Shakespeare in the Park is a longstanding outdoor theater tradition, as is adapting Shakespeare plays with imaginative refits from Bollywood films to Britney Spears-inflected musicals.
The San Pedro Playhouse joins in with a distinctly local focus, presenting Midsummer Sueño in the theater company’s surrounding San Pedro Park setting from April 9-14.
The adaptation by playwright Paco Farias sets the classic A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a dreamlike version of San Antonio, with a distinctive peppering of Spanglish, son jarocho-inflected mariachi music, folklorico dancing and a backdrop resembling the spooky ruins of the old Hot Wells Hotel.
In penning his adaptation, Farias modified some of the original language, for example changing the old English “o’er” to “over,” with the overall goal of making the play as inclusive and accessible as possible.
“If you’ve never seen a Shakespearean play before, you can come to this and understand immediately what’s being said and get the gist of it,” he said, while hardcore fans of Shakespeare, will “still hear enough of the original text” to be satisfied.
Reeling through the centuries
The incorporation of music as an essential element will lend the production a distinctive Mexican lilt familiar to San Antonians.
“Mariachi-style music is the glue to the sound palette of the show,” said Playhouse Resident Music Director Jaime Ramirez. He has scored original music for the production including a wedding dance and the fairy war scene, and created songs using Shakespeare’s rhythmical verse as a lyrical framework.
Ramirez said Shakespeare’s work lends itself to such remixes. “It ages so well,” he said. “It keeps reeling in and keeping new listeners and fans through the centuries.”
Drawing in those new fans is a main goal of the Playhouse production, according to President and CEO Asia Ciaravino. On a recent episode of the bigcitysmalltown podcast, Ciaravino told host Robert Rivard that everyone under age 18 will be admitted free.
“Anyone who’s 18 and under, please come to the show and experience Shakespeare for the first time and see yourself on stage,” she said of the show’s San Antonio milieu.
A market atmosphere will enhance the experience each evening, Ciaravino said, with doors opening at 6 p.m. to local vendors, food trucks, live music and fairy characters milling about before the 7:30 p.m. start time.
And the unpredictability of outdoor theater is part of the fun, she said. Having acted onstage during outdoor productions, Ciaravino said, “There’s nothing like being outside with the wind and random birds flying in your hair and eating bugs and rolling around on the stage when you know that you could fall off into the dirt. It’s just such a fun experience.”
Conflict and resolution
Though Farias has written mostly for television and film during his 25-year career, he’s drawn upon his experience working with the renowned American Players Theatre in Western Wisconsin, which staged A Midsummer Night’s Dream for its first production in 1980.
That company was based outdoors, with the intention of producing full, unedited versions of Shakespeare’s lengthy plays. Ciaravino and Playhouse Producing Artistic Director Jimmy Moore charged Farias with trimming the play to a crisp two hours to keep the audience entertained, a challenge he took to with aplomb.
While one or two memorable soliloquies didn’t make the cut, Ramirez and Farias said the essence of Shakespeare’s work remains. Farias said the unrequited love at the heart of the tale is a nearly universal human experience, and Ramirez said of the timeless play, “It’s emotions, it’s characters in conflict and resolution, everything that goes into being human.”
Farias is so excited for the production that he turned down an invitation to the White House to be present for opening night, as did Humberto Garcia, the actor playing the role of Jesus.
The two know each other from Farias having written the screenplay for Garcia’s book Mustang Miracle, which was turned into a major motion picture titled The Long Game. A screening will be hosted at the White House on April 9, which happens to be the first night of the six-day Midsummer Sueños, but both chose San Antonio over Washington, D.C.
“There’s no place I’d rather be than to celebrate with these guys,” Farias said of everyone involved in the Playhouse production. “I want to see the payoff, I want to see them have their moment.”
Tickets for Midsummer Sueño, including free tickets for attendees under 18, are available through the San Pedro Playhouse website.
