Friday, February 4, 2011

If you had unlimited money and time, how would you stage Act 1 Scene 2 of A Midsummer Night's Dream? What would it look like?

Act 1 Scene 2 of A Midsummer Night's Dream is set in the house of Peter Quince, one of the six "mechanicals". He is the author and director of the play-within-a-play. His name suggests that he might be a carpenter or descended from a family of carpenters. 


The first decision you need to make in staging this is period. You can set the play in its putative time period, ancient Athens, Shakespeare's period, another period of your choice, or a generic setting of a dream world outside of real time.


Part of the entertainment in the scenes with the mechanicals is broad physical comedy. Personally, I would create a simple space with limited rugged, movable props and furniture to allow the actors space for broad physical comedy. I wood furnish the set with rough-hewn wood furniture, including a rectangular table with a few pewter candlesticks, several pages of the "manuscript" of the play, quill pens and an inkstand. The table would be surrounded by a few wood benches and a couple of stools, and off to one side of the room might be a chest or some shelves. At least one of the stools would have a break away leg, so that it would collapse when an actor sat on it. 

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