The Falls Church Spotlight Theatre company brought out all of the stops for this year’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare. Delighting audiences with an overarching sense of whimsy, the play captivated audiences and charmed The Jagwire staff and 9th grade English students who saw a preview during the school day. 

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a comedy that mixes up love, magic, and a bit of chaos as Athenian nobility, workers known as “rude mechanicals,” and fairies in the forest all have their plots intertwine.

The actors really threw themselves into their roles. The fairies were a bit sneaky, especially Puck, played by Ellie Whitfield (10), who loves causing trouble. The workers are very funny because they’re trying so hard to put on a good play for the wedding, but they’re not very good at it, which makes it even funnier. Alejandro Espinoza Leiva (9) hilariously portrayed a stone wall separating the two lovers in the play-within-the-play. Stephanie Mejia-Ramos (11) brought more humor as Nick Bottom, whose head is magically turned into the head of a donkey by Puck.

All the actors displayed  great chemistry, especially the two young couples. Hermia, portrayed by Penny Mollen (10), wants to marry Lysander, played by Max Purtill ( 11),  while Hermia’s best friend Helena, played with hilarious comedic timing by Sasha Wendell (10), is in love with Demetrius (Lam Vu (12)), who unfortunately loves Hermia, not Helena. 

Overall the actors made their characters come alive, and that’s what makes the play such a fun to watch. The stage directing was gorgeous, with every movement of the actors looking natural but graceful or silly when those moments came. 

Beyond the actors and directing, the set and costumes were exquisite. The set design staff showed great ingenuity with a spinning platform on the stage that reflected the magic of the show using elements from nature to create the magical forest, including vines, plants, and mushrooms. The spinning stage enhanced the actors’ performances, allowing them to seamlessly enter and leave scenes. The set included pyrotechnics and a pool of actual water that Helena fell into towards the end of the play. 

Theatre teacher Beth De Marco worked with the English 9 teachers to offer an in-school field trip for 9th graders to enhance their unit on Shakespearean drama and bring Shakespeare to life. English 9 teacher Meg Moran said,  “It was almost as much fun watching the students’ reactions to the play as watching the play itself.”