Festival Theatre | St. Croix Falls, WI
  • Tickets
    • Festival @ Home!
    • 2021 Theatre Series
    • 2021 Special Events
    • 2021 Youth and Family
    • Calendar
    • Sew Good Improv
  • About
    • Board of Directors
    • Mission & Staff
    • Past Seasons
    • Contact >
      • E-Newsletter
  • Get Involved
    • Auditions & Internships
    • Host Homes
    • Volunteering
    • Wish List
  • Visitor Info
    • Where to Find Us
    • Area Attractions >
      • Lodging
      • Dining
    • History of the St. Croix Valley
    • Groups
  • News
  • Donate
    • Pay-What-You-Can Days!
  • Education
    • Student Matinees
    • Youth and Family Series
    • Resource Guides
    • Art in Action!

Shannon Mastel

7/14/2013

0 Comments

 

    Hello, readers! Isn’t it hard to believe we’re already into the second week of July?  I feel like it was just last week that our company met for the first time to read through Crazy for You.  I hate to be cliché and say that time flies when you’re having fun, but, well…there you go.  It does.  Not only do I feel like time flies in the midst of all the working and playing we do at Festival, but I also forget what day of the week it is.  But we have a company dinner every Sunday evening, and I am more able to mark the passage of time when I’m provided with food.         
       Although two of our four summer shows have opened (Crazy for You and The Foreigner), we’re still as busy as ever with rehearsing, performing, teaching at creativity camps, writing music, and now focusing on our work in the conservatory with local youth actors.  Most of the summer artists are involved in the conservatory production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in some capacity.  I am not acting in this production, for example, but I am still a teaching artist with the show.  Our schedule is divided up into a morning session from 10-noon and an afternoon session from 1-6.  In the morning, the teaching artists lead exercises and activities to prepare the youth actors (and—let’s be honest—ourselves) to meet the demands of the text and tell our story with voice and movement.  Then the director joins us for an afternoon of rehearsing.  So far, we’ve been doing this four days a week.  I have only started becoming comfortable performing Shakespeare’s texts in the past couple years, and I know I would have really struggled with it if I had been in a play like this one when I was at the age of the youth actors.  But they are blowing my hypothetical adolescent self out of the water.  They’re a troupe of pros and arrive every day ready to learn and eager to share their experiences.  It’s a lot of fun to spend a morning making funny noises and capering around the room.  What a job I have.  I hope they’re learning as much as I am.             
    For anyone reading this who isn’t sure you’d enjoy or understand seeing a Shakespeare play, I encourage you to give this production a try.  Midsummer is a very popular romantic comedy, and the director and cast are more than capable of meeting the challenge of communicating the story to you.  It’s not a foreign language; I promise you’ll catch on.  Also, the show doesn’t have its first official public performance until July 20th, so you have some time to read a synopsis of the play online to make it easier to follow once you get here.  We have fairies, lovers, lovers’ quarrels, a talking wall, a talking donkey, dancing, magic, poetry, and a fearsome lion.  Who could ask for anything more?
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Welcome!

    This is the place for news, comments, and entries from EVERYONE!  Feel free to post about the theatre, shows, events, or just your overall experience with Festival! 

    Archives

    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    July 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    September 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013

    RSS Feed

St. Croix Festival Theatre
​Franklin Square Black Box, 125 N. Washington Street, St. Croix Falls, WI, 54024                 
715.483.3387
 festivaltheatreboxoffice@gmail.com  


Order Tickets
Donate Now