In the foliage and flora of Shakespeare’s woods, temporality is made malleable. The passage of time twists and remakes itself as it pleases. The rising and falling of the curtain blurs when day exits and night enters; minutes and hours are made uncertain with the setting of the stage.

The mysticism of time is perhaps most prevalent in Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” As the title suggests, the eccentricities of the play lend to it a sort of surrealism, a lack of clarity on what is dream and what is reality. How is it possible, one wonders, to reveal the plots of this play to a modern audience?

This semester, the University’s premiere Shakespeare club, The Julias, approached this question. Named for Shakespeare’s first gender non-conforming character, the club is dedicated to embracing inclusivity in the world of classic theater. They put on “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” from Apr. 24 through Apr. 26, making it their first fully staged Shakespeare production, which they hope will be the start of a tradition of gender-inclusive and creatively authentic Shakespeare productions at the University.

Greta Brown, the director of the show and president of The Julias, highlighted that the morale of the actors was high going into the show. Using positive warm-ups and open-ended icebreakers, the cast were able to form a quick bond and develop a unique relationship with the play. The many characters portrayed by the cast of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” are usually broken up into three groups: the tumultuous Lovers, the comedic Mechanicals, and the fantastical fairies.

”The Mechanicals were definitely the silliest,”  said Brown. “Most of their staging was actually improv. And then when I gave them notes, it would be on the improv they came up with, so it really felt like they had their own part in contributing to the show.”

Brown didn’t have any specific vision going into the show, hoping instead to see through the rehearsals what direction the actors hoped to go in. In the end, the show emphasized comedy, reflecting the positive energy Brown worked to curate during the process. Most of the cast, the director mentioned, not only seemed to reflect that positive energy, but even said that they would audition for future performances put on by The Julias. All in all, not only did the show turn out successfully, but it set the stage— so to speak— for the future of the University’s Shakespeare club.