The Return of the Performing Arts

Written by Dylan Martin

Photo by Kyle Head on Unsplash

One of the most well-known, well-established, and long-lasting student societies of Saint Mary’s has been the Saint Mary’s Drama Society. Established all the way back in 1907, the Drama Society has been throwing theater productions — put together entirely at the credit of the student body — and supporting the performing arts for over a century. Unfortunately, with the onset of lockdowns in 2020, the Drama Society ceased to exist. Only in October of 2022 did it make its return, making the two new productions, “Midsummer.com” and “Romeo and Juliet,” their first in more than two years.

Midsummer.com, directed by Georgia Williams, is a modern, heavily adapted retelling of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. While simple, undemanding, and accessible for a general audience, it retains the great comedic value of its source material. Staple characters such as Puck, Oberon, and Titania see a return as the fairies we know and love, and our human characters are reworked as younger teenagers attending a summer camp where everything goes wrong because . . . well, they’re teenagers.

Our fairies have no idea what they’re doing when it comes to interfering with the human realm, not even able to tell people apart. (“I must've juiced the wrong guy. These humans all look alike,” says Puck in one scene.) Our lovers are constantly confused about who’s in love with whom. (“True love is but a rainbow. A pretty illusion that vanishes when chased,” says Oberon in another.) And our other characters are either incompetent adolescents — such as Stuart with his play titled “Death!” — or adults in the greatest misery from the ongoing chaos, such as Egan, a director of a different, more distinguished play, and perhaps one of the only personalities with good sense. (“They've dragged me into teen hormone hell!”)

But if modernized Shakespeare isn’t your thing, you’re still covered. Romeo and Juliet, the Drama Society’s second production, will be classic Shakespeare. Leah Oake helms this one and has wisely kept the show closer to its essentials. “The decision behind having a second show was made after considering several options,” explains Kylar, the president of the society. “With a mailing list of over 100 students, the best course of action to allow more people to try acting was an extra show. There was also a lot of discussion for how the society should operate moving forward, and in order to meet the funding needs of the next large-scale project, a second show was deemed necessary to offset some of the costs.”

We all know how the story goes — star-crossed lovers of opposing families. Our staple characters Romeo and Juliet display a loving, beautiful, and heartbreaking relationship, time and time again engaging audiences in the despair of romantic affliction. However, while written as and known as a tragedy, a lot of the more humorous moments have at times been unappraised or neglected. Leah’s interpretation of Romeo and Juliet retains the anguish, yet slips in laughable moments now and again to allow the audience to have time to breathe. Fun, sad, yet also downright funny, this version of Romeo and Juliet would be a shame to miss. “Romeo and Juliet is ubiquitous across popular culture, but no one really seems to fully dive into the show and look at all the moving parts,” says Leah. “My goal with this show is to make it as fun and easygoing for the actors as possible, while also exciting and gut-wrenching for the audience.”