The Mechanicals

A Midsummer Night's Dream

When we cast the show, we knew there would have to be at least a few of our actresses taking on male roles. That's just the way the college's ratio works, and our group is no exception. The mechanicals are an acting troupe made up of blue collar workers from the village, and we opted to include some village women in the troupe. In the end, we cast four young women and two young men to play these six originally male characters.

For the nominal leader of the group, Quince, we cast a small wiry girl named Sharon, who brought a strength, a matter-of-fact-ness, and her bright eyes to the role. Once we dressed her in gray and added a goatee, she was just about there. She brought in a pair of glasses to wear at the tip of her nose, and the character was ready to go. It's amazing how one piece of costuming, or one accessory can bring the character to life.

When Johanna showed up to audition, none of the group regulars knew who she was. As a music major, she spent the vast majority of her time holed away in a practice room. However, it became immediately apparent that this girl could act! She was a strong contender for every role she read. For a while we had her plugged in as Helena, as Hermia, as Puck, before finally realizing that she was our perfect Flute. She brought an excellent adolescent insecurity to the role, as she, and her character, strove to be just as manly as they could muster. She used her voice to perfection, learning how to make it break and perfectly imitating the sound of a guy mimicking a girl's voice. Even with the added challenge of being a girl playing a guy cast as a girl, she managed to bring the dramatic intensity where needed, and the comedy everywhere else. The cast enjoyed some offstage humor as well, listening to Johanna deliver lines like, "I have a beard! ... coming." when explaining why she didn't think she should have to play the romantic lead in the skit.

Having decided to change the genders of a couple of the townsfolk we thought it would work beautifully for Bottom to be part of a love triangle. By the time performances rolled around, the love triangle was such a fun sub-plot, that some audience members were shocked to be reminded that there wasn't actually any dialogue on the subject.

Come production time, two burly townsmen were locked in a fight over a beautiful Robin Starveling, and in the end, there was really no question who had won her heart. Once again the cast got some humor the audience couldn't hope to... Many audience members didn't realize that Tom Snout had been played by a female. She had so fully invested herself in the walk, the voice, the flirtations. In the scene where Bottom's head was transformed into that of an ass, Starveling fainted, and our Tom Snout actress threw Starveling over her shoulder and carried her away from the gruesome sight. In dealing with the mechanicals, I learned the importance of giving the actors freedom to play.

As for the guys playing guys, there were just two. Snug, the quietest written character, was slow of thought and slow of speech, but utterly endearing. At first dismayed with the small size of his role, Joe, one of our group's regulars, soon realized how much presence he could have on stage by getting into character and remaining there, even when he didn't have any lines. It was with the mechanicals that I learned about, and encouraged the actors to work with, the impact that their actions could have between lines. The love triangle, Snug's slow and gentle personality, and Flute's reluctance were things alluded to in the script and emphasized by the actors that made the characters really come to life in a much more real way.

Perhaps the most memorable of the mechanicals, Bottom, whose head becomes that of an ass, whose braying voice woos the fairy queen, who proposes that he could play every role in the show, altering his voice for each, was the most difficult part for us to cast. He needed to be commanding, over the top, irritating, full of himself, and hopefully, someone we wouldn't mind working with. In the end we took a gamble on a freshman, and he fulfilled that list of requirements in a way that only he could. The audience loved him, and that is all that one can hope for in a comedic antagonistic buffoon.

In every other production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" that I've seen, the mechanicals, save Bottom, were throw-aways. I was concerned going in that this third, perhaps the most purely comedic third of the show, would, like in other productions, fall flat. In the end though, these guys were a delight, and brought so much to the show.


Photography in this entry by James Ratchford, Zachary Garber, and Molly Wilson