Recently several students and adults presented William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Deepwater Theater. There were 3 opportunities to see it...Thursday evening, May 6; Friday evening, May 7 and a matinee on Sunday, May 9 (Mother's Day).
I have been hearing about this event since last fall and I know that preparations have been long in the works. Tryouts were held, costume and makeup ideas were shared throughout the winter months. Rehearsals began in earnest after basketball season ended (many of the players are on the basketball team).
Much fretting was heard about the island as the actors struggled to learn their lines. Several actors were seen walking or biking along talking to themselves. They hadn't lost their minds...they were memorizing and familiarizing themselves with their parts. As the play dates neared the rehearsals grew more intense and the anticipation grew. Not only among the cast and crew involved with the play but with family, friends and neighbors who were looking forward to this great event.

I bought my tickets early to go to the Mother's Day matinee and I am glad that I did. By opening night tickets for all three shows were sold out. Plans were made to sell a limited number of standing room tickets at the door each night.
Right after the opening night show ended I started hearing reviews...RAVE reviews!! Everyone loved it! Everyone that had seen it couldn't stop talking about it. The costumes were great! The actors were great! The play was great! Ocracoke was impressed!
Several people had bought tickets to go more than one night. Several that didn't buy tickets for multiple nights stood in line to buy standing room tickets. By the time Sunday arrived I could hardly stand it! I was so excited to see this play.
I must mention that I have never seen any of Shakespeare's plays performed. Nor have I actually read any of his plays (at least not the whole thing). But I could not have been more impressed and pleased if I had seen Shakespeare himself put this performance together.

I'm not going to give any details of what the play is about. Many people have seen it or read it I am sure. But I will say that everything about this play was fantastic. The actors, the costumes, the makeup, the weather, the audience...I would love to see it again! I know that a LOT of hard work and planning went into putting this together. Everyone did a fantastic job with every aspect.
You should all be proud and pat yourselves on the back for a job well done.

The island is still abuzz with "play talk". We can't stop talking about it...in the stores, the post office, at work, on the streets...and my Facebook friends keep posting and posting and posting about how wonderful the play was and how much they enjoyed it.
There are tons of pictures and here I have posted just a few (even though it is a lot of pictures) to share with you the actors, the costumes and the makeup. I, along with everyone who saw or had anything to do with the play, am SO PROUD OF YOU ALL!!!! Thank you so much for entertaining us and amazing us with your talent.
(More credits at the end). I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as we all enjoyed Ocracoke's "A Midsummer Night's Dream".




     
Theseus, Hippolyta, Hermia, Lysander, Helena and Demetrius     

                                          
Theseus, Duke of Athens played by Bill Cole.                                                   Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons played by Kati Wharton.

                                            
Egeus, Father to Hermia played by Bill Jones.                                          Philostrate, Master of Revels played by Wyatt Norris.




Hermia & Lysander in the forest.



                                                                      
Hermia played by Jessie Morrisey.                                                                       Lysander played by Joseph Chestnut.



  
Demetrius & Helena             


                                                           
Helena played by Virginia Downes, daughter of Dee & Jack Whitehead of OIR.            Demetrius played by Emmet Temple.




Nick Bottom, Snug, Tom Snout, Robin Starveling, Peter Quince & Francis Flute.


                                                
Nick Bottom played by Charles Temple. Charles is the high school English teacher at Ocracoke School. He took several students
to see "A Midsummer Night's Dream" some time back. The students were inspired to put on the play themselves. Charles directed
and performed in this production. He is well loved by all of his students...and why not...he is just a big kid himself.


  
Peter Quince, carpenter, played by Annie Buchanan.
          


                                                                              
Francis Flute, bellows mender, played by Lori Masaitis.                            Francis Flute as the "girlfriend" in Quince's skit.


                                                         
Tom Snout, tinker, played by Kevin Perez.                                 Tom Snout as the wall in Quince's skit.
Kevin also helped with the artwork for the play.




                                                                   
Snug, joiner, played by Walker Garrish.                                                                   Snug as the lion in Quince's skit.



                                                                       
Robin Starveling, tailor, played by Andrew Tillett.                   Robin Starveling as the moon in Quince's skit.         



Queen Titania, King Oberon and their fairy attendants.


    
Queen Titania & King Oberon.
  

      
       Oberon, King of the Fairies, played by DJ Lukefahr. (You may notice that there are probably more pictures of DJ than anyone else.
       That is because DJ is my son and I am just being a mother. No offense is meant to anyone because everyone did a fantastic and 
       impressive job!!).



Titania, Queen of the Fairies, played by Zoi Tsaousis.



Queen Titania, King Oberon & Puck



  
Puck & King Oberon with the magic flower.                


    
     King Oberon keeping watch over the players.



Puck, jester to Oberon, played by Echo Bennink.



Mustardseed, Titania, Peaseblossom, Cobweb & Moth



                                                         
Peaseblossom played by Caroline Temple.                                                     Cobweb played by the great ad-libber, Phyllis Wall.



        
Mustardseed played by Jennifer Kidwell. Jennifer also played the tambourine to signal intermission and stage changes
and she was instrumental in creating and putting together costumes.
   


      
       Moth played by Deena Seitz, daughter of Sidra Seitz of OIR.



Moth, Cobweb, Mustardseed and Peaseblossom meeting Bottom for the first time.



King Oberon's fairy attendants.


   
Attendant to Oberon played by Dalton Kalna.                      

                                                          
   Attendant to Oberon played by Wyatt Norris.                                                 Attendant to Oberon played by Waylon Underwood.



 
Stage Manager, Molly Lovejoy. Molly worked very hard for this production. She fretted and worried and, with the help of her friends, made it all come together. Thanks, Molly! Molly is a Sophomore at Ocracoke High School.

     

        
         Fiddler Dave, David Tweety, provided the music for the play and for intermission. You may recognize David from Molasses Creek. You can see
         them perform at Deepwater Theater throughout most of the summer.


Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't include thanks to several people who helped make this all possible.

Thanks to:

Roger Meacham, Emmet Temple, Charles Temple, Andrew Tillett, Leslie Espinoza, CJ Wynn and Virginia Downes for the set construction.

Jennifer Kidwell, Sundae Horn, Lisa Jones, Megan Aldridge, Jude Wheeler, Merle Davis, Susie Kennedy, Julie Howard, Roger Meacham, Mary Bassell and Bill Jones for the costume creations.

Jennifer Kidwell, Jessie Morrissey, Leslie Espinoza, Barbara Adams, Ashley Haddad, Marissa Gross and Gissette Suarez for the creative makeup.

Susie Kennedy and Roy Revels for hair styling.

Roger Meacham and Jennifer Kidwell for the props.

David Tweedie and Jennifer Kidwell for the music.

Jamieson Wilson, Kitty Mitchell, Kevin Perez and Lori Masaitis for the artwork.

Special thanks to Leslie Lanier, Deepwater Theater, Ocracoke Civic and Business Association, Creekside Cafe, Ocracoke Pizza Company and Village Print.

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" was funded in part by a Grassroots Grant from the North Carolina Arts Council with funding from the State of North Carolina and the National Endowment for the Arts.

ALL OF US WHO SAW THE PRODUCTION WOULD LIKE TO THANK EVERYONE INVOLVED FOR DOING SUCH A WONDERFUL, FANTASTIC JOB ENTERTAINING US!! WE WOULD LOVE TO SEE THIS AGAIN ALONG WITH ANY OTHER WORKS YOU WISH TO PRESENT TO US!!

I would personally like to thank Molly Lovejoy, Emma Lovejoy and Jennifer Kidwell for allowing me to use their great pictures for this blog. There were so many great pictures and it was so hard to choose. I tried to use at least one decent picture of every actor because you all deserve props!!