Tualatin High School’s theater department chose Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream as its autumn play. The Wolf decided to send some staff writers to the production so we could provide our overall opinions of the show. 

Going into this, we realized seating was very limited. The theater department chose to use out-of-the-box seating, a Shakespearean-style experience with the viewers seated on the stage, which only allows for about 80 audience members. We arrived about 45 minutes early and got the last possible tickets from people who didn’t show. 

We sat towards the back to the right. However, this wasn’t a great vantage point, as the actors were fully faced away from us throughout a majority of the show. 

The play was set in the ‘80s but with the original Shakespearean dialogue, which is reminiscent of the ‘90s Romeo and Juliet starring Leonardo DiCaprio. The soundtrack and costuming were fun and accurate to the theme, with songs from Madonna and neon ensembles with heavy layering, legwarmers and all. 

The small number of people in the audience and close seating created a sense of intimacy, and throughout the show the audience got involved.Once, the cast grabbed an audience member’s phone and took a selfie on it, and later fairies brought us all light-up wands to wave. This really made the play fun and exciting. 

Although the Shakespearean language of the play was a little confusing, we agreed it was a good choice and enjoyed it.