HANCEVILLE – Show times started yesterday and will end this Sunday, November 9 as the Wallace State Community College theatre program performs their version of one of Shakespeare’s masterpieces, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.
The performances will be at 7 p.m. tonight, and will move up earlier in the day, to 2 p.m., for their weekend performances on Saturday and Saturday. The play’s director, Lauren Cantrell-Salerno, says that the actors are pleasantly surprised at how much they’ve enjoyed Shakespeare.
“It’s a difference,” Cantrell-Salerno said when comparing Shakespeare plays to non-Shakespeare plays. “It’s not better or worse,” she said, “but they’ve enjoyed it more than they thought they would.”
She continued on to explain that some students have come to her after the production is all over and tell her how they have discovered how much they love Shakespeare. As for the play itself, Cantrell-Salerno is keeping most things in line with how the play is traditionally put on, with a couple of exceptions.
“We’re including Mendelsohnn’s Wedding March he wrote for the play before the play starts,” Cantrell-Salerno stated, commenting that there will be a little bit more magic in the play than is normally seen as well.
There are about 45 different people involved in putting the play together, according to Cantrell-Salerno. That includes those building the set and the actors themselves. Along with Wallace State students participating in the production, some Cullman High School students are volunteering their time to help with hair and make-up backstage.
“Cullman High School has an excellent theatre program,” said Cantrell-Salerno, “and some of those in the theatre program are really interested in getting more experience and are involved with our program.”
Cantrell-Salerno has seen WSCC’s theatre program grow in the seven years she has been with the school. “When I first got here, I had 10 kids in the first show,” she said. “But,” Cantrell-Salerno continued, “we have done a great job with growing and adding things like the new dance class here, along with incorporating the music department with our plays and things like that.”
To Cantrell-Salerno, the more that Wallace State can intertwine the dance, theatre and music departments, the more that each department, and thus the school, can grow. As for now, she has her hands full. She and her students put together two plays a year: a musical and a non-musical. This spring they will perform “Into the Woods”.
Cantrell-Salerno is no rookie when it comes to theatre. She has been with WSCC for seven years, and before that, worked at Battle Ground Academy in Franklin, TN, along with the Cathedral School of St. John the Divine in New York.
She and her students have been preparing since mid-September, and this week you can see all their hard work come to fruition. The admission for the play is $5 for students, pre-k through college, and $10 for adults. The show will take place in the Betty Leeth Haynes Theatre of the Student Center. For more information, please call 256-352-8422.
