Books

Just For Fun: A Midsummer Night’s Avocado!

So I had meant for this to go up on Sunday, but my wordpress credentials got flushed and took my draft with it. So I’ll just be short and sweet. Hi everyone, I’m your Terrible Renegade LibraryLass, and I want to direct the Avocado’s first-ever play! And for that purpose I’ve chosen a fun, popular, accessible classic that can easily accommodate some decisions I really enjoy and admire: my favorite Shakespeare play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The show will take the form of an audio play, somewhat in the style of Avocado City, though unlike Gooch I don’t have the know-how to put together an animation for it, especially given the deadline I want to try and put this together, record it, and edit it by. If you’ve been in Avocado City, you know the drill, and if not, then just suffice to say that you’ll record your dialogue and I’ll do my best to stitch it together into a functioning whole. If all goes according to plan, the finished play will premiere on Rabbit on– when else?– the 21st of June, Midsummer Night itself! Afterwards it will be published on The Avocado.

For those of you who don’t know the play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a silly, slightly sexy comedy set in ancient Athens about a group of young lovers who find their relationships and their expectations turned upside down by Oberon, the king of the fairies, and his servant Puck, who resolve to give the four of them a happy ending. It’s one of the Bard’s most famous and enduring works and has been revisited countless times from countless angles. I myself want to take a crack at a queer reading of the play, so many of the roles will be cast gender-blind, and those that will not be entirely so will be cast with emphasizing that theme in mind. In the comments below you’ll find a call sheet with a summary of each of the characters and their roles in the play. I’m willing to entertain auditions from just about anybody, with a few minor adjustments stemming from who ends up in each role.

If you want to perform, you need the following things:

  • A working microphone
  • Software that can record your voice
  • Access to Rabbit or Discord
  • A monologue of some kind to audition with
  • A comfort zone that will allow you to perform a character that may or may not share your gender and sexual orientation, especially if you’re cisgender and straight.

It would also be helpful to have a copy of the original text, although it’s quite likely that we’ll have at least a few edits and abridgements– mostly having to do with characters’ pronouns, as needed. Once you’ve got all that ready to go, just contact me with the name you want to be credited under, the pronouns you use for yourself, the pronouns you want your character to use (if different from yours), and when you would be available to audition, should that be necessary. When the cast is assembled, I’ll send your dialogue out and we’ll schedule an appointment to record, so that we can work together in real time to create just the right performance.

The following roles are in the play:

The Nobility:

  • THESEUS/THESION: Ruler of Athens (Gender-blind)
  • HIPPOLYTA: queen of the Amazons, betrothed to Theseus/Thesion. (Female or female-adjacent)
  • EGEUS/EGEIA: Parent to Hermes/Hermia. (Character is cis male or female)
  • PHILOSTRATE/PHILOSTRAIA: master/mistress of the revels to Theseus. (Gender-blind.)

The Lovers:

  • LYSANDER/LYSANDRA: in love with Hermes/Hermia, attracted to Helenos/Helena and Demetrius/Demetria. (Gender-blind, Egeus always refers to them with incorrect pronouns)
  • DEMETRIUS/DEMETRIA: in love with Hermes/Hermia, formerly in love with Helenos/Helena, attracted to Lysander/Lysandra. (Gender-blind)
  • HERMES/HERMIA: daughter to Egeus, in love with Lysander and Helenos/Helena. (Different gender from Demetrius, Egeus always refers to them with binary pronouns)
  • HELENOS/HELENA: in love with Demetrius/Demetria and Hermes/Hermia. (Gender-Blind)

The Mechanicals

  • QUINCE: a carpenter. (Gender-Blind)
  • SNUG: a joiner. (Gender-Blind)
  • NICK BOTTOM: a weaver. (Different gender from Oberon)
  • FRANCIS FLUTE: a bellows-mender. (Gender-Blind)
  • TOM SNOUT: a tinker. (Gender-Blind)
  • ROBIN STARVELING: a tailor. (Gender-Blind)

The Fairies

  • OBERON: Queen or king of the fairies. (Different gender from Bottom)
  • TITANIA: Queen or King of the fairies. (Gender-Blind)
  • PUCK: aka Robin Goodfellow, Oberon’s retainer. (Same gender as Oberon.)
  • PEASEBLOSSOM, COBWEB, MOTH, and MUSTARDSEED: Fairy servants of Titania (Gender-blind, probably doubled roles.)