JIA Students attend Shakespeare Performance at GVSU

On October 1st, 2019, students from Mr. Kuiper's English class had the opportunity to make the short trip to GVSU to watch the performance of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." The Louis Armstrong Theatre was packed full of High School students from various Michigan schools ready to watch the performance. The show started at 10am and was put on by students in the Department of Theatre, Music, and Dance at Grand Valley State University.

The play, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is a comedy written by William Shakespeare in 1595-96. It consists of interconnecting plots, connected by a celebration of the wedding of Duke Theseus of Athens and the Amazon Queen, Hippolyta, which are set simultaneously in the woodland and in the realm of Fairyland, under the light of the moon. These plots include the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of six amateur actors who are controlled and manipulated by the fairies who inhabit the forest in which most of the play is set. The play is one of Shakespeare's most popular works for the stage and is widely performed across the world (Source: Wikipedia).

Our students enjoyed a variety of different parts of the show. "My favorite part was the play within the play," JIA student Madeline Owen expressed. "I also thought it was really funny that the guy actor had to dress up as a granny." Many of the students thought the play was funny and kept them intrigued. "I thought it was really funny when the actor who played Bottom was walking down one of the aisles and yelled 'You don't matter!' to a guy sitting in the audience," Gavin Sandoval said. The overall consensus from the group was that the play was well done and they enjoyed watching.

After the play was over, GVSU provided a boxed lunch for all of the students. The cast joined for lunch and were available to answer any questions about the show that the students had.

Thank you, GVSU, for having our students on campus to enjoy the production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream."