3.5 Jaylin A Midsummer's Night Dream opening Night!

It was opening night for A Midsummer’s Night Dream. The many months I’ve practiced memorizing my lines and working on the set was coming to an end. Practice was over. It was opening night.

A Midsummer’s Night Dream is basically about love. Hermia has two suitors, Lysander and Demetrius. Hermia loves Lysander and over the course of the play Oberon and Titania, King and Queen of the fairies, are at odds with each other and Titania tells Puck, one of the fairies, to give Oberon a love potion and the play becomes a confusion of love between the main characters.

I wanted to do theatre ever since I was in middle school. It was senior year and I hadn’t joined an actual play in my high school. I auditioned for the Shakespeare play, A Midsummer’s Night Dream. A couple of days later, the list of who got in came up and I scanned the sheet and saw my name.

“Jaylin Kue --- Snug”

I was ecstatic. I didn’t think I would get a part with lines.

For the next couple of months, the actors, crew and the two directors worked hard to make everything wonderful.

“We’re going to do a modern theme,” Mr. Risinger said.

“But there won’t be any modern lines. It’ll all be in Shakespearean.” Mr. Schultz added.

With a modern theme and learning Shakespearean lines, we had a long way to go. I became an overalls-wearing painter who was a bit slow to understand things.

Opening night and the weekend of the play came and we put on the show. With a modern resort theme, the play went. The main characters were rich people staying at the resort with a forest nearby.

My character, Snug, is one of the five workers at the resort. Peter Quince wants to put on a play for Theseus’s marriage celebration. Peter Quince decides to bring together the other four characters, Francis Flute, Robin Starveling, Tom Snout, and Snug together to put on a play.

Peter Quince plays Prologue, Francis Flute plays a young girl in love with a high-squeaky voice, Robin Starveling plays Moonshine, Tom Snout plays the Wall that divides the two lovers and Snug plays a lion.

The group of workers is gradually shown planning and the play happens. Everyone is horrible. There’s laughs from the crowd in-play and those watching. I come out in a lion’s costume and say my monologue, purring towards that women watching the play. Turns out Snug is a great actor despite his slow understanding and wins the crowd.

Opening day was great! My nerves were gone when everyone clapped and all my and my cast members’ hard work paid off!