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TEACHERS´ MATERIALS.
Please look at some samples of teachers materials for use in the classroom which are a great tool to help prepare your students before seeing the play
Read More >
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MIDSUMMER MADNESS
Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is probably the Bard’s best-known comedy. It has been staged worldwide throughout the centuries and there are several film versions including the 1935 version starring Mickey Rooney as Puck; Peter Hall’s 1968 film with Diana Rigg and Helen Mirren as Helena and Hermia; and the 1999 version with Kevin Kline as Bottom and Michelle Pfeiffer as Titania. Lingua-Arts also pays tribute to this masterpiece in a dynamic version that stays true to the original themes of magic, love, friendship and fantasy whilst paying special attention to the needs of Spanish students of English. Although ours is a simplified, bilingual version, MIDSUMMER MADNESS is a highly entertaining comedy in its own right, and a must for all Shakespeare fans. (See the video montage below)
En español…
La joven Hermia quiere a Lysander pero su padre tiene otros planes para ella, y le impone casarse con Demetrius o, de lo contrario, retirarse a un convento. Para evitar tal castigo, los amantes deciden fugarse a un bosque encantado. Por su parte, Helena, amiga de Hermia, quiere a Demetrius, pero éste la rechaza. Como venganza, Helena revela el paradero de los fugados a Demetrius y él emprende la caza para recuperar a Hermia. Helena, no queriendo perderle de vista, le persigue hasta el bosque misterioso donde los amantes se encontrarán sometidos a los caprichos de Oberón, Rey de las Hadas, y de su fiel servidor, Puck.
El Bosque y el mundo de la Magia sirven de telón de fondo a esta versión libre del famoso enredo romántico de Shakespeare, Sueño de una Noche de Verano. Nuestra versión pretende poner de manifiesto el gran sentido del humor del Bardo, y su puesta en escena está especialmente enfocada a resaltar al máximo el significado de su texto, hábilmente adaptado para estudiantes de inglés.
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This is a story of love and enchantment in which four friends become the victims of the magic Fairy World in a mysterious wood near Athens.
Egeus is furious with his daughter, Hermia, after she refuses (1) to marry Demetrius, the man of his choice because Hermia is in love with Lysander. Egeus orders his daughter to obey (2) him or else retire to a convent for the rest of her life. As a result Hermia and Lysander decide to elope (3). They plan to meet in the wood that night. The young lovers tell Helena (Hermia’s best friend) their secret. But Helena, who is in love with Demetrius and jealous (4) of Hermia’s happiness with Lysander, informs Demetrius of their plan to escape. She is sure Demetrius will follow and so she too decides to venture into the wood to see what happens.
The wood is ruled (5) by the Fairy King and Queen, Oberon and Titania. The atmosphere in the forest is tense because the Kind and Queen have just had a lovers’ quarrel (6). Titania leaves in a fury. Then Oberon orders Puck, his servant, to find a special flower with a magic juice (7). When this is poured into a sleeping person’s eyes, that person will fall in love with the first creature - human or animal – he or she sees on waking up. He wants to use the flower’s magic to punish (8) his for her disobedience.
Oberon then sees Demetrius followed by Helena. Invisible to the humans, he observes that although Helena adores Demetrius, the young man cruelly rejects (9) her love. Puck returns with the flower. Oberon gives his servant part of the flower and tells him to pour its juice in Demetrius’ eyes so that he will fall in love with Helena when he wakes up.
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Puck obeys his master, but before he carries out his mission, he meets another human, Bottom, who is lost in the wood. Puck plays a trick on him, changing Bottom’s head into a donkey’s (10). Meanwhile, the Fairy Queen is sound asleep so Oberon takes advantage to pour the magic juice into his wife’s eyes. She wakes up and the first creature she sees is Bottom - with a donkey’s head. She falls madly in love with him (it).
Hermia and Lysander enter a different part of the wood and, exhausted, soon fall asleep. Puck appears and, mistaking (11) Lysander for Demetrius, pours the juice into his eyes. A lost Helena now enters the scene. When Lysander wakes up the first creature he sees is Helena and he falls instantly in love with her. The problem is it’s the wrong girl.
Oberon is furious with Puck and tells his servant to pour the juice into the correct person’s eyes, into Demetrius’. Puck obeys.
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Now both Lysander and Demetrius are madly in love with Helena, and there is chaos. Hermia and Helena have a vicious quarrel and Lysander and Demetrius go off to fight a duel (12). Oberon uses his magic powers to bring harmony to the lovers. Now only Demetrius is in love with Helena and Lysander remembers that he loves Hermia. The two happy couples decide to return to Athens. Oberon also frees Titania from her spell (13). She is no longer obsessed with Bottom and falls in love again with her husband, Oberon.
Bottom, meanwhile, recovers his old human head but cannot remember what has happened to him. Lost (14) and confused, he still tries to find his way out of the enchanted wood. |
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| VOCABULARY |
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1. fairy = hada
2. forget = olvidarse
3. wand = varilla mágica
4. prick her finger = pincharse el dedo
5. needle = aguja
6. die = morirse
7. scream = chillar
8. help = ayudar
9. try = probar
10. ran away = se escapó corriendo
11. sad = triste
12. quiet = tranquilo, silencioso
13. he couldn’t wake her up = no pudo despertarla
14. remember = acordarse
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(NOTE: the NINE characters are played by only FOUR actors.) |
Egeus is Hermia’s father . He is a possessive and authoritative man who will not tolerate disobedience from his daughter. He orders Hermia to marry Demetrius and forbids her to marry Lysander. |
| Hermia is a strong-minded, romantic young woman. She is in love with Lysander and is prepared to disobey her father in order to marry the man she loves. |
| Lysander is a young nobleman who is in love with Hermia. He is a romantic and is prepared to break the law and run away from Athens so that he can marry her. |
| Helena is Hermia’s best friend, but there is a problem: Helena is in love with Demetrius, but Demetrius wants to marry Hermia. Helena is jealous and her selfish feelings lead her to betray her good friend. |
| Demetrius is a selfish young man at the start. He is determined to marry Hermia even though Hermia loves Lysander. He also treats Helena cruelly. However, after his adventure in the wood, Demetrius changes and becomes a better person finding true love with Helena. |
| Oberon, the King of the Fairies is the authority and law in the Wood. His spells are responsible for most of the chaos that takes place in the play. He is also a possessive husband and punishes his wife because she disobeys him. |
| Titania, the Queen of the Fairies is headstrong. She disobeys her husband because she suspects him of loving another. However, after Titania suffers the cruelty of her husband’s magic, she changes and becomes submissive. |
| Puck is Oberon’s faithful servant. He is mischievous and, at times, a little cruel. He likes to play tricks on others, particularly on humans. He is particularly cruel to Bottom whom he changes into a donkey. |
| Bottom is a working man from Athens. His character is very funny and although he has a comical name, he takes himself very seriously. He has very little education but thinks he knows everything. Bottom provides much of the comedy in the play. |
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NOTES FOR TEACHERS |
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AN EXTRACT |
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TEACHERS’ MATERIALS.
LEVEL: High Intermediate to Advanced (14 years and above)
INTRODUCTION
Our version of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream follows the main storyline in the original play, that is the young lovers’ escape to the magical wood one summer’s night and the games played on them by the Fairies who live there. We also include a quarrel between the King and Queen of Fairies, Oberon and Titania, and the appearance of the comical character, Bottom, a working man from Athens who also gets lost in the wood.
In concentrating on the main storyline, we have omitted two sub-plots from the original play: the relationship and between the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and his wife-to-be, Hippollyta, and the characters known as “the Mechanicals” or the Workers - friends of Bottom who enter the wood to rehearse a play for the Duke’s wedding. Although we have omitted the Mechanicals, we have included Bottom. In our version, Bottom tries to rehearse a one-man play but falls victim to the magic tricks of Puck, who turns him into a donkey.
We have been extremely careful to maintain the COMEDY of the original play, much of which arises from magic spells cast on the humans - the four young lovers and Bottom. (See THE STORY, page 4).
BILINGUALISM
75-80% of the play is in English. The rest is in Spanish, which is spoken by the fairies Oberon and Puck. This marks the differences between the fairies and the human beings (who all speak English) and helps draw attention to the strange fairy world. However, Oberon speaks English to his wife, Titania, who is the ruler of one part of the wood, while her husband rules another. Her use of English in contrast to Oberon’s Spanish helps to accentuate their differences and individual identities.
THEMES
LOVE’S DIFFICULTIES “The course of true love never did run smooth,” comments Lysander, stating one of A Midsummer Night’s Dream’s most important themes - that of the difficulty of love (a theme many teenagers will identify with.) It is important to note that this is not a romantic play; it is rather a play which makes fun of the torments suffered by those in love, which in turn gives rise to most of the comedy.
DREAMS As the original title suggests, dreams are an important theme and are the link to the strange, magical happenings in the wood. When characters try to explain bizarre events, they call it a “dream”. Bottom says, “Bottom, my man, you have had a most rare vision.” At the end of the play, Puck extends the idea of dreams to the audience itself: “Que os habéis quedado aquí dormidos, mientras esta historia ha sucedido. Y ésta débil humilde ficción, tendrá la inconsistencia de una vision.” This sense of illusion and magic is crucial to the atmosphere of our play.
FRIENDSHIP Friends and what they think and say are very important to adolescents. Many will have experienced two friends liking the same person of the opposite sex and the problems that can bring about. Is friendship stronger than love? This theme is present in the play and it may be a good idea to discuss what it means to be loyal to a friend.
STYLE OF LANGUAGE
On the whole, the Shakespearian English has been simplified in order to facilitate understanding. The young nobles, Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius and Helena, generally speak in a modern prose style which is easily understood, but when Lysander and Demetrius fall victim to the fairies’ magic, their speech changes drastically to Shakespearian poetic style. This helps makes fun of the romanticism of their exaggerated feelings whilst under the magic spell. The older figure of Egeus (Hermia’s father), also speaks in Shakespearian English in order to emphasise his authority over the younger people. Titania and Oberon also use a more old-fashioned, poetic and rhyming dialogue in English to mark the difference between the fairies and the human beings. Bottom speaks in a modern prose which better suits his working-class standing.
Despite some Shakespearian text, MIDSUMMER MADNESS is very VISUAL, and your students will have no problems in following the play.
Please look out the extensive teachers materials for use in the
classroom. They are a great tool to help prepare your students before
seeing the play (and for use AFTER seeing it). Read More |
UNA ESCENA DE “MIDSUMMER MADNESS”
(Here we see the Fairy King and Queen, Oberon and Titania, having a lovers’ quarrel over infidelities. It is really a power struggle between two powerful fairies. Who will win? Click below and watch the scene from the trailer of Midsummer Madness – it starts on second 0.58)
OBERON: Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania?
TITANIA: What? Jealous Oberon? I will not stay.
I have forsworn your bed and company.
OBERON: Stay where you are, I say. I am your lord.
TITANIA: Then I must be your lady; but I know
That in the darkness of the night you leave
Our woods to roam the streets of old Athens
In search of human females.
OBERON: Oh, my love,
How can you speak of infidelity
To me when your perfume is human sweat?
TITANIA: All fantasies in your jealous mind,
My lord. I have not left these woods
Since summer of last year, as well you know.
Until you learn to trust me once again,
I never will return unto our bed.
OBERON: How long do you intend to keep away?
TITANIA: Perhaps, my lord, forever and a day.
OBERON: Come back to me Titania and to our bed.
TITANIA: Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, away!
I shall explode if I do longer stay. (Exit Titania)
OBERON: Go on your way and see how far you get.
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