No Fear Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream
Project Overview
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a famous romantic comedy written by William Shakespeare, featuring a storyline about love, hate, and magical fairies who mess with these lovers. It follows Hermia and Lysander as they try to get married, even though Hermia is being forced to be married to Demetrius. Meanwhile, Helena, a good friend of Hermia, tries to get Demetrius to fall in love with her, and follows him into the forest as he follows Lysander and Hermia into the forest as they try to escape Hermia's father, as well as the law.
No Fear Shakespeare is a service created by Sparknotes, to make the dialogue in his plays more like modern English. This is an audio-book that will be uploaded to YouTube based off that adaptation.
It will be overall approximately 2 hours (As long as the actual play), and will be split up into multiple parts, probably 1 episode per scene, although some scenes will be merged, as they may be too short.
I will try to upload 1 act each fortnight once the project starts, as there are only two scenes at most per act, just to get it out quickly.
What you Should Have:
Confidence
A Midsummer Night's Dream is reliant on heavy emotion and the very strong way dialogue is told and how the characters are presented to the audience, and you should try to carry that through your audition. Say each line multiple time in each audition so I can get a feel of your emotional range.
A Decent Mike
It doesn't need to be amazing or anything, but I would really like it to be mostly clear and not have too much static or peaks.
Discord
Just makes it easier to communicate and give lines.
The ability to take criticism
I'm not going to be extremely negative or whatever, but if you get chosen, I'll have a certain way some lines are said, and I'll just let you know if I want you to just change how you're saying certain lines.
Be ready to monologue
Almost every character has long spiels of dialogue, so be prepared to talk for a long time, and depending on the situation, I will ask for it unedited. Be prepared!
Commitment
Please don't just leave for no reason in the middle of the project. It will cause me to need to recast, which I don't want to do. Be prepared to send in lines regularly.
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Robin Goodfellow, or Puck, as he is more commonly known, is a mischevious fairy who is the main cause of all the problem in the play. He is extremely playful and mostly well-meaning, however he can be extremely mean at other moments as well. He is the jester of Oberon, and almost always does his bidding.
Puck should have a mid range voice. He is quite mature in some moments, but immature in other moments. It doesn't matter how his voice is done, as long as it is never too serious.
Should we watch this ridiculous scene? Lord, what fools these mortals are!
So far I’ve done exactly what I was supposed to do—I put the love potion on an Athenian’s eyes. And so far I’m pleased with the way things have turned out, since I find all of this commotion very entertaining.
Don’t worry, sir. I’m at your service.
Hermia is the daughter of Egeus, and is in love with Lysander, despite being forced to marry Demetrius. She is faithful to Lysander, never wavering in her conviction until Lysander is tricked. She is rebellious, and mostly nice, but can be more commanding and even mean in some cases, when she needs to.
She should have a mid to high ranged voice, as she is quite young, but she is still old enough and mature enough to marry, so keep that in mind.
Before I saw Lysander, Athens seemed like paradise to me. But Lysander’s so attractive that he’s turned heaven into hell!
Can you hurt me any more than by saying you hate me? Hate me? Why? What’s happened to you, my love? Am I not Hermia? Aren’t you Lysander?
You trickster, you snake! You thief! What, did you sneak in at night and steal my love’s heart from him?
A handsome young man of Athens, Lysander is the main love interest of Hermia. He is generally a pretty nice guy, until he is hit by a love potion, which makes him quite hateful and mean.
He should have a mid to low range voice, but really, any voice will do.
My lord, I’m just as noble and rich as he is. I love Hermia more than he does. My prospects are as good as his, if not better. And beautiful Hermia loves me—which is more important than all those other things I’m bragging about. Why shouldn’t I be able to marry her?
I’d even run through fire if you told me to. Radiant, beautiful Helena! I feel like Mother Nature has allowed me to see into your heart, as if by magic.
Stop hanging on me, you cat, you thorn. Let go of me, or I’ll shake you off like a snake.
Helena is a childhood friend of Hermia. She is desperately in love with Demetrius at the start of the play, but is more rational throughout the later parts. She can be just as nice as Hermia, but is tricked by Puck as well, and it is shown she can be quite mean, sarcastic, and venomous later.
She should have a mid to high range voice. She is still quite young, but she is also just as mature as Hermia.
Did you just call me “beautiful”? Take it back. You’re the beautiful one as far as Demetrius is concerned.
This forest doesn’t seem deserted when you’re here, because you are all the world to me. So how can anyone say I’m alone, when the whole world is here to look at me?
Oh, fine. All right, go ahead, keep up your little game, pretend to be sympathetic, but then nudge each other and wink and make faces at me when I turn my back. Keep up your wonderful game.
Demetrius is a handsome young man of Athens, who is trying to get Hermia to marry him. He is not a very nice person, often being rude and mean to others, as well as being dismissive to Helena, who is trying to get his attention. He, however, becomes much nicer and more empathetic to other people when he gets affected by the love juice.
He should have a mid ranged voice, but it doesn't really matter too much.
Lysander, stop acting like she’s yours. I’ve got more of a right to her than you do.
I’m not sticking around to listen to you any longer. Leave me alone. Or if you follow me, you’d better understand that I’ll do something bad to you in the forest.
Oh Helena, you goddess, you divine and perfect nymph! What can I compare your eyes to? Crystal isn’t as clear as they are.
Oberon is the mischievous, yet reasonable king of fairies. He is responsible and kind, but he can also play pranks on people. He can sometimes also be quite underhanded, tricking people into doing things they don't want to.
He should have a deep to mid-ranged voice, and he should be commanding.
How not nice to see you, Titania.
(Happily) Ah, here comes my messenger.—What’s going on, you crazy spirit? What havoc have you wreaked in this part of the forest?
(Angrily) What have you done? You’ve made a mistake and put the love-juice on someone else, someone who was truly in love. Because of your mistake someone’s true love must have turned bad, instead of this man’s false love being turned into a true love.
Titania is the proud and vain queen of fairies. She is mad with Oberon at the start of the play, and is tricked into falling in love with Bottom while he has a donkey's head. She spends most of the play like this, completely enamored with Bottom.
Her voice can be anything from high to low ranged, as it doesn't really matter how she sounds, as long as the lines are said well.
What, are you jealous, Oberon?—Fairies, let’s get out of here. I’ve sworn I’ll never sleep with him or talk to him again.
What angel is this who’s waking me up from my bed of flowers?
Oberon, I’ve had such a strange dream! I dreamed I was in love with an ass.
Bottom is a fun-loving, over-confident, workman. He is a pretty bad actor and singer, but despite this, he loves to sing and act, and thinks he is pretty good. He is constantly messing up his language, and is the main source of comic relief in the play.
He should have a mid to deep voice. Just someone who sounds like he would be fun to be around, even if he is way in over his head.
In that case, if I can wear a mask, let me play Thisbe too! I’ll be Pyramus first: “Thisbe, Thisbe!”—And then in falsetto: “Ah, Pyramus, my dear lover! I’m your dear Thisbe, your dear lady!”
What do you think I’ve got on my head? You’re acting like an ass, don’t you think?
We’ll be there, and there we’ll rehearse courageously and wonderfully, truly obscenely. Work hard, know your lines. Goodbye.
A theatre nerd who wishes to make the play go as well as possible. He is the director, but he is also easily pushed around by Bottom, and constantly lets him do what he wants, except do too many roles.
Quince should have a mid to high ranged voice.
If you roar too ferociously, you’ll scare the duchess and the other ladies and make them scream. And that would get us all executed.
Right on time. This is the perfect place to rehearse. This clearing will be the stage, and this hawthorn bush will be our dressing room. Let’s put on our play exactly as we’ll perform it for the duke.
Help! It’s a monster! We’re being haunted. Run, everyone, run!
Theseus is the reasonable but stern ruler of Athens. He is a famous Greek hero, and follows the traditions of Greek times. He is willing to uphold Greek law, and allows Egeus to force Hermia to marry Demetrius, or else face consequences, even if she has her own wishes. The play is leading up to his wedding with Hippolyta, who he won in combat.
His voice should be mid-to deep ranged.
Our wedding day is almost here, my beautiful Hippolyta. We’ll be getting married in four days, on the day of the new moon. But it seems to me that the days are passing too slowly—the old moon is taking too long to fade away!
You’re right, Lysander’s admirable too. But since your father doesn’t want him to marry you, you have to consider Demetrius to be the better man.
Hippolyta is the legendary queen of the Amazons, who is preparing to marry Theseus. She was defeated in combat by Theseus, and was forced to marry him after that. However, she is very courteous to Theseus, and acts like a willing queen who is in love with Theseus. She is very critical of the play at the end of the play.
She should have a mid to deep ranged voice.
These lovers are saying some strange things, Theseus.
Yes, he performed his prologue like a child plays a recorder—he can make sounds, but they’re out of control.
Egeus is the pushy and somewhat mean father of Hermia. He is trying to force Hermia to marry Demetrius, and asks Theseus to have her killed if she does not agree.
He should have a deep voice.
It’s true, rude Lysander, I do love him. That’s why I’m giving him my daughter. She’s mine, and I’m giving her to Demetrius.
Enough, enough, my lord. You’ve heard enough evidence! I insist that the law punish him—They were going to run away, Demetrius, they were running away to defeat us, robbing you of your wife and me of my fatherly right to decide who my son-in-law will be.
There are a few more roles that I haven't put up, but as to not overcomplicate things, I will put them here. The roles I have in mind for these are the four workers that are also in the play along with Bottom and Quince, and the four fairies that help Titania later in the play. The fairies can be played by male or female actors, but I would prefer the workers to be played by men.
If you audition for this role, I would advise you to audition for at least one other role in this project. I would like, if possible, to multi-role, and have people playing roles that don't interact with these extra characters just to play these characters as well.
Just say a set of lines from another character just so I can get an idea about your range.
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