Midsummer Nights Dream Egging Group 62 University of Houston Theater 1331

1. A Midsummer
Night’s Dream
BY: WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Direct: Miranda Hooper
Set Design: Allen Brown
Costume Design: Sarah Prince
Lights: Lester Johns
Group 62

2. Miranda Hooper

3. Choosing a script
 When choosing the script,
my team and I considered
all choices and the possible
ideas we could do to
produce the play.
 We chose the script that
stood out the most to us
and that seemed to have
the most interesting
storyline as well as the most
audience interest.

4. Choice of Style
 The style I’ve chosen is naturalism.
 It will be very realistic in production
and will mimic reality as much as
possible.
 The play will accurately depict the
era that the play was originally
written in.

5. Casting
 Casting is a very important aspect of a play’s production.
You have to find someone who will fit the persona and
actions of the characters in the play.
 The actors being chosen must be similar in character to be
able to accurately portray the characters’ motives.
 This creates a better, more realistic production that has
more audience appeal and creates a more believable
scene. Audiences can become more connected to the
play when the actions and emotions coming from the
actors are real.

6. Casting
 Josh Dallas as Lysander and
Ginnifer Goodwin as Hermia
Colin O’Donoghue as
Demetrius and Jennifer
Morrison as Helena

7. Casting
 Evan Peters as the young
Puck
Jennifer Aniston as the
Fairy Queen, Titania.
Jim Carrey as the Fairy
King, Oberon.

8. Casting
 Adam Sandler as the
laborer and leader,
Bottom.
John Goodman as
Hermia’s father, Egeus.

9. Casting
 Tommy Lee Jones as King Theseus
Sigourney Weaver as the
Amazonian Queen, Hippolyta.

10. The “Spine” of the Script
 The “spine” of a script is the
overall theme or main
concept of a play.
 Though there were many
aspects of the play that
provoked insightful ideas,
the main theme, that I
believe is the “spine” of the
play, is that love is a
complicated endeavor.

11. Set Design
ALLEN BROWN

12. Environment
 The way that I will set the environment:
 Since the play starts off in a palace and later switches
to a forest and then back to the palace I will make
the walls of the set two sided.
 On one side will be the wall of the palace.
 On the other will be made to look like a forest
 This way both of the scenes can be designed into the
plays set.

13. Mood and Style
 Naturalism
 This means that the scene that is set in the
palace will literally be the interior of a palace.
 Same goes for the forest scene the walls will turn
and will make the persona of a forest.

14. Realistic or Non-realistic
Realistic
 In our play the realistic aspect will
be the sets
 The forest and palace setting are
made to look real.
Non-realistic
 The non-realistic aspects of this play
would be the characters
 There are fairies and a character that
has his head turned into a donkey

15. Locale and Period
 Play takes place in a palace and a forest
 You can tell from what is said that the play is set in the past because
of how they speak and what they will be wearing.
 The setting will also have things that will help the audience in
placing a date on the play.
 One of those things will be a old statue like you would have seen in
a palace of that time period.

16. Design Concept
 In A Midsummer night’s dream the set changes
from the palace to a forest and back to a
palace.
 This was a key focus of the plays design concept
Had to make sure that the focus of the play
would be able to notice a specific transition
between scenes when they switched

17. Central image/ visual metaphor
 This can be an object that has a thematic
representation
 In A midsummer nights dream rather an object
it’s two characters that server as a visual
metaphor
Theseus and Hippolyta represent order and
structure when things go wrong.

18. How Is the scenery working?
 The scenery in this play switches from being in a palace
to being out in the forest.
 The palace will look like a plain palace, with grey stone
styled walls and the stairs that blend into the walls of the
theatre.

19. Solving design problems
 The design
problems that
were introduced
from this play are is
the need for
different sets.
 This was solved by
making the walls
double sided so we
can switch them
from showing stone
to trees.

20. Lights
LESTER JOHNS

21. Lights
Act. I
 The scene: Dim moonlight shines down from the new
moon comes down Theseus’ and Hippolyta’s shoulders
as they discuss their wedding alone.
 The setting calls for dim blue moonlight shining
overhead, well lit enough to see the characters well yet
dim enough to show that it is a new moon

22. Act I
 The main focus of the lighting should be soft and focused on the
two characters in the center on the stage. It should also emphasize
the mood of late night activities.

23. Act II
 The scene: A forest with trees of course and fairly spacious opening
in the center.
 Since the scene is outdoors it should be well lit but spotty enough to
give the illusion that it is a forest and there are trees
 The lights should still be relatively dim.

24. Act II
 The trees in the forest should create enough contrast to give the
illusion that they are actually there.

25. Act III
 The scene: The woods where the craftsmen will rehearse
their play.
 Everything should be pretty well lit but bluish for them all
to rehearse and see each other it is morning.
 The contract from the trees should still be there but more
because of the sunlight
 This is the longest act so the lights should end up getting
dimmer by the end of the scene

26. Act III
 The trees should create contrast but you should still be
able to see the craftsmen very well.

27. Act IV
 The scene: The Athenians lie asleep in the grove
the light should be dimmed but not in excess the
scene needs to still be visible
 This is the shortest act in the play and serves as
an transition so the lighting is the same
throughout

28. Act IV
 This visible lighting is very focused and consistent throughout this
scene

29. Act V
 The scene: Inside of Theseus’ palace, the lighting should
reflect that of royalty with a more yellowish tone.
 this scene has a mix of emotions but excitement is
among the most dominant, all of the characters reflect
this emotion
 This is the final act of the play and is being set for the
final scene
 The lighting should be easygoing and gentle to match
the mood of a happy ending

30. Act V
 There should be much more focus on the characters
and the joyful mood of the play

31. Costume Design
SARAH PRINCE

32. Style
 The style is the classical Shakespearean with the aspects of
English Renaissance
 This will be seen mostly through the costumes they will be
wearing
 It can also be seen in the way the play will be run through
how the language is presented

33. Historical Period
 London 1594 to 1595
 Athens forest outside the walls
 English Renaissance
 Costumes will be Shakespearean with a
heighten since of English clothes

34. Relationships
Major Characters
• Puck (Robin Goodfellow)
• Nick Bottom
• Helena
• Lysander
• Demetrius
• Hermia
Minor Characters
• Oberon
• Titania
• Laborers
• Theseus
• Egeus

35. Contrasting Characters
 Main characters:
 Clothing will pop out having brighter clothing
 Will be nicer and fancy English clothing
 Minor characters:
 Lighter coloring clothes
 Will not stand out as much as main characters
 Fairies
 Following cloths
 White to use the lighting on stage as an accent
 Laborers
 Clothing will be ragged
 Makes it seem that they do much work and are not as wealthy as the others

36. Symbolic significance
Symbolic Significance- abstract ideas such as shapes
or fantastic creatures
Tom Snout (The Wall)
 In the play there is a play where there
is a wall
 Instead of a real wall they use a
person
 Therefore the costume must be able
to move in but look like a wall
Nick Bottom (Donkey Head)
 When Bottom’s head becomes a
donkey head there has to be a
special mask
 This mask will be in the shape of a
donkey head with cotton that comes
off it too look like donkey hair
 Hair will be long so may be seen from
all seats

37. Individual performers

38. Individual Performers
Athenians
• Must be practical for actors/actresses to move around
• Fight
• Dance
• Ability to remove rapidly and change in to a new custom
• Costumes must be able to fit any setting it is in though out the play

39. Individual Performers
Fairies and Humans
• Each of the characters making the transformation back and forth must
have a costume that is primarily white. In this case “white” means a range
of colors that may indeed be pure, bleached white or possibly as dark as
unbleached natural fibers
• To this each fairy will add a small coverlet or poncho of sheer fabric which
may possibly have embellishments such as sequins.
• The clothing should allow for movement as fairies
• the humans an elevated or even have a formal look