Shakespeare without "the boring parts" in Virginia Beach

VIRGINIA BEACH

This year’s Summer Shakes production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” might feel more like a power nap: short but invigorating.

Instead of performing William Shakespeare’s entire comedy, the company will present all of the play’s fairy scenes, and all scenes involving the troupe of laborers known as “the rude mechanicals.”

“They’ve taken out the boring parts and left the funny parts, so it’ll be real fun to watch and easy to understand,” said Thomas Vazquez, 15, an Ocean Lakes High School sophomore who plays the magical creature Puck.

A cast of six, plus director Bob Nelson, will play all the parts. The entire program, performed in the basement of the Francis Land House, runs just under one hour.

Summer Shakes is part of the Hampton Roads Shakespeare Festival, a nonprofit arts organization funded by grants and donations. The group has produced a show every summer since 1993 except last year. Because of a lack of grants, this year’s show is being funded solely by donations.

“It’s a chance for people to taste some Shakespeare, but also to see some good work,” said D. D. Delaney, a local veteran actor who plays the fairy king Oberon.

Delaney said that Nelson is one of this area’s most experienced actors and directors, and that the young performers in the cast are all very good.

Nelson has acted with the Virginia Stage Company and previously served eight years as artistic director of the Generic Theater. A Shadowlawn resident, Nelson has also worked withSummer Shakes to bring Shakespeare programs into local elementary and middle schools.

Cast member Connor Norton, 17, first performed Shakespeare as an eighth-grader in a Virginia Beach Middle School production of “The Tempest” directed by Nelson.

Now a First Colonial High School senior who attends the Governor’s School for the Arts, Norton said that “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is a satire on love and the ludicrousness of love at first sight.

“Shakespeare wrote to be understood word for word, with nothing cut out, but this production cuts out some of the confusing drama and still gets the main message and the major jokes across,” Norton said.

Cast members Mairin Martin, 22, and her sister, Rose Martin, 18, grew up attending summer Shakespeare shows.

“Our mother wanted us to learn old world literature like Dickens and Jane Austen, not just 'Goosebumps’ or 'Ramona and Beezus,’” said Rose Martin, a home-schooled Pungo resident. Mairin Martin, a senior at the University of Mary Washington , has been acting since her sophomore year at Ocean Lakes High School and played the bride in the 2007 production of “Father of the Bride” at the Little Theatre of Virginia Beach. She joined the “Midsummer” cast just two weeks ago and is understudying the role of the fairy queen, played by established local actress Ann Heywood.

“This is one of the best plays for people who aren’t used to Shakespeare,” said Mairin Martin.

“It’s so light, fun and easy to understand. The humor is readily apparent, and it’s been shortened to just the fairies and the fun stuff, so I think people will really like it,” she said.

Melanie Barker is a freelance writer who covers Virginia Beach for the Beacon section of The Virginian-Pilot.