Five graduating seniors are concluding their careers at Bayfield High School in the spring musical “The Dream on Royal Street,” a musical interpretation of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
Which is only fitting because many of them served in smaller roles in the school’s production of Shakespeare’s comedy during the autumn of their freshman year.
“It’s a good bookend,” said Abigail Katzer, who was in the play four years ago, and this time around is playing Snout, a hotel bellman who also portrays a wall that smacks around other members of the cast.
Also in the production his freshman year was Liam Smith, as one of Oberon’s fairies, and this time around, he is Oberon himself, the closest thing the musical has to a villain.
“I enjoy playing these characters,” he said of Oberon and his henchmen. “They’re working in the dark behind the scenes. They’re not grandiose villains.”
Avah Fellman is the art and creative director who said this musical production has lovely color flow, which let her put her artistic theories to work for the set in the Roaring Twenties in New Orleans. The musical’s green, gold and purple hues are instantly recognizable to most theater-goers.
The other two seniors in the cast are Jamacia Garza, portraying Titania, and Linda Stephenson, who ran spotlights for many plays, then was convinced to try out for the cast in subsequent productions. She is Starvelling, a bellman who plays the moon.
If you go
WHAT: Bayfield High School theater presents “The Dream on Royal Street.”
WHEN: 7 p.m. Friday (March 11), Saturday, March 17 and 18.
WHERE: Bayfield Performing Arts Center, 800 County Road 501, Bayfield.
TICKETS: $10 for adults and $7 for students and seniors.
“It’s the best two hours of comedy you’ll ever spend,” Stephenson said of this season’s production.
This musical version uses mostly American English, versus the Bard’s original prose, and the plot is more streamlined and easier to follow than Shakespeare’s play within a play, the seniors said.
They are joined by a large cast of underclassmen and several crew members.
The opening number, “Mardi Gras,” features the King and Queen of Carnival, Nathan Sears and Lillyan O’Hair, and a cast of bellmen, Roaring Twenties flappers, and suited hotel guests of the Royal Street Hotel dancing through a number that the audience will hum on the way out the door.
This madcap interpretation of Shakespeare’s comedy features Egeus, who owns the hotel, (Chloe Sarnow), who wants daughter Hermia (Claire Sarnow) to marry Demetrius, the assistant manager, played by Don Ledvina. Hermia loves Lysander, a lowly desk clerk, played by Hadrian DeVader, and the switchboard girl Helena (Bella Asebedo) loves Demetrius. Actually creating a version of a switchboard was among the challenges for the show’s crew: Andrew Russell, Noah Box, Jack Ethier and Alex Sears.
When hotel nightclub singers Oberon and Titania have a falling out, the four lovers become involved in Oberon’s scheme for revenge.
“It’s fun and super silly,” said Freya Underwood, who portrays Bottom, one of the hotel doormen. She gets to wear a donkey head for one of her songs in the show, “With a Clear Head on Your Shoulders.”
“There’s a great deal of creativity and passion” in this year’s musical, said Director Claire Angeline Harvey, an alum of both BHS and the Los Angeles theater scene, who is now directing her second show in Bayfield. This fall, the students performed “Hamlet Hears a Who,” a farcical combination of Shakespeare and Dr. Seuss.
Derek Smith, the BHS music director and the technical director of this production, noted that because of the COVID-19 pandemic, these seniors didn’t have complete sophomore and junior years to work on their skills, and even this year hasn’t been an easy experience for many students.
“They have stepped up, and that’s good,” he said, giving them kudos for continuing to work hard and practice during challenging times.
“The Dream on Royal Street” features the music of Alan Menken, lyrics by David Rogers and the book by June Walker Rogers.
