Who is to Blame?

     Art in the Imperial Valley is not something seen everyday.  Every opportunity to see a play, hear a band or a concert, an art show, should be taken advantage of, as it is not a common occurrence.  It is as they say in Spanish, "Pasa cada venida de Obispo." That could translate to mean in English that such events happen once every million years. 
     Today, an adaptation of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, by "Irish," opened in Calexico at SDSU's Rodney Auditorium.  A production by Wiseman Theatre Company, this modern adaptation is not the comedy Shakespeare envisioned over 400 years ago.  This play introduces the character of Emma Bottom (Caroline Danesi), who is in love with Lawrence Flute (Menny Arellano).  Sir Edward Bottom (Diego Castro), wants his daughter to marry Daniel Snout (Harvey Araujo), but Emma wants to marry Lawrence, while her friend, Helen Quince (Giovannie Pinedo), wants to marry Snout. Emma and Lawrence, like Hermia and Lysander, run away into the forest to profess their love and marry.  Daniel follows them, with Helen tagging along.  In the forest, Oberon, the Elf King (Tyler Burch), and Titania, the Fairy Queen (Vannessa Avendaño), quarrel, as Oberon wanted the "Royal Indian Child" (Jaihden Torres).   Shortly after, Puck (Bela Robles), the mischievous being, carried out Oberon's plan to steal the Royal Indian Child from Titania, and to help the couples in their love affairs.  This turned Sir Edward into an ass, who was loved by Titania and had both Lawrence and Daniel fighting for Helen.  After Oberon took the Royal Indian Child from Titania, they profess their love for each other, Puck lifts the spell, and everyone lives happily ever after. 
     It is difficult to begin to explain or analyze this attempt to recreate Shakespeare's comedy.  When a Judicator from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival comes to judge a play, he or she is told to give two positive comments, and two constructive comments to the actors and or the production. In this production, it is not easy to give such comments, but one can try.  Let's begin with the positive.  The fight or battle between Lawrence and Daniel's character in Act II Scene 1 was well blocked and brought one of the very few laughs of the night.  On another matter, most of the costuming was well done.  The fairy world seemed better costumed than that of the other characters.  Moving into constructive criticism, projection is important.  In any stage, whether there is a microphone or no microphone, an actor must project. Something else, tech rehearsals are there for a reason, use them well.  Every production must have at least two tech rehearsals.  One for lights, set, sound, such things are important and it is empirical to know that the sound will not break, that a light will not go out, etc.  The other tech rehearsal is for costuming. One must make sure that costumes are working on stage and that nothing will tear or something will happen to the costumes on stage.  There was a close accident tonight on costuming.  BE CAREFUL.
     The play itself was poorly written.  It was never clear who the main agent in the story was.  Pieces of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream were noticeable, but the story lacked strength in many parts.  It is unclear whether it was the script, the acting, the directing, or what was the main reason behind what was seen on stage.
     This adaptation strips away all of Shakespeare's core plot.  Characters like Duke Theseus, Egeus were just deleted.  Here we see that the writer takes the story of Hermia, Helena, Lysander, and Demetrius, and just exchanges the names of the characters with that of the acting troupe to play in Duke Theseus' presence.  Obviously, this is not your normal night of theatre.  Shakespeare's work as well as the laughs were almost non-existent.

"Irish's" adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream is playing in the City of Calexico at SDSU IV Campus' Rodney Auditorium for one more night.  Saturday, July 24th, 2010 at 5PM and 7PM.  Run time 55 minutes.

I would like to make something clear, as an actor, as a student in Literature, and as a resident in the Imperial Valley. My review of this play is not a way of being condescending, or bashing art or any person in particular.  I expect the BEST out of everyone. I was once an actor here, I am a local, but I always have striven for perfection, and just because this is a local production, done by a local production company, with residents of this valley, am I going to expect less of any of them.  I expect to see a professional performance.  A performance in which actors, and everyone in the production team gives it their best and are still not happy with their performance.  I want to see a performance in which the actors get a standing ovation and I want to see it here. 
Tonight's performance, wasn't horrible or bad, it just wasn't ready to be performed. We, as a community have to support local work, but not only should we support it, we should become involved.  To those who are already involved, I bow to you.  Keep working, always strive for excellence. and never be ashamed of your work.

A Midsummer Night's Dream