A Midsummer Night's Play
BY DAWN BAUMGARTNER VAUGHAN : The Herald-Sun
dvaughan@heraldsun.com
Jul 21, 2009
CHAPEL HILL -- William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" may contain a fairy tale, but the PlayMakers Youth Conservatory performance of it showcases the very real experience teenagers have gained from working with a professional theater company. The play opens Thursday.
It is directed by Tom Quaintance, who directed PlayMakers Repertory Company's presentations of "The Little Prince." He has directed the conservatory's summer production since its inception three years ago.
The youth conservatory at PlayMakers in Chapel Hill and the ArtsCenter in Carrboro features young actors led by professionals associated with PlayMakers, the resident professional company at UNC. While the actors and some crew are students, the director, choreographer, musician, designers and carpenters are all professionals.
Jeffrey Meanza, PlayMakers director of education and outreach, said the students have brought an infectious energy. Their level of growth, for those students who return, has exceeded their wildest dreams, he said.
Meanza said that the challenges of working with teenagers versus professional actors can be similar, but the task is the same. The youth bring "an incredible amount of enthusiasm, a greater sense of gameness and are willing to throw themselves into the task at hand," he said.
Allison Press is a rising junior at Chapel Hill High School and plays Helena in "A Midsummer Night's Dream." She was in the conservatory last summer, too, when they performed "The Music Man." She said she enjoys theater because of the way being in front of people makes her feel.
"It's really rewarding. I get to meet so many different people," she said. This is her first time performing Shakespeare.
"I really like Helena as a person -- she goes through a lot of personal suffering. It's funny, in a good way," Press said.
Emma DeWitt, a rising senior at Durham School of the Arts, is playing Titania in her first year with the conservatory. She wanted to be a part of it because she was excited about receiving guidance from the faculty and gaining real professional experience, she said.
The faculty "are personally invested in our performance and our journey in this," she said. "They put in so much time, outside of what they're paid for, to make this a great experience."
At SOTA, DeWitt's chosen pathway is theater. "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is one of her favorite Shakespeare plays.
"It stands apart from his other work," she said. "There's a lot more magic, a lot more mystery. I like the intertwining story lines."
And she likes how her role is completely different than herself. Her sister, Isabelle DeWitt, is also in "Midsummer" and plays the fairy Peaseblossom. Acting together has brought them closer, Emma DeWitt said.
Quaintance said about two-thirds of the 40 conservatory students, aged 10 to 18, have attended more than one summer.
"It's fantastic to watch that development, not only in skill but in confidence and familiarity with the space," he said. He has also seen friendships develop between the students.
The roles were cast in February. New this year is a student tech track, which appealed to Jonathan Chamberlain, a rising senior at Durham Academy. He said he'd been looking for something like it because at his school, lighting design is outsourced. He learned all about lighting instruments and how to make a light plot, which is like a blueprint of the theater.
Chamberlain loves theater because each performance of even the same production is different.
"I like the community of it. It can't happen without every person involved," he said. Chamberlain doesn't want to live in New York City, but thought he would have to live there to be a professional theater technician. Being part of the conservatory has shown him that theater professionals live everywhere.
"People here live in Chapel Hill and design and it's nice to know that there are other places and things to do that don't mean having to live in one cramped city," he said.
Quaintance said the students see how being part of a play is fun but also about working with intention, and how cool that can be. He said that the daughter of PlayMakers artistic director Joe Haj is in the conservatory, and she has learned that what her father does is indeed work.
Quaintance said he loves the teaching aspect of his work, and that while skill and discipline goes into every performance, "what you need for a good show is joy, and the kids have access to that."