‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ by William Shakespeare performed by the Dulwich Players
3 – 6 July
Jan Rae, director, reflects on past productions at the Gallery, and looks forward to Thursday
If you were down at Dulwich Picture Gallery on Sunday you may have seen the peace of the gardens being disturbed by a strange group of people who seemed to be very preoccupied with tents and lighting cables. Well it is that time of year again … a time when we desert the warm and cosy Edward Alleyn Theatre and head for the great outdoors, hoping that we might have an unusually warm summer (or at least week). And this year is rather special being the 10th anniversary of our first production in the gardens and the 5th visit to the Dulwich Picture Gallery.
Memories of previous outings to the gallery flash before me …. The dress rehearsal of our first Dream took place in a thunderstorm complete with lightening – the cast bravely carried on but the rehearsal eventually had to be abandoned … and I know it is tempting fate, but we went on to play to packed houses in glorious sunshine.
Getting into the Gallery is the climax of several months logistical planning – (working with the superb and helpful Picture Gallery staff) – and 10 weeks of intensive rehearsing and backstage management activity: designing and making fairy costumes (do you know what a fairy looks like?); sourcing the multitude of props, which included purple flowers (very hard to find), a hawthorn bush and a sword; re-orchestrating a ‘fairy song’ and choreographing the ‘must-have’ end of play dance.
And of course, the space in the gardens at the Gallery is very different from our normal rehearsal room so takes some getting used to. For the last two weeks of rehearsals we have moved outdoors; the cast now know that they can confidently perform in wind and drizzling rain!
But it is not just the weather that makes the productions in the gallery so special, but the audience. At the Gallery, the audience are part of the play, being in full view of the cast and inches away from the action; they have been known to interact with the cast, offering comments on the action, answering rhetorical questions from the characters and even, as two years ago, ‘borrowing’ one of the benches from the stage area to the mystification of the stage management team who are not used to seeing the stage props vanishing!
So whatever the weather, our cast and production team will be rushing home from their often demanding day jobs to spend a joyous few hours in the Gallery Gardens – we can’t wait…..
Photos from Taming of the Shrew, 2006 production at Dulwich Picture Gallery, courtesy of the Dulwich Players
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What a wonderful production.