August 12, 2022
Wheaton College Arena Theater Students and Alumni Perform “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”
In a comedy of star-crossed lovers, mischievous fairies, and blurry borders between the fantastical and the real, Wheaton’s Shakespeare in the Park returns from August 25–27, 2022 with A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Each evening’s performance in Wheaton’s Memorial Park will begin at 7 p.m. and is free and open to the public.
Students and alumni from Wheaton College’s Arena Theater group will bring Shakespeare’s characters to life beneath the bandshell in Memorial Park, located just north of downtown Wheaton. Audience members are encouraged to bring lawn chairs and blankets, fellow appreciators of community art, and summer snacks to enjoy this Shakespearean classic.
This year celebrates 10 years of Shakespeare in the Park thanks to the ongoing partnership between Wheaton College and the Wheaton Parks District. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the eighth play performed in the past decade, with two years taken off in 2019 and 2020 due to park construction and pandemic precautions. After this short break, and last year’s performance of Shakespeare’s more historical, somber play Henry IV, the troupe is looking forward to bringing delight and laughter back among the maples and oaks of Memorial Park.
“There’s something really powerful about an audience sitting in a park and experiencing something together,” said Andy Mangin, director of the play and Wheaton College Associate Professor of Theater and Communication. “I can guarantee that with A Midsummer Night’s Dream there will be laughter. And it’s powerful to sit in that space and be changed by an audience that is laughing alongside you.”
Preceding each main production, actors will perform a puppet show at 6:45 p.m. to help introduce audiences young and old to the play’s characters and plot line.
For more information, visit: https://wheatonparkdistrict.com/events/shakespeare/.
—Eliana Chow