Walking into the high school auditorium on a midsummer night, the students knew what was coming next. They took their spots and got ready to show off their favorite part.
“Chase scene! Chase scene!” the young actors yelled at each other.
As kids ran amok the Frontier Regional School auditorium — around the front and back, zigzagging between aisles, climbing up and over the stage — one of the seniors lay on his back, stretched out across the stage in a donkey mask.
What was all this exuberant disarray about? A Shakespeare classic, of course.
Rehearsal was well underway for the Country Players Youth Theater’s summer play “A Midsummer Camp’s Dream” — a modernization of the timeless tale of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
“Instead of the Duke of Athens, we have a guy, Duke, who runs a summer camp,” David Peck, director and writer said between instructing the dozens of kids of all ages in preparation for the show, running Aug. 11 through 13 at Frontier.
The show is an opportunity for students, ranging from 6- to 18-years-old, not only to engage in theater during the summer, but also a chance for them to gain a new appreciation for a Shakespeare play while providing an audience with plenty of laughs.
“It makes Shakespeare easier to understand,” said Darian Myers, who will be a senior at Frontier in the fall. “So I think it’s really cool that we can expose kids to someone they might not be exposed to otherwise.”
While students like Myers get a chance to hone their acting skills, the children get a chance to learn from their elders.
“It’s really cool to see how both groups can come together, because I think we both feed off each other,” Myers added.
While the Country Players is running the youth summer program for its fifth year, this is the first year that the younger and older kids were partnered to put together one play instead of two separate ones.
Peck and co-director Sue Dresser were mostly excited about having the opportunity to let the two age groups learn from each other.
“It’s good to see the older kids working with the younger kids,” said Peck, who is also the Drama Club advisor during the school year at Frontier. “In terms of mingling, it’s good to see, but in terms of directing, it’s harder.”
Dresser, who over the years has been the one to work with the younger children, has been eager for her age group to learn from Peck.
“He has so much to teach them and they are sponges,” Dresser said. “It just fuels their ability to be comfortable.”
The teenagers enjoy it too, gaining a youthful spirit to their acting experience.
“It’s a bigger family now. It’s not just older kids and younger kids — we’re all kids,” said Jonathan Delaney, recent Frontier graduate. “I’m an 18-year-old, but when I get into the auditorium; I’m still a kid.”
And that’s exactly how it plays out. While Delaney shows his experience and poise on stage, he also is the same man who lies on the stage floor in a donkey mask as kids run around him.
Now, if you’re trying to recall a Shakespearean scene where children are running around, Peck says you won’t find it. When rewriting the play, he said he added five extra scenes for the younger age group so they could have more exposure, and more fun.
“It’s separate from Shakespeare’s original, but it’s like a puzzle and it totally fits,” Peck said.
Sprinkled in are youthful storylines of love between the “campers,” in addition to dance scenes, which 7-year-old Kyra Tamsin likes most.
“I get to be dressed up like a butterfly,” Tamsin said while watching teenagers rehearse on stage.
Dresser’s daughter, and five-year veteran of the program, loves getting to express her feelings with the audience and “being very loud.”
“It’s kind of like doing summer camp, but more fun,” Ripley Dresser, 10, said.
This summer opportunity for the students is a big win for many of those in the Drama Club at Frontier. Delaney and Myers said it has continued to foster the program and develop the school’s talent year-round. It also gives people like Delaney, who compete in sports during the school year, a chance to act.
For Delaney it was also a chance to hang onto his memories and friends at Frontier for a little longer after graduating.
“This play has been good to have a way to … it’s weird to say to have some closure with Frontier but,” Delaney said. “It’s nice to hug some people and be like, ‘yeah, see you Monday for rehearsal.’”
Delaney, who is splitting time this year between preparing for the play and working for Clarkdale’s Farm, first participated in the program last summer, having not acted since elementary school.
“Once I joined the summer play, it became something that I could do the rest of high school and maybe into college,” said Delaney, who will be heading to University of Massachusetts, Amherst to study chemical engineering in the fall. “It’s sad that I realized it so late.”
Peck is just happy that the program can help students learn about the fun of theater, and potentially find their own gift for it.
“Our hope is if they have a good time, they’ll come back and continue doing this with us — and our hope is the kids will grow up with this and stick with it,” Peck said. “I can’t tell you how many times I hear the kids during the school year say, ‘I can’t wait for the summer shows. What are we doing?’”
Peck added that the program has about doubled in size since its inception five years ago.
“And as long as the kids keep loving it and coming back, we’ll keep doing a summer show,” he said.
The Country Players performances of “A Midsummer Camp’s Dream” will be Friday, Aug. 11, and Saturday, Aug. 12, at 6:30 p.m. at Frontier Regional High School, North Main Street in South Deerfield. There will also be a matinee on Sunday, Aug. 13, at 2 p.m.
Tickets are $12 for ages 12 and up; seniors and children are $10. Tickets can be purchased at the door.
For more information, email jenniferwallner@
comcast.net.