Charter School Chats Up Shakespeare

This weekend the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School presents A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Grange Hall in West Tisbury. The performances are tonight, Friday, March 30 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, March 31, at 2 and 7 p.m.

The play features 15 student actors from grades 5 through 12. Lower school students act as fairies, and there will be guest appearances by several teachers, as well as the school’s director, Bob Moore.

Treather Gassman directs the production with the assistance of Jane Loutzenhizer, and senior Ian Chickering as stage manager.

The cast and crew began rehearsals in January.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream has four plots in one, a royal wedding, prank-playing fairies, a love quadrangle and workmen trying to put on a play. Shakespeare’s myriad dramatic devices are also on display, including thwarted lovers, transfigured humans, comic rustics and an all-out war in the fairy world.

But no worries, the show is suitable for the whole family.

The cost is $8 for adults, $5 for students and seniors, and $20 for families.