Scholars Enjoy A Midsummer Night's Dream

English Teacher, Keri Grady, wrote the following reflection after a trip to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Adam Musser, also a Saint Martin English Teacher, and a group of students:

"To say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays" Bottom (with the Ass's Head) to Titania in Act III, Scene i of A Midsummer Night's Dream)

Universally resonant reflections about the capricious nature of love and desire, scheming fairies, forced marriages, Beatles Music, a tooth and nail girl-fight, an ass's head, and lots of bawdy jokes about body parts kept eight outstanding members of the classes of 2010 and 2011 totally engaged in the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival's performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream on Friday night, May 15.

After seeing the show himself recently, Mr. Musser organized a trip for outstanding scholars from the Junior class as well as members of the Senior class who had recently read Midsummer in preparation for the AP English Literature examination. Attending the performance were Samantha Newton, Autumn Smith, Noriel Brooks-Short, John Williams, Heiry Perez, Sherron Faison, Dawn Ramsey, and Ariel Powell.

At one point during the play-within-a-play portion of the show, as the Mechanical's performed the utterly dreadful Pyramus and Thisbe, I looked down the row to see every student laughing loud and hard, heads tossed back, eyes alight; there hasn't been a happier or more joyful moment in my year of teaching. The show was an incredible reminder that Shakespeare is meant to be seen and experienced live and that great literature reaches across the ages to grab a hold of us. The car rides back to Saint Martin were full of lively discussion of the merits of various characters, the funniest parts of the show, and the way that watching it live made us feel. We are hoping that the experience ignited a love of theater to match the love of language already demonstrated by these outstanding young scholars.