A Midsummer Night’s Dream is coming to Good Neighbors Theatre on Fridays March 11 and 18 at 7:00 PM, Saturdays March 12 at 10:00 AM and March 19 at 7:00 PM, and matinee performances on Sundays March 13 and 20 at 2:00 PM. Under the direction of Angela Sloan of Albany, KY, this will be the first Shakespearean play at GNT. The play is part of the 2015-2016 People’s Bank and Trust Season of Productions. GNT is located at 8780 Highway 111 Byrdstown, TN.

Ticket Prices are $12.00 plus tax/Adult and $8.00 plus tax/children between three and 12 years of age. Lap babies two and under are free. Tickets are available at the Byrdstown-Pickett County Chamber of Commerce. All pre-reserved tickets must be paid for at the time the reservation is made. Stop by the Chamber located at 1005 Highway 111. The Chamber’s phone is 931-864-7195.

Tickets may also be purchased at the Good Neighbors Theatre ticket booth on the night of the performances. All ticket sales are final. Unused tickets are non-refundable.

To purchase by mail, please mail the following information with payment to: Good Neighbors Theatre, PO Box 493, Byrdstown, TN 38549.

Include name, phone, email, number of adult tickets at $13.17, number of child tickets @ $8.78, and total amount enclosed. Also indicate the performance you want to attend: March 11, March 12, March 13, March 18, March 19, and/or March 20.

All reservations by mail must be received the day prior to selected date. Please provide a complete list of names/dates of all ticket holders for the reservation. Tickets for mail-in reservations are held for will call at the GNT Ticket Booth on the night of the performance/s you select.

Those requiring special assistance must indicate their need at the time reservation is made. Make checks payable to GNT at P.O. Box 493, Byrdstown, TN 38549. Messages may be left at 931-864-4569.

There is a lot going on in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, so Good Neighbors Theatre thought it might be a good idea to explain the plots—there are four.

The play starts as Theseus, Duke of Athens, decrees that Hermia must marry Demetrius or be sentenced either to death or to life in a convent. This is at the request of Hermia’s tyrannical father, Egeus, and according to the law of Athens that daughters must obey their fathers or forfeit their lives. The problem is Hermia is in love with Lysander and, rather than accept this dire fate, Hermia agrees to run away into the woods outside Athens with Lysander, who has a plan to escape with her to his widowed aunt’s home.

Hermia’s father’s choice, Demetrius, is fickle in love, having once loved Helena, but has cruelly abandoned her before the play begins. Not only does he reject Helena’s deep love for him, but he vows to hurt her if she doesn’t leave him alone.

To make matters worse, Helena is Hermia’s best childhood friend. Desperate to win him back, Helena tries anything, even betraying Hermia by revealing to the jealous Demetrius of Lysander’s and Hermia’s plan to escape Athens. He heads to the woods and she follows.

Eventually all four of the young lovers end up spending a chaotic night in the woods.

The woods are full of fairies who have come from India to bless Theseus’ wedding. Their Fairy King is Oberon, who is fighting with Titania, his Fairy Queen, when the play begins because he wants custody of an Indian boy she is raising.

He hatches a plan to win the boy away from her by placing love juice made from a purple flower once hit by Cupid’s dart. This love juice will cause the one who has it squeezed into his/her eye while asleep to fall in love with the first being seen upon waking. Oberon also sympathizes with Helena and has impish Puck, his jester, place love juice in Demetrius’ eyes so he falls in love with her.

But Puck makes a mistake and douses Lysander with the love juice, causing him to fall in love with Helena. Hermia is shocked to see her beloved abandon her and declare his love for Helena. She is unaware of the mischief Oberon’s love juice is playing with Lysander’s vision.

Meanwhile wedding plans are taking place for Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, who is betrothed to Theseus, Duke of Athens. They are to wed at the new moon, and Philostrate, Theseus’ Master of Revels, has been ordered to arrange the selection of performances for the wedding.

A play, “Pyramus and Thisbe”, is being planned by a group of tradesmen/actors, known as the Rude Mechanicals. These fellows stumble into the main doings when they go into the same enchanted woods to rehearse the play. Peter Quince, is a carpenter and the director of the group of actors who perform “Pyramus and Thisbe,” which he has written for the celebration following Theseus and Hippolyta’s wedding.

Francis Flute, a bellows-mender, plays the role of Thisbe. He is displeased to be given a woman’s role because he wants to let his beard grow, but Quince assures him that he can play the part in a mask. Tom Snout is a tinker and plays the role of Wall in the wedding play. Snug, a joiner, plays the lion and Robin Starveling, a tailor, represents Moonshine.

Nick Bottom, a weaver, plays Pyramus. He is the most outgoing of the group of actors, wishing to play all of the characters in “Pyramus and Thisbe.” Puck transforms him into a donkey, and Titania falls in love with him. When Puck returns Bottom to his normal self, Bottom can’t speak about what happened to him but vows to have Peter Quince write about it in a ballad to be called “Bottom’s Dream.”

The wedding play takes place at the end of A Midsummer’s Night Dream.

But what of the young lovers in the woods with mixed up love interests? Duke Theseus and Hippolyta share their wedding with the lovers. By the play’s end, Puck has reversed the spell, and Lysander’s true love for Hermia has been restored.

Despite her father’s continued opposition to their union, the two marry with Theseus’ blessing. Demetrius is the only character who is permanently affected by Oberon’s love juice. With the help of the love juice, he relinquishes Hermia and marries Helena at the end of the play. At midnight, all the lovers go to sleep and Oberon and Titania, with their fairies, take over the palace.

They dance, sing, bless the sleepers, and leave. The play ends with Puck telling the audience the entire play was just a dream—A Midsummer Night’s Dream.