Students grow into 'Midsummer' roles

Understanding Shakespeare can be a difficult task for students.

The students in the Miracle Shakespeare Company are an exception — they were first exposed to Shakespeare at 7 years old and now, at high school age, are performing "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

The company's production is today and Sunday in Oregon House.

"These are all brilliant kids," said Mari Reeves, the play's director. "They start at about 5 years old doing Hans Christian Anderson fairy tales. By the time they're 7, they can start doing small roles in Shakespeare plays. At 8, they had their first lead roles in a Shakespeare play. And now they're doing the same roles again, six years later, as big kids."

By performing Shakespeare for so long, there's far less difficulty in understanding the plotlines of the plays, their content and how to perform the roles.

"From the time they're little, they see the plays with their older brothers and sisters (in the roles)," Reeves said. "Then they do short speeches or little bit parts of five or six lines. They grow up with it, so when they're older, they understand the roles better."

Reeves has been putting on Shakespeare plays with children for 16 years, she said. Many of the students attend the Marysville Charter Academy for the Arts, and some attend colleges such as Stanford University, Harvard University, the University of California, Berkeley, UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara.

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" is among Shakespeare's most famous plays. The story has three plots all connected to the wedding of Duke Theseus (Andrei Armeneau) and Amazonian queen Hipolyta (Lisa Brooks).

"It's one of my favorite Shakespeare plays," Reeves said. "This is the seventh time I've directed a production of it. It's a great play for kids, because its about passion and craziness and fairies."

Rounding out the cast is Adam Seifert as Lysander, Oliver McGovern as Demetrius, Michael Segal as Philostrate, Maya Anderman as Hermia, Morgen Harvey as Helena and Sean Lubbers as Peter Quince.

"It's unusual to see kids to Shakespeare so well," Reeves said. "It's unusual anywhere to see them do it with an understanding (of the play) and with passion for it. It's going to be a very fun show."

"A Midsummer Night's Dream"

Times: 7 p.m. today and Sunday

Where Lambert Meadow, Vega Way, Oregon House

Tickets: $5 to $10.  Call 692-9336