PVHS Drama Brings Shakespeare to Life

Come down to the theater! The Palos Verdes High School Drama program presents A Midsummer Night’s Dream by famous poet and playwright William Shakespeare.

The loved and well-known comedy takes the audience to a magical world with three plots.

Four young lovers, a group of six unprofessional actors, and a batch of fairies all show the audience that achieving true love is not as easy as it seems.

The version that will be performed here at PVHS is a modernized adaptation that will entertain all ages.

The play is set in New York City in Central Park. The three different plots carry the audience through different worlds yet the three stories connects to each other.

The four lovers are Helena, Demetrius, Lysander, and Hermia.

Demetrius and Lysander both love Hermia, but she loves Lysander and her friend Helena loves Demetrius, but he does not love her back.

Hermia is commanded by her father, Egeus, to marry Demetrius. She refuses and runs away with Lysander.

Then, there are the six actors that are putting on the play Pyramus and Thisbe which is to be performed at the big wedding of Hippolyta and Theseus.

As the character Peter Quince is handing out the parts, the character Bottom gets overly excited and causes a scene.

Lastly, Oberon and Titania are fighting constantly. Oberon and the character Puck see Helena and Demetrius fighting. Puck is sent to put a love potion on the man,

confusion, the climax arrives and comedy and unfortunate events occur.

The cast has been working on this production after school for about a month now, perfecting each line.

Junior Bradley Nolan, who plays Puck, said that “the process of putting on a Shakespeare show requires a lot of time and effort. Before you can do anything you have to be able to annotate the text and understand the meaning of it.”

The original Shakespearean language will be kept in this modernized version, so the cast has to work harder to understand everything and know the rhythm.

“The actor has to study the iambic pentameter of every line, the rhyme scheme, the specific word choice, and, since it was written a very long time ago, the English used is very different from our own,” said senior Hayden Fuchino who plays Lysander.

“So there is a lot of work that has to be done outside of rehearsal,” continued Fuchino.

“I’m hoping that the students who come to the show take away a greater respect for the works of Shakespeare.”

Today, many people either despise the Shakespearean language or adore it.

Even though the students are exposed to a few of Shakespeare’s works in their English classes, the cast hopes that this modern version will open their hearts to Shakespeare’s plays and language.

Senior Addie Mollo, who plays the “wacky” Helena, adds ”We are really hoping that the audience that the audience will respond well to the fact that we modernized the show a bit.”

Performances are October 26-27 and November 2-3 at 7 p.m., October 28 and November 4 at 2 p.m., and November 1 at 3:30 p.m. in the MPR.

Tickets are $20 for adults and $15 for students. Tickets can be purchased at www.pvhsdrama.com or at the student store.