and used relationships at NACTA to kick-start the collaboration.
She said Shakespeare was picked because of his universality, and the show was narrowed down to Midsummer because of its whimsical nature. No one wanted to collaborate on a tragedy, such as Hamlet.
The creative team has taken steps to ensure that all-inclusive nature of the Bard can be understood by both cultures.
For example, Chinese actors portray the lovers (Demetrius, Helena, Lysander and Hermia) and Puck, Oberon and Titania; American actors play the fairies, and the American group the Rude Mechanicals performs the music.
When either language is spoken onstage, supertitles will project the translation in the other language for audience members.
Directing has been a challenge, but there are theatrical similarities between the two cultures, said co-director Mitchell Hébert.
Chinese theater is heavily influenced by the Peking Opera, the traditional theater form that combines music and complicated dance. But the value of an internal connection to the work is something that’s valued across both styles of theater, Hébert said.
“We embrace the Western approach while still holding on to roots of Peking Opera,” Hébert said. “Except for speaking a different language, you wouldn’t see it’s different.”
raghavendran@umdbk.com
