Sherry Schreck takes an audience’s-eye view of a dress rehearsal of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream…
…and does some hands-on directing as well.
Sherry Schreck coaches a young performer in her role as Puck in a play within the play…
…and the performer delivers her lines with aplomb, mocking the acting of another character, Bottom the Weaver.
Meanwhile, Bottom instructs Snug on the fine points of acting.
Providing his own commentary on Bottom’s talents, Flute the bellows mender rehearses his role in the play within the play as Thisby, a young woman who is wooed by Pyramus, played by Bottom the Weaver. In this sequence, Flute reacts to Bottom’s words.
In a fit of ecstasy Oberon celebrates the prank he has played on Titania by charming her eyes with ‘love juice’ that will make her fall in love with ‘the next live creature that she sees’—in this case, Bottom the Weaver, who is now an ass.
Titania’s graceful fairy sings her to sleep with an Elizabethan lullaby.
Titania having awakened and fallen hopelessly in love with Bottom in his new incarnation, Oberon signals that his mischievous work has been completed successfully.
The rehearsal continues under Sherry Schreck’s watchful eye.
