Midsummer Marks 10 Years

Posted by apangburn in Shakespeare, The Rude Mechanicals

Has it really been ten years?

For their tenth anniversary, the Rude Mechanicals have returned to their roots, planning new productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Twelfth Night, two plays they performed back in 2003. Those shows took place on the Presidential Pavilion near the Ferguson Plaza under the conceit of a traveling theater troupe; the audience awaited the arrival of the actors who marched up singing “500 Miles Away from Home.” Realizing at the end of the first performance that they needed a parallel tune for their exit, Mark Hughes Cobb made a spur of the moment choice: “500 Miles” by the Proclaimers.

That song has remained the troupe’s signature sign off piece, but in the intervening decade a lot has changed; the performances now take place at Manderson Landing by the river, the company performs an entertaining half hour of songs beforehand, and the cast list for this year’s Midsummer contained several children not even born when the group first performed. What remains unchanged year to year, however, is the energy generated by amateur actors performing simply because they love the thrill of being on stage and the theatrical power of Shakespeare. This energy works particularly well for.... Read the rest of the story....

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