Geva's 40th Anniversary Season Concludes with A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM

Geva Theatre Center's 40th Anniversary Season concludes with A Midsummer Night's Dream directed by Mark Cuddy and Skip Greer. This most popular of Shakespeare's comedies and suitable for the entire family, begins performances on May 8 and runs in the Elaine P. Wilson Mainstage through June 2.

A quartet of mismatched lovers and a band of bumbling rustics cross paths with the feuding fairy king and queen in a magical moonlit forest on a midsummer night. Weaving three stories of love, magic and perception, Shakespeare's most popular comedy has been an audience favorite for centuries. An enchanting celebration of love, innocence and imagination for the entire family!

A Midsummer Night's Dream is believed to have been written in the early 1590's and performed first in London. A Midsummer Night's Dream has been the inspiration for incidental music and songs by composers such as Henry Purcell and Felix Mendelssohn, operas by Benjamin Britten and Delannoy, ballets by George Balanchine, Frederick Ashton and John Neumeier. Film versions abound including a 1935 movie starring James Cagney, Mickey Rooney and Olivia deHavilland, a 1968 film directed by Peter Hall featuring members of the RSC including Diana Rigg and Helen Mirren, and a 1999 movie starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Kevin Kline and Stanley Tucci.

The cast in Geva's production features Keith Hamilton Cobb ("The Young and the Restless," "All My Children") as Theseus & Oberon, and Carly Street (Broadway's Clybourne Park and Brief Encounter) as his Queens Hippolyta & Titania. The four star-crossed lovers will be played by Sheldon Best (Lysander), Kaliswa Brewster (Hermia), Ian Holcomb (Demetrius), and Emily Kunkel (Helena). Puck will be played by George Abud and Geva favorite Robert Rutland is Egeus/Philostrate. Shakespeare, as a true man of the theatre, wrote "a play within a play" for A Midsummer Night's Dream and Geva's production features Zac Darling, Munson Hicks, Charles Hyman, Ron Menzel (most recently seen in this season's production of Freud's Last Session) and Brian O'Connor as the troupe of amateur players, or "Mechanicals." Local actors Henry DuRocher, Devin Goodman, Hannah Karpenko, Christopher Mauro and Ashley Squairs and local, young actors Ava Clarcq, Lea Mancarella, Bria Melrose, Erin Mueller, Megan Mueller, Rebecca Rand, Sofia Ruffo, Brenna Laine Sweeney and Taylor Tydings complete the cast of 27.

A Midsummer Night's Dream is co-directed by Geva's artistic director Mark Cuddy and artist-in-residence Skip Greer. This is the first time in Geva's history that two directors have teamed to direct a production. The design team includes Jo Winiarski (scenic design), Pamela Scofield (costume design), Ann Wrightson (lighting design) and Will Pickens (sound design). Music has been composed for this production by John Zeretzke, who composed the music and lyrics for Geva's production of Almost, Maine and Darren Stevenson, founder of PUSH Physical Theatre, is the movement coordinator.

The 2012-2013 Mainstage Season is sponsored by Nocon & Associates, A private wealth advisory practice of Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc. A Midsummer Night's Dream is produced with support from Shakespeare for a New Generation, a national program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest; Konar Properties and media sponsors ENTERCOM and Messenger Post Newspapers.

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