Plot

The Play consists of four interconnecting plots, connected by a celebration of the wedding of Duke Theseus of Athens and the Amazon queen, Hippolyta, which is set simultaneously in the woodland and in the realm of Fairyland, under the light of the moon.

The play opens with Hermia, who is in love with Lysander, not wanting to submit to her father Egeus' demand that she wed Demetrius, whom he has arranged for her to marry. Helena meanwhile pines unrequitedly for Demetrius. Enraged, Egeus invokes an ancient Athenian law before Duke Theseus, whereby a daughter must marry the suitor chosen by her father, or else face death. Theseus offers her another choice: lifelong chastity while worshiping the goddess Diana as a nun.

Peter Quince and his fellow players plan to put on a play for the wedding of the Duke and the Queen, "the most lamentable comedy and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisbe?. Quince reads the names of characters and bestows them to the players. Nick Bottom, who is playing the main role of Pyramus, is over-enthusiastic and wants to dominate others by suggesting himself for the characters of Thisbe, the Lion, and Pyramus at the same time. He would also rather be a tyrant and recites some lines of Ercles. Quince ends the meeting with "at the Duke's oak we meet".

In a parallel plot line, Oberon, king of the fairies, and Titania, his queen, have come to the forest outside Athens. Titania tells Oberon that she plans to stay there until she has attended Theseus and Hippolyta's wedding. Oberon and Titania are estranged because Titania refuses to give her Indian changeling to Oberon for use as his "knight" or "henchman," since the child's mother was one of Titania's worshipers. Oberon seeks to punish Titania's disobedience. He calls upon Robin "Puck" Goodfellow, his "shrewd and knavish sprite", to help him concoct a magical juice derived from a flower called "love-in-idleness", which turns from white to purple when struck by Cupid's arrow. When the concoction is applied to the eyelids of a sleeping person, that person, upon waking, falls in love with the first living thing they perceive. He instructs Puck to retrieve the flower with the hope that he might make Titania fall in love with an animal of the forest and thereby shame her into giving up the little Indian boy. He says, "And ere I take this charm from off her sight, / As I can take it with another herb, / I'll make her render up her page to me."

Hermia and Lysander have escaped to the same forest in hopes of eloping. Helena, desperate to reclaim Demetrius's love, tells Demetrius about the plan and he follows them in hopes of killing Lysander. Helena continually makes advances towards Demetrius, promising to love him more than Hermia. However, he rebuffs her with cruel insults against her. Observing this, Oberon orders Puck to spread some of the magical juice from the flower on the eyelids of the young Athenian man. Instead, Puck mistakes Lysander for Demetrius, not having actually seen either before, and administers the juice to the sleeping Lysander. Helena, coming across him, wakes him while attempting to determine whether he is dead or asleep. Upon this happening, Lysander immediately falls in love with Helena. Oberon sees Demetrius still following Hermia and is enraged. When Demetrius decides to go to sleep, Oberon sends Puck to get Helena while he charms Demetrius' eyes. Upon waking up, he sees Helena. Now, both men are in pursuit of Helena. However, she is convinced that her two suitors are mocking her, as neither loved her originally. Hermia is at a loss to see why her lover has abandoned her, and accuses Helena of stealing Lysander away from her. The four quarrel with each other until Lysander and Demetrius become so enraged that they seek a place to duel each other to prove whose love for Helena is the greatest. Oberon orders Puck to keep Lysander and Demetrius from catching up with one another and to remove the charm from Lysander. Lysander returns to loving Hermia, while Demetrius continues to love Helena.

Meanwhile, Quince and his band of six labourers ("rude mechanicals", as they are described by Puck) have arranged to perform their play about Pyramus and Thisbe for Theseus' wedding and venture into the forest, near Titania's bower, for their rehearsal. Bottom is spotted by Puck, who (taking his name to be another word for a jackass) transforms his head into that of a donkey. When Bottom returns for his next lines, the other workmen run screaming in terror, much to Bottom's confusion, since he hasn't felt a thing during the transformation. Determined to wait for his friends, he begins to sing to himself. Titania is awakened by Bottom's singing and immediately falls in love with him. She lavishes him with attention and presumably makes love to him. While she is in this state of devotion, Oberon takes the changeling. Having achieved his goals, Oberon releases Titania, orders Puck to remove the donkey's head from Bottom, and arranges everything so that Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius, and Helena will believe that they have been dreaming when they awaken.

The fairies then disappear, and Theseus and Hippolyta arrive on the scene, during an early morning hunt. They wake the lovers and, since Demetrius does not love Hermia any more, Theseus overrules Egeus's demands and arranges a group wedding. The lovers decide that the night's events must have been a dream. After they all exit, Bottom awakes, and he too decides that he must have experienced a dream "past the wit of man". In Athens, Theseus, Hippolyta and the lovers watch the six workmen perform Pyramus and Thisbe. Given a lack of preparation, the performers are so terrible playing their roles to the point where the guests laugh as if it were meant to be a comedy, and everyone retires to bed. Afterwards, Oberon, Titania, Puck, and other fairies enter, and bless the house and its occupants with good fortune. After all other characters leave, Puck "restores amends" and suggests to the audience that what they just experienced might be nothing but a dream (hence the name of the play).

((And there you have it, my lovelies! As always, feel free to add onto this thread your experience. Respect the setting, and have fun!))

Touch Peel and Stand

Since I know how low to go, I won't let it show Won't you touch me, touch me" I won't let it go And now I stand and I peel for more Won't you touch me, touch me" I won't let it go ~ Days of the New

A Midsummer Night's Dream (nightmare)

Mataya seemed to be around every corner that Kruger found. That would normally be a good thing, if it weren't for the smile and wave. They had become weapons designed to break the man down. She'd always been friendly though hadn't she" So why did it seem she wanted to torment Kruger so' He pinned on an epic grin whenever he saw her, those little looks and kind words didn't fool him and they wouldn't get inside his armor again.

It hadn't always been that way, in fact it hadn't begun until he'd looked at the part he was playing and realized that there was a romantic interest between Nick Bottom and Titania. This of course had never presented a problem for Kruger before. He was relatively (read that as over), confident when it came to acting in romantic situations. Then again it wasn't exactly the same situation was it' The girls of the repertoire were nice, some might call them sweet. They certainly weren't Mataya de Luca. Therein lay the problem for Kruger. Mataya was beautiful, confident and okay so Kruger has a type and she might fall into that category. He'd seen every performance that Mataya had been in, but this was the first time he would be working with her. Worse than that was the feeling he'd be compared to every actor that had come before him. No, this would not do, she obviously needed someone far better than he to do the job.

Kruger had tracked her down before they'd started the first practice, he had everything he wanted to say mapped out in his head, had practiced the lines repeatedly. Of course then he found himself standing in front of her. His mouth opened, and sound came out but it wasn't the well rehearsed lines. It was more of a squeak, and even through the stage makeup the crimson of his face was quite visible. Gone were the passionate words that he'd spent so much time looking for. Gone was the poise and casual demeanor he'd meant to project. All he could manage in the end was to say, "I'm a really big fan", and practically sprint away from her dressing room door.

Blindly he tried a knob and rushed into a room, slamming the door behind him, only to realize that this was the Green Room and he'd nearly knocked over Maggie Harker. Every eye had snapped away from what they were doing to stare at Kruger accusingly. They all know! He needed to escape" again. He offered a strangled apology to Maggie before looking around at everyone and announcing quite loudly. "This is not the bathroom." He took off out the door and disappeared for the next hour. One of the benefits he'd managed to latch onto was the ability to explore the theater, none of the lighting guys were surprised to see him on the catwalk. None of them looked at him like they could see every secret he'd ever kept either.

The practice had gone well enough, though pulling Kruger always seemed to have a problem with the lines in any Shakespeare play. To many thee's and thines for his taste, and of course he came off a little thuggish. Maybe Mataya wouldn't notice that, or maybe she'd even find it reminded her of being back in Brooklyn. There were shows where he almost forgot that it was The Mataya de Luca he was performing with. Always there was the cue to come back to reality though, always said with her voice.

Titania: Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms. Fairies, begone, and be all ways away. So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle Gently entwist; the female ivy so Enrings the barky fingers of the elm. O, how I love thee! how I dote on thee!

Those were the words that ended their scene together, but they were the ones that had him avoiding her while he could, or like now pinning on that grin that he used so often in other venues and feigning that there was nothing really going to affect him. See not one shade of pink, take that! Of course those moments needed to be kept short or there would be a burning sensation in his ears. Kind of like now. "I've really enjoyed working with you. It's a shame that this is the wind down on the season. I hope you'll keep me around for next season." He got the words out, and they were true for the most part. He like pressure, it was just that this type was not something that he'd experienced often. Kruger "The Anvil? Allen doesn't get starstruck. Except when he does.