theParagon

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

They pulled a white sheet off the bed, got a screen projector from Victory Point Church, yanked a DVD player from out of the house, unhooked all the stereo wires & cables and brought it all into the woods on the North side of Holland.

So what was being done with all this stuff? About 13 people from the age of 21-24 all settled down in chairs behind a fire and used everything to watch the movie - A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

It was a wonderful night and we were amazed at how awesome we all were for watching such an great movie on such a clear night. Not more than a couple minutes after the movie we all decided that we should act this movie out in downtown Holland.

The idea came from conversation that took place a couple weeks ago. We were discussing how much Holland needed more excitement in it’s downtown. When you go to other cities in larger areas there’s always something cool going on. With Holland being such a small town none of that was happening.

Now instead of thinking someone else should do something cool downtown we decided to be the trend starters.

Here’s the tricky part

All but a few of us have had little to no acting experience and I’m convinced any acting skills. Many of us had just graduated from college in fields very far from stage drama. As for myself, I sit on a computer close to 10 hours a day and being theatrical isn’t one of my strong points. Ask me what I think about the W3C’s new XHTML 2.0 recommendations and you’ll have an earful.

Despite the challenge we all decided to go for it and just make it a good ‘ol time.

The play is going to be this coming Sunday at 7:30 and will probably run around an hour an a half. We’ll be reading the scripts due to a lack of practice time but elaborate costumes and slipups will make the whole experience a wonderful one.

So if you’re around downtown Holland this Sunday at 7:30 feel free to walk on over to see what’s going on. We’ll be performing in an open park in between the bank and the old Mole Hole store. I’ll try to get the crossing street later but if you walk down 8th street you’re bound to see us.

Side Note

The Holland Sentinel will also be doing an article to let the Holland community know what, when, and why in God’s name we’re doing this. Pictures will most likely be included either in the article or a follow up.

update:

The Sentinel story is now online but it’s only a quick blurb. They titled it Shakespeare reading staged.

Shakespeare reading staged

A group of area young people is staging an impromptu reading of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” Sunday in downtown Holland.

The organizers, many recent graduates from area colleges, will meet in the pocket park next to National City Bank on West Eight Street at about 7 p.m.

While lines won’t be memorized and the few costumes might appear a little haphazard, organizers are inviting anyone interested to join in. Extra scripts will be available.

For information, call (616) 490-7172.

posted in The Holland Sentinel

Update II

I threw up a small gallery of the event at www.viewmi.com/gallery/midsummer_nights_dream/. Take a peek and feel free to leave some comments if you so choose. Don’t mind the duplicate pictures - it was sent through a batch process

posted on June 20, 2003 | 4:14 PM EST