ADA – When Dr. Kurt Edwards, an East Central University assistant professor of performance studies, arrived in Ada a couple of years ago he had a vision to host a theatre production in the picturesque Wintersmith Park Amphitheatre.
He is happy to announce that dream is now becoming a reality.
ECU and the community of Ada will come together to stage Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream on June 5-7 at 7:30 each night.
The production is free and open to the public, but donations will be accepted.
“I think this is a wonderful opportunity for the community and it can be something we can do every summer. I would like to even see a Shakespeare in the Park Series,” said Edwards. “The Amphitheatre is ripe. That place is amazing.”
The production features nine current ECU students, three ECU alums, four ECU faculty members and one ECU staff member, along with two community members, a high school and a middle school student.
The plot for the comedy play involves three separate groups coming together through happenstance, according to Edwards.
“You have the fairies, led by Oberon (Corey Scott, 2014 ECU graduate from Ada) and Titania (Melody Baggech, ECU faculty), coming together with the Athenians, led by Theseus (Shawn Martin) and Hippolyta (Barbara Tiry, 2014 ECU graduate from Skiatook) and the third group, the Rude (Rustic) Mechanicals, who are working men that decide to put on a show, so they get to the forest and run into the fairies,” Edwards said. “They are a motley crew of bad actors who have written their own script.”
Other fairies in the production include: Puck (Barrett Glosson, ECU junior from Sand Springs), Peaseblossom (Sunnie Smith, ECU faculty), Cobweb (Raechel Martin, ECU junior from Ada), Moth (Titiania Scott, Ada seventh grader) and Mustardseed (Angelina Tinker, ECU junior from Ada).
The other Athenians include: Lysander (Keegan Buckaloo, ECU junior from Sallisaw), Demetrius (Dominique Carey, ECU senior from Springer), Hermia (Haley Cantrell, 2014 ECU graduate from Henryetta), Helena (Hannah Scroggins, a Byng High School student), Egeus (Rick Groetzinger, ECU faculty) and Philostrate (Sheena Martin, ECU senior from Ada).
The list of the mechanicals include: Nick Bottom (Alan Marshall, ECU faculty), Peter Quince (Shan Scroggins), Francis Flute (Chad Woods, ECU senior from Ada), Robin Starveling (Steve Filkins, ECU junior from Ada), Tom Snout (Sam Baker, ECU staff ) and Snug (David Spradling, ECU junior from Marietta).
The script has been cut a little more than half as the production will last for approximately an hour and a half as opposed to the original full script which can last close to three hours. The purpose is to make the event more family-friendly.
Dr. Rick Groetzinger, portraying Egeus, explains to Lysander why Lysander can’t marry his daughter, Hermia, in a rehearsal for Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, an East Central University production, to be held at the Wintersmith Park Amphitheatre in Ada on June 5-7. It is the first stage production to be held in the Wintersmith Amphitheatre since 1982.
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