Last week, I was honored to photograph Chicago theatre company Midsommer Flight’s first dress run of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which opened on July 15 and runs through August 21 in Chicago parks. If you’re in town, you can catch it at one of these dates and locations. And I recommend that you do!
Midsommer Flight celebrates its ten-year anniversary this summer with the play that launched the company a decade ago. It’s one of my personal favorites, and under artistic director Beth Wolf, Midsommer Flight’s performance contains all the enchantment, joy, and laughter that have made it so.
Here’s a gallery of some of my favorite images from the show.
Look at the passion, intensity, joy, and humor that the cast instills in the performance. What a pleasure it was to photograph—and to listen to. I hadn’t seen A Midsummer Night’s Dream accompanied by music before. After Midsommer Flight’s production, I can’t imagine the play without music and song.
I enjoyed it so much, we returned as audience members two days later, complete with a picnic spread and thematic reading material. Liz brought her book on magic in Shakespeare, while I continued my journey through the Greek myths with Heroes, by Stephen Fry. There’s something magical about watching—and listening to—Shakespeare in the park that Midsommer Flight has captured.
The featured photograph at the top shows Koshie Mills as Helena and Manny Sevilla as Demetrius.
On a personal note, the production also included some old friends and familiar faces, including Meredith Ernst (Titania/Hippolyta), to whom I was first introduced at the wake of the matchless Erin Myers in 2015; Elizabeth Quilter (Snout/Mustardseed), who I first saw in a short play called The Trolls (by me!) and who you may recognize as “The Fairies’ Midwife” from our current portrait series, The People of Light and Shadow; Maureen Yasko (intimacy director) with whom I’ve done countless projects, and whose offhand comment in 2015 inspired me to take this direction in life in the first place; and Jack Morsovillo (Bottom), who I briefly met just last month shooting Promethean Theatre Ensemble’s excellent production of Richard III. Added to the pleasure of seeing familiar faces was the bounty of new faces I got to meet.
From the Midsommer Flight website, here’s the cast and crew of Midsommer Flight’s production:
Cast: Richard Eisloeffel (Lysander), Meredith Ernst (Titania/Hippolyta), Barry Irving (Quince/Egeus) Koshie Mills (Helena), Jack Morsovillo (Bottom), Ebby Offord (Puck), Joshua Pennington (Oberon/Theseus), Elizabeth McAnulty Quilter (Snout/Mustardseed; u/s Puck), Rocco Renda (u/s Quince/Egeus; u/s Bottom), Myah Seay (u/s Helena; u/s Starveling/Peaseblossom), Manny Sevilla (Demetrius), Travis Shanahan (Flute/Moth), Hannah Mary Simpson (Snug/Cobweb; u/s Titania), Martin Tebo (u/s Demetrius; u/s Snout/Mustardseed; u/s Snug/Cobweb), Alice Wu (Hermia), Kat Zheng (Starveling/Peaseblossom; u/s Hermia), Cameron Nalley (u/s Lysander, u/s Flute/Moth)
Production Staff: Beth Wolf (Director, Producing Artistic Director), Nina Castillo-D’Angier (Scenic/Props Designer), Justin Cavazos (Composer/Music Director), Devin Christor (Assistant Director), Giselle Durand (Season Production Manager), Lane Anthony Flores (Text Coach), Hazel Marie Flowers-McCabe (Stage Manager), Amy Malcom (vocal coach), Karissa Murrell Myers (Casting Director), Chris Smith (Fight Director), Lily Grace Walls (costume designer), Maureen Yasko (Intimacy Director), and Anna Zaczek (Assistant Stage Manager)
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