SOUTHWICK – The Southwick Regional School Drama Club’s fall production of the William Shakespeare classic “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is coming to the SRS stage Nov. 20-22.
Believed to have been written between 1594 and 1596, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” has lived on to become one of William Shakespeare’s most famous plays. Set across two worlds — the royal court of Athens and a mystical forest that lies beyond the city’s walls — the iconic comedy explores themes of love, friendship, jealousy and magic.
“‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ has always been one of my favorite plays. It’s a perfect blend of magic, mischief, and heart,” Director Shannon Sobolow said. “This production has reminded me why I love it so much. Shakespeare’s language challenges us to listen deeply, to think creatively, and to trust one another as storytellers. Watching this incredible cast rise to that challenge with humor, courage, and dedication has been nothing short of inspiring.”
Opening night is Thursday, Nov. 20, at 7 p.m., followed by the production’s second show on Nov. 21 at the same time. On Saturday, Nov. 22, there will be a 1 p.m. matinee showing and the production’s final show comes that same night at 7 p.m. For all shows general admission is $10, and student tickets are $8. Tickets can be purchased in advance at www.onthestage.tickets/southwick-regional-school-drama-club.
Southwick Regional High School Drama Club Producer Janet Grunwald said when deciding on each production to run during its spring and fall shows, she and the Drama Club family like to find the best fit for its collection of cast at that moment in time.
“We always look at the students that we have regularly participating and thinking about what might be a good fit for the cast members participating in the show. One of the reasons we picked the show was because a number of our seniors had studied the play during freshman year and they fell in love with it,” explained Grunwald.
Following their production last fall of “12 Angry Jurors” this year the Grunwald said the club was looking for a more classic and lighter theater production for this year.
For over 25 years, SRS has produced a fall play and spring musical annually, with close to 100 students participating onstage, backstage, or in the booth during the season. Before the summer break, Grunwald informed her regular cast and crew of what to expect for the fall production as a way to brush up on the material.
“I’m an English teacher so when I teach Shakespeare, I always talk about how it’s hard to just read Shakespears on the page. You have to see if performed to get a lot of the feeling of it. There’s so much poetry in his writing that we try and kind of unlock the meaning of it. Really to see it performed makes it much more understandable,” explained Grunwald. “As you get used to hearing Shakespeare performed, then you start to be able to read it on your own so it’s a great introduction.”
She added, “It’s introducing the kids to the comedies. Everyone thinks of Shakespeare and they think of tragedies like ”Romeo and Juliet,” or “Hamlet,” but there are many comic classics in Shakespeare’s repertoire that people can familiarize themselves with as a good introduction.”
Sobolow added her approach to the classic play begins with her students that make up the cast.
“Each new cast brings a different spark, and I let their personalities and ideas guide the interpretation. That’s where the magic happens — when a centuries-old story starts to reflect the voices and imagination of today’s young artists,” added Sobolow.
Grunwald said the play is also timeless due to its many themes as well as the ability to place this story and its characters within any setting or at any point in history.
“I think it touches on a lot of classic themes. Love, loyalty, family obligations, friendship, and couples who are fighting with each other and the fact that all the different groups of characters — amateur actors are planning a play for the royal court and they all converge in the woods and then you have all the magic,” said Grunwald. “Shakespeare — people think of the tragedies and everything ending in sadness and loss, but in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ everything just comes back together and everything is set right at the end. It’s a nice way to look at Shakespeare from a different perspective, the universal themes of it. One of the things that’s so great about Shakespeare is you can take the stories and put them anywhere. You can do ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ on the moon. ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ any time and any place — simply because the stories are so universal.”
Also coming with the production is the opportunity for students to take on the challenge of a Shakespeare play, something Grunwald added is a great milestone point for any young actor.
“To be able to say you’ve done a full Shakespeare play in high school, it really is a mark of maturity in terms of performance to learn that language and perform it in a way that is accessible to your audience,” said Grunwald. “We work with a script that has modern translations in it so students can get a sense of what’s being said as they’re learning the lines and how to perform the lines and become the characters.”
Grunwald has just reached the quarter century milestone for her time spent as a producer for the SRS Drama Club and said it never gets old seeing the growth of students during their time with the club and beyond in some instances.
“This is my 25th year as producer of the drama program here at Southwick, so I’ve worked with multiple generations of students now. Just to see the growth of the students, the confidence they build. Watching from the audition days into the final weeks and the tech week and the performances, just to see that growth from every student who participates, it’s great,” said Grunwald.
With no football team for Southwick Regional, Grunwald said the Drama Club jokes they are the school’s football team, with a motto of “Southwick Football Rules.”
“I say we’ve never lost a game. The closest was 2020 when a week before our show we got shut down by COVID. We got rained out, we didn’t lose, we got rained out,” Grunwald added with a laugh.
The comradery of the drama club has helped establish the program as a well-oiled machine for the last 25 years.
“I think because we have so much trust in our cast and our crew members to bring their best and to be guided,” said Grunwald on how the drama club has found it success over time. “It’s very much an educational program that I think we’ve prided ourselves on over the years that it’s not just them putting on a show, its learning all the different aspects of what it means to be part of a production.”
Grunwald hopes the public makes it out for this run of the Shakespeare classic and to come prepared to have a good time.
“I think people should just come expecting to have a good time with a classic story and see our talented cast and crew. Our cast is over 25 and probably another dozen and a half behind the scenes. Come in and see what an amazing job everyone does in bringing the show to life,” said Grunwald. “It’s a show a lot of people are familiar with and so to see what we’ve done with it. Our director Shannon Sobolow has put her own spin on getting the show started. I look forward to our audiences seeing how we start up the show and bring it to our stage.”
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