A group of Collingwood high school students are channelling Oberon, Titania, Theseus, Bottom, Lysander, Hermia, Helena, Demetrius and Puck for their upcoming performance of Midsummer Night's Dream, a modern adaptation.
Led by their drama teacher Deanne Hachey, the Our Lady of the Bay Catholic High School (OLB) students have been rehearsing the play about a play twice a week after school. The local Catholic high school's annual play is a tradition as old as the school.
This will be Kayla Lessels' third time in the OLB school play, and she's looking forward to her debut as Titania, queen of the fairies.
"Something I'm really excited to do is just kind of show people how much effort we put into this," said Lessels. "This one is a really big play. We've gotten really ambitious with it."
Shakespeare's dreamy comedy has always been on Hachey's list of plays to put on the school's stage. She teaches it to Grade 10 English students, and is a big fan of Shakespeare.
"I have always wanted to do A Midsummer Night's Dream," said Hachey. "I really wanted to do something that people recognized ... I love Shakespeare ... his plays stand the test of time and the comedy can be appreciated in every time and generation."
The students will be staging a modern adaptation of the play. This one was adapted by Wade Bradford as a musical, though the OLB students aren't including the songs.
"The writer has thrown in more comedy than is already intended in the original play," said Hachey, teasing an appearance by the bard himself, who rants and raves about what's been done to his play.
Grade 12 student Quinn Nicholson returns to the OLB stage, this time as Snout, the snacking and reluctant amateur actor cast in the fairy play. She also plays a stern Theseus who despises dancing.
"He has character development and it's really nice," said Nicholson. "The thing I'm most excited for is just to show these characters and bring them to light."
Newcomer and Grade 9 student Emily Ramos Periera is determined to make her performance as Piper Quince (a gender-bent version of Peter Quince) a break-out debut and an example of what the youngest grade can do.
Quince's role is director of the play inside the play and she, like the OLB rising star bringing her to the stage, is excited about the performance.
"I'm very, very, very passionate and what we're going to do is I'm trying to push [the characters] to try to bring out their best," says Periera, combining herself and Quince. "I think me and my character are a lot alike when it comes to doing things, like we want to get it done and we want to get it done well."
The infamous and likeable Puck will be played by a theatre veteran, Avery Rys, who is in Grade 10, but has been part of Wasaga Community Theatre since she was six years old. Before that, she and her friends staged their own original play – a Harry Potter-inspired story – for their parents.
She's excited to perform the adapted Shakespeare play, as it will be a first for her.
"I think it's great," she said. "I'm very excited and it's my first lead, big role."
Rys said she's enjoying working with the cast and getting to experience their passion for the play.
"We're solid, we know what we're doing, and we love and care about it so much, which is the best part," said Rys.
There is one public performance by the OLB students on May 2 at 7 p.m. at Our Lady of the Bay Catholic High School. The doors open at 6:30 p.m. and tickets are $10 available for cash at the door, or by calling ahead to the school.
The students will also be holding performances for local elementary school students in the week leading up to their public performance.
