Encore Company to present 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'

The 1950s--a time of white picket fences, Leave It to Beaver -- and Shakespeare?

The Mountain Home High School Encore Company will present its imaginative production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, set in the 1950s with a sci-fi twist, in the MHHS gym March 14-16, with shows beginning at 7 p.m.

The March 14 performance will offer a dinner theater experience as a fundraiser for the high school's senior celebration. Scheduled to start at 530 p.m., the dinner menu includes spaghetti, salad, bread and a choice of beverage. During the evening, representatives with the senior celebration committee will sell various desserts on a donation basis. All proceeds from the dinner will benefit this year's post-graduation party.

Backstage classes in the MHHS theatre department have taken a creative approach to production design by transforming the Elizabethan classic into an artistic vision, said MHHS drama instructor and Encore advisor Taunya Page, who recently was named the state's top high school drama instructor.

"Pleasantville meets Roswell when young lovers travel to a forest inhabited by a group of science fiction visitors led by King Oberon, and chaos ensues when Puck sends Cupid's arrow in the wrong direction," a spokesperson for the production, Brandon Wilkinson, said. "This inventive interpretation of a Shakespeare comedy about young love and foolish mortals is sure to be a crowd pleaser."

The play will be Encore Company's most challenging production of the season, Page said.

Tickets for the March 14 dinner and performance are $10 for adults and $7 for students. Tickets for the just show are $5 for adults and $3 per student.

However, those who attend the dinner and theater will receive preferential seating on opening night, according to event organizers.