A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM to Run 8/5-21 at Sol Theatre

Evening Star Productions, whose recent production of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)[revised] received excellent reviews and played to consistently sold out houses will team with Sol Children Theatre and take on The Bard once more when they present William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream from August 5th through August 21st at Sol Theatre in Boca Raton.

Shakespeare's tale of order and disorder, reality and appearance, and above all - love - is universally acknowledged to be one of his most beloved and enduring works.

The production will be the first to combine the talents and resources of both companies in a new venture, aptly named The Shakespeare Initiative.

A Midsummer Night's Dream will be directed by Seth Trucks, whose training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), the British American Drama Academy (BADA), and at the Experimental Theatre Wing at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts will all be brought into play in this production.

"This will be a reinvention of Shakespeare's most popular comedy," explains Trucks, who is extremely excited about the production, as well as the Shakespeare Initiative itself. "We will be featuring both youth and adult actors, and we have re-imagined the play as a high school story set in the 1980s. We're using age appropriate actors in all the roles, and we have integrated numerous multi-media elements into the production, which will give the play a cinematic atmosphere.

"Shakespeare has been my great passion for more than two decades, and in that time I have taken part in four different productions of Midsummer," Trucks continues. Each amazing experience I've had with this show has left me with such inspiration it seems to me as if this production has been years in the making.

"This was to be my friend Laura Ruchala's next show at Sol Theatre before she tragically left us," he says. "In one of our last conversations we talked about how much of our love for The Bard was rooted in the freedom of interpretation his writing affords us as theatre artists, so with Evening Star's A Midsummer Night's Dream I have embraced this philosophy and created a version of the play suited for this amazing little space, and for the artists who call this space their home. With nods to the films of John Hughes, Pixar, The Peanuts and Fantasia, our re-imagining of this play will be a passionate energetic affair that aims to be as thought provoking for those already familiar with it, as it is clear and palatable for those new to Shakespeare."

"It's a natural fit - and a fitting progression," explains Rosalie Grant, who is the founder and driving force behind both Evening Star and Sol. She and Trucks are working closely together to ensure the evolution and development of the Shakespeare Initiative continues to stay true to the mission statements of both companies.

"This production of A Midsummer Night's Dream has been in the works in Seth's imagination as long as I have known him, and it started becoming an Evening Star dream even before our production of The Comedy of Errors got to opening night!" Grant says. "Laura Ruchala and I chatted frequently about her visions of various Shakespeare plays that would fit nicely at Sol, and like Seth, the last chat I too had with Laura was about Midsummer being her next directorial project for Evening Star - and she was excitedly dreaming about casting children in the adaptation. Seth's version is a tribute to Laura and to his own vivid imagination and astounding creativity, while incorporating the missions of both Evening Star and Sol Children. I couldn't be prouder to co-produce with him this re-imagination of inarguably one of the greatest plays ever written."

A Midsummer Night's Dream will run from August 5 - 21 at Sol Theatre in Boca Raton. Tickets are $20 and $10 for students. Group rates are also available. Tickets are on sale now, and can be purchased by calling 561-447-8829 or on line at www.eveningstarproductions.org.

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