Tickets on Sale for ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’

The Saint Mary's College Theatre Program welcomes guest artist M. Graham Smith (he/him) with his adaptation and direction of William Shakespeare’s beloved classic, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. With a production concept inspired by surrealist artistworks and counter-cultural movements like the Radical Faeries, audiences can expect a wild and joyful experience! Performances will be in LeFevre Theatre from Thursday, Nov. 2 through Sunday, Nov. 5, with a cast talkback following the performance on Friday, Nov. 3 at 4 p.m.

Smith’s take on the play is fresh, current, and “more dangerous than the usual green-tight treatment reveals.” In Athens, Theseus is about to wed Hippolyta, the Queen of the Amazons, whose people he has just conquered and colonized, marrying her as a symbolic prize for his conquest. Four young lovers are called before Duke Theseus to be reprimanded for letting their messy love triangle evolve against the wishes of one of the Lovers’ mothers. When all four of the Lovers elope to the woods outside Athens to live for their passions, chaos ensues. 

Meanwhile, an amateur troupe of actors rehearse a play for the Duke’s wedding day that goes from bad to terrible and out the other side of terrible to hilarious in spite of itself. And finally the King and Queen of the Faeries, Oberon and Titania, are locked in a cruel game of jealous rivalry and humiliations, causing the Earth’s environmental well-being to collapse. All paths intersect in the woods, while powerful and sometimes painful revelations spin out of control. When the sun rises and the Duke’s wedding occurs, what choices have been made? Who has compromised? At the end of the play Puck insists that “all is mended”—but is it? Can we ever unsee the truths that our dreams show us? How do we reconcile our waking lives with our fantasies?

Meet the cast

To bring A Midsummer Night’s Dream to life, director Smith, assisted by Saint Mary’s junior Lucy Bikahi (she/her), has assembled a cast reflecting the diversity of our student body and showcasing the talents of our award-winning Theatre program. Seniors Esteban LeCam (he/him), Emma Ledesma (she/her), and Chloë Parmelee-Laporte (she/they) all do double duty in their roles as Theseus/Oberon, Hippolyta/Titania, and Philostrate/Puck, respectively. 

The quartet of Lovers, hilariously desperate in their attempts to one-up each other, are portrayed by Erin Brady (she/her), Lance Fiss (he/him), Avery Monson (she/they) and Natalie Seidel (she/her). The “rude mechanicals,” earnest and sincere in their ham-handed theatrical attempts, are led by Carolyn Gersten (she/her) as Peter Quince, with lots of well-intentioned interruptions from Thomas Rokkala (he/him) as Nick Bottom. Erin Colville (she/her), Bianca Langlois (she/her), Kale Manibusan (they/them), Connor McGilvray (he/him), Aidan Silva (he/him), and Anya Tang (they/he) all perform as various faeries, workers, and Athenians. Bikahi and senior Will Thompson (he/him) provide essential backup as understudies for the leading roles.

Meet Director M. Graham Smith

​​M. Graham Smith is a freelance director, educator and producer. He was raised just outside New York City and has been based in San Francisco since 2004. He served as the producer of Aurora Theater’s new play development program and festival, The Global Age Project, 2009–15. Recent directing credits include World premieres of Obie winner Christopher Chen’s Home Invasion, Kevin Rolston’s Deal with the Dragon at Magic Theatre & Edinburgh Fringe, Kait Kerrigan's Father/Daughter at Aurora, and West Coast premieres of Mia Chung’s You for Me for You at Crowded Fire and James Ijames’ White at Shotgun. 

During the pandemic, Smith directed his first full-length film, a hip-hop musical adaptation of As You Like It, produced by American Conservatory Theater, where he has directed the MFA students since 2007. Other pandemic projects include the audio cycle of Harrison Rivers’ hold me the forgotten way produced by Tigerbear in collaboration with seven Queer theaters across the country. His most recent World Premiere is the new musical, The Mortification of Fovea Munson, which premiered at The Kennedy Center in March. See more at www.mgrahamsmith.com.

In-person performance dates:

Thursday, Nov. 2, 8 p.m.

Friday, Nov. 3, 4 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 4, 2 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 4, 8 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 5, 2 p.m.

Tickets limited — reserve early

E-tickets: $8 SMC students; $12 SMC faculty and staff, non-SMC students; $15 general.
Purchase tickets online at tincyn.net/midsummer at least 24 hours prior to performance. A limited number of tickets are available at the Box Office 30 minutes before curtain via cash/check only. Information: 925-631-4670 or tms8@tincyn.net

Seminar 250 and Seminar 303 students, reserve your discounted tickets here.

EXPLORE MORE in the arts at Saint Mary’s.

See shows by artists Lisa Congdon and Corita Kent at the Saint Mary’s College Museum of Art.

Join us for the Dia De Los Muertos Dance Concert on October 27.