Come see me play Nick Bottom in the TheatreWorks’ production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream as a part of the Arts Alliance of Southern Indiana’s Spring Shakespeare Tour. Yes, I’m the one that gets turned into an ass. #typecasting
This is a heavily edited down script, so it only has a runtime of 1 hour and 15 minutes, no intermission. We really wanted to make this show accessible to families and children. So, it’s real adorable and wholesome!!! All performances are FREE to the public, and take place in a different locations all throughout southern Indiana. You can check out the performance schedule on the TheatreWorks website: https://www.theatreworksofsoin.com/shows
We have a cast of 8, so everyone is at least double cast…most people have three roles to play! My other role is Egeus. That’s Hermia’s (terrible, awful, no good) father. Believe it or not, playing him and Bottom both has given me such a challenge as an actrix. I see a lot of myself in Bottom…which might seem self-deprecating, but I love the guy. He’s an actor! But not for money! He has another job! But he just wants to do all the roles! And wants everyone to like him! He’s so silly, but also so endearing…at least that’s how I hope I’m playing him. Egeus on the other hand, is disgusting. I hate him. He’s truly the only character in the whole show that has ZERO redeemable qualities. While I see so much of myself in Bottom, I specifically do not want ANY of myself in Egeus. So, I’m playing them as opposites. They are a binary of the human condition. One is just just trying his best, the other is doing his worst. There’s actually one scene in the show where I start as Bottom, then have to change into Egeus, then I’m Bottom again for the tail end of the scene. I decided to give Egeus an accent, and I’ve actually had to work very hard to keep Bottom from having that accent when performing this scene because I kind of…get stuck in the performance of Egeus. Not to mention their body language and mannerisms are so different. I’ve really had to be conscious of my own body and mindful of maintaining control over it so the characterizations I’ve created don’t bleed into one another.
At the time of publication, we have six more performances on the calendar for April! We may add more! We just had our first performance this past weekend, and I am going to write a blog entry about that experience too. I hope I’m inspired to tell the story of each performance on this tour.
Fløren K 