The Utah Shakespeare Festival will perform A Midsummer Night’s Dream on Monday, Feb. 13 as part of the Moapa Valley Arts Council series.

The Utah Shakespeare Festival is hitting the road with its Shakespeare-in-the-Schools touring production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The production is coming to the Ron Dalley Theater at Moapa Valley High School next week..

Workshops for students will be held at the Moapa Valley High School in Logandale, Nevada at 11 a.m. on Monday, February 13 with a performance open to the community that evening at 7 p.m. Tickets are $8 for adults, $6 for students and seniors, and $25 for a family pass. Tickets can be purchased at the door. The workshops and performance are sponsored by the Moapa Valley Performing Arts Council.

The educational outreach program features a seventy-five minute version of Shakespeare’s magical love story A Midsummer Night’s Dream, including complete costumes, sets, and theatrical lighting. Also included is a fifteen-minute post-show discussion with the actors, and workshops in Stage Combat, Performing Shakespeare’s Text, and Developing Character through Improvisation.

Director Melinda Pfundstein examined the lines Shakespeare wrote and is using the text as the driving force and focus for this production.

“Our words have power,” Pfundstein said. “They can hurt or heal; threaten or soothe; cause wars and build bridges.”

Throughout the play there are contentious relationships not only in the fairy world, but also between a father and a daughter and four friends.

“I don’t want to shy away from the seriousness of the ugly words that are being spoken between our characters,” Pfundstein said. “It is from this ugliness that our lovers arise and find each other.”

The goal of the educational tour is to present an exciting new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a way that helps students relate to the characters and the story.

“The Shakespeare-in-the-Schools outreach program is a great opportunity to expose students, sometimes for the first time, to the works of William Shakespeare,” said Pfundstein. “The tour creates future artists and future audience members,”

“We use Shakespeare to start conversations and encourage students to explore ideas and themes that are relevant to their lives,” said Festival education director Michael Bahr. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream discusses issues that teenagers have faced for centuries; fear, jealousy, friendship, love, and ultimately hope. We want this production to engage students and expose them to new possibilities.”

Professionals from virtually all over the country are scheduled to perform. This ten-person group serves as both the acting company and technical crew for each production, with seven actors, a stage manager, a technical director, and a company manager. They include Ron Thomas, who was in the Festival’s 2011 production of Noises Off!. Thomas will play Demetrius, Bottom and Pyramus. Also part of the Festival’s 2011 company, Jennifer Whipple joins the tour as Hermia, Snug and Cobweb. Kristen Henley, who is touring for the second time, will assume the role of Puck and Egeus. Will Mobley, a graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design, will play Lysander, Flute, Thisbe and Mustardseed. An alumni of Utah Valley University, Jeremy Minagro has joined the tour to play Oberon and Theseus. Christina Flynn, who received her graduate degree in acting from Wayne State University, will assume the role of Titania, Hippolyta and Peter Quince. Anatasha Blakely, a graduate of Southern Utah University, will play Helena, Snout and Peaseblossom.

Working as company manager for the third time will be Joshua Midgett, who received his degree in economics and theatre from Keene State University. Also returning to the tour as the technical director is Eliot Garfield, who is currently the master electrician at American Players Theatre in Spring Green, Wisconsin. Nikki Lalonde, part of the 2011 Festival stage management team, will take the role of tour stage manager.