April 8th 2010: A Chat with the Director of this Summer's Midsummer

Willamette Shakespeare's 2010 production will be A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare's comedy featuring desperate lovers, mischievous fairies, and a flower that causes love upon first sight.

As You Like It 2009 - Andy Lee-Hillstrom as Touchstone and Trish Castaneda-Gonzales as Celia

Artistic Director Daniel Somerfield chose the play as the perfect follow-up to our debut season's production of As You Like It for its accessibility and popularity. But just because audience members think they know the play, doesn't mean they really "know" it. Daniel has his own thoughts on the work's text and characters, which he plans to highlight this summer. We recently sat down with him to talk about August's production and his theatre work in general.

WILLAMETTE SHAKESPEARE: So we hear you have a thing for plays by William Shakespeare. Where did that come from?

DANIEL SOMERFIELD: I have been in love with Shakespeare's words for so long, I can't really remember when it happened. I do know that a turning point came when I began to read the plays out loud, rather than reading them as one would a novel. When I started doing that, I started to really FEEL his mastery of language and the emotional content of every sound. Seriously, it makes me shiver thinking about it. I guess I am a bit of a Shakespeare nerd. I'm ok with that.

WS: You picked Midsummer for this season's show. It's a great play, and one that entire families can enjoy, but hasn't it been done too much?

DS: A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of the most commonly produced of Shakespeare's plays. The play, or at least our conceptions of the play, have become deeply engrained in the language of our culture. Puck, Bottom, Oberon and Titania have become archetypical characters and yet many people don't even know they are in this play. People remember the characters and situations, but there is great storytelling in this play, and I want to share that with our audiences. Besides, if we learned anything last year, it was that there are many people in the Willamette Valley who are new to Shakespeare. I think we can offer something for everyone -- both seasoned theatergoers and newbies.

WS: So what are you interested in doing with this production that's different from others you've seen?

Sydney and Daniel's Wedding - 2007

DS: One of the many challenges with this play comes from our notion of the fairy. Fairies are a fundamental part of British Isles mythology. Here in the US, our vision of fairies tends more toward the wand-waving Tinkerbell of Disney's Peter Pan. The fairies of A Midsummer Night's Dream are much more from the English, Irish and Scottish traditions. They are not always malevolent, but their good nature is not something to be taken for granted. They are forces of nature and like nature can reward you or destroy you. This is something we'll be exploring with our production.

WS: We hear that Midsummer played a special role in your wedding ceremony. What's that all about?

DS: Yeah, you might say we had something of a theatrical wedding. Sydney and I figured if we were going to go through as much work and expense as putting on a show, we might as well do so. During the ceremony, we performed three scenes, one of which was the always popular Titania / Bottom scene from The Dream. I was wearing the donkey ears and everything. It took a guest or two by surprise, I think.