ASC to perform ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’
Published 2:27 pm Monday, September 16, 2019
One of Shakespeare’s most popular plays is coming to Longwood University this month for a free performance open to the public as part of the university’s longstanding relationship with the American Shakespeare Center (ASC), a Longwood press release cited.
The touring cast will perform “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” — one of the Bard’s most raucous and beloved plays — on Sept. 19 in Jarman Auditorium, officials noted in the release. The show is free and open to the public and will begin at 7 p.m. with a special pre-show at 6:30 p.m.
The release stated that this is the seventh year the ASC has presented a free performance at Longwood. Some of Shakespeare’s most beloved plays have been performed by the troupe, including “Hamlet,” “Romeo and Juliet” and “Taming of the Shrew.”
The Staunton-based company is known for a unique performance style that blends traditional stagecraft with modern sensibility, officials said in the release. Shakespeare-era staging conditions include universal lighting, minimal sets, doubling, cross-gender casting and music.
The release concluded by citing that the ASC’s mission is to recover the joys and accessibility of Shakespeare’s theater, language and humanity by exploring the English Renaissance stage and its practices through performance and education. The company’s plays have been called “shamelessly entertaining” and “bursting with energy.”