A Midsummer Night's Dream -- June 25, 2009

OLLI was front and center at the opening night gala of the Illinois Shakespeare Festival's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Young lovers, spirits, and mythic royalty were conjured up in an enticing mix of poetry, wide-eyed fairy magic, and the madness of love in Shakespeare's most popular comedy. It portrayed the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of amateur actors, their interactions with the Duke and Duchess of Athens, and with the fairies who inhabit a moonlit forest. The play is one of Shakespeare's most popular works for the stage and is widely performed across the world.

Dr. Susan Hillabold, who taught a Shakespeare class for OLLI Winterim ’09, accompanied our group to enrich our understanding of the play’s subtleties. She gave us some hints of what to look for before the performance, and then summarized some of the complexities on the way home.

At the venue, we enjoyed a gourmet catered picnic dinner, a personalized backstage tour by the actors, a pre-performance jazz show, and the performance itself. It was a warm evening, but another great OLLI night!