No Square Theater tackles Shakespeare

Tom Titus

“Staging Shakespeare? With kids? What fools these mortals be.”

Bree Burgess Rosen, founder and artistic director of Laguna

Beach’s No Square Theater, grins as she utters these words, sneaking

in a line from the company’s latest production, “A Midsummer Night’s

Dream,” which opens Saturday night at the Forum Theater on the

Festival of Arts grounds.

“In all seriousness,” she qualified, “director Howard Bickle and

production manager J. Proskovec have done an outstanding job of

infusing youthful imagination and vitality into one of the great

works of English literature.”

The production certainly qualifies as one of the 10-year-old

non-professional troupe’s most ambitious projects -- if not its most

ambitious. The No Square players are coming off a recent musical

tribute to Broadway composers John Kander and Fred Ebb which packed

the Laguna Beach High School auditorium for its single weekend’s

engagement.

“Midsummer” is a rarity for the No Squarers -- a show scheduled

for two weekends of production. The Forum isn’t nearly as spacious as

the Artists Theater at Laguna High, so more performances are

necessitated. Besides, you don’t need royalties to do Shakespeare.

It’s also one of the Bard’s most popular offerings, and the one

most mounted by local theater groups.

“Four centuries after its lukewarm debut, audiences have come to

love the intermingled stories of star-crossed lovers, magic, fairies

and the play within the play,” Proskovec declared. “No Square’s

production, with a cast of talented kids bolstered by adults in some

key roles, is sure to be a crowd pleaser for first-timers and

families, as well as aficionados of Shakespeare’s comedies.”

The cast -- which ranges from 8-year-olds to “a couple of

fine-looking grandmas,” as Rosen puts it, consists of,

alphabetically, Morea Arthur, Cameron Burrus, Jordan Colton, Taryn

Dicterow, Daniel Goldberg, Kelly Hancock, Penny Hancock, Eleanor

Kanabe, Brianna Krantz, Chelsea Lauwereins, Jack Major, Rebecca

Marlowe, Isabella O’Neal, Noah Plomgren, Julianne Rabun, Myrna Ryan,

Jay Skovec and Sophia Tupy.

Proceeds from the show will go to cover production costs, with any

profit above that going to support No Square Theater’s efforts to

keep community theater alive in Laguna Beach. The nonprofit

organization moved into its first rehearsal workshop space last year

and is working to secure a permanent performance venue this year.

Four performances will be given -- 7 p.m. Saturday and March 15, 3

p.m. Sunday and March 16. Tickets are $25 for premiere seating in the

first four rows, with general admission at $15 for adults and $7 for

senior citizens and kids under 14. Reservations are taken at the

theater’s box office, (949) 497-1950.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Coastline Pilot.