MANSFIELD — Alex Trolian sat in her high school English class and found a way to connect across more than four centuries with a character created by William Shakespeare.
“I’ve always loved acting,” said Trolian, who will be a junior at Lexington High School this fall.
“We read ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ in class this year. I read the role of Puck and the entire time … I just knew that this was the role I wanted to play someday.”
That chance comes Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 3:30 p.m. as the Mansfield Shakespeare Company presents the comedy in the outdoors at South Park, a free show where donations will be accepted, but not expected.
A cast and crew totaling about 30 people are involved in the production, guided by director/actor Scott Leon Smith, a Bucyrus resident who earned his master’s degree in fine arts at West Virginia University, spending a year studying the Bard of Avon.
Trolian was drawn to the mischievous, fun-loving Puck, a fairy/sprite/jester who revels in the ability to influence with pranks and jokes.
“When I saw this opportunity come around, I was like, ‘This is the chance,'” said Trolian, joined in the cast by her father, Joe, who portrays Flute.
She breathes life into Puck’s famous line, “Lord, what fools these mortals be!”
“I guess I’ve known Shakespeare well enough and I just knew Puck was a more … just a very silly, fun role …androgynous … that’s like a lot of the roles I play and it just felt like me,” she said.
Trolian’s experience belies her youth. At age 16, it’s her 17th show, most of them youth productions at the Renaissance Theatre in Mansfield.
What does she hope local audiences will learn about her character or the show itself this weekend?
“I hope they realize Shakespeare isn’t just boring. It can also be very funny. I hope they will see Puck isn’t just a one-dimensional character. Reading it in class, I think Puck can come across like a jerk, but I think Puck’s just trying to have some fun,” Trolian said.
In “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” written in the late 16th century, Shakespeare weaves a tale of love, magic and mischief.
Though the words were penned about 420 years ago, it’s Shakespeare’s exploration of common human emotions — love, power, ambition, and identity — that help it remain relatable to contemporary audiences.
The play follows the adventures of four young Athenians – Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, and Helena – as they become entangled in a dispute between the king and queen of the fairies, Oberon and Titania.
It’s the perfect midsummer production for a local Shakespeare Company that formed in 2023, according to Smith.
“You have to have a lot of dedicated people who know a lot of people who have a lot of stuff,” he said with a laugh.
“It’s good to have a lot of people with a lot of connections that you can find to build your platforms, get your microphones, get your lights,” he said.
“We are all good at working together and collaborating and setting up a workable schedule with people who work fast, who work efficiently … and people who can delegate responsibilities to the cast, because the cast helps out with costumes, props, lighting, sound, all of that stuff,” he said.
“It takes good people and it takes collaborative people,” Smith said.
(Photos from a dress rehearsal this week at Mansfield’s South Park of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” from the Mansfield Shakespeare Company. The story continues below the photos.)
Smith, who worked professionally for a Chicago-based Shakespeare Company for a few years, admitted acting while also directing can be difficult.
“If I had the choice, I wouldn’t do it. (But) I enjoy doing it. It’s a lot of stress, but I’ve done it before and I can do it when it’s necessary. In terms of casting the show, this was just something we as a company, we have to look at moving forward.
“If we’re going to do something in the summer, we have to deal with other people with other commitments. A show at the Renaissance. People going on vacation. We didn’t have our full cast here to rehearse until a couple of weeks ago.
“I wouldn’t have taken a role if it hadn’t been necessary,” Smith said.
One of the local veteran performers in the cast is Hannah Oberlin. She portrays Hippolyta, the the queen of the Amazons, engaged to Theseus, the duke of Athens.
“This is the first time I have done Shakespeare (on stage). However, I have read Shakespeare (works) multiple times, especially now that I am a tutor. I am constantly reading Shakespeare,” she said with a laugh.
“I explain to the kids, ‘Romeo and Juliet are really stupid kids. They think they know better. Don’t follow their example,'” she said with another smile.
(Below is this week’s News Man Weekly Podcast, featuring an interview with Mansfield Shakespeare Company members Scott Leon Smith and Haley Bedocs.)
Josh Carpenter, 21, an Ontario High School graduate and now a student at Ashland University, plays Lysander in the show.
“It wasn’t a show that I knew a whole lot about. But I did some research before auditioning and Lysander was definitely a role that I had my eyes on,” he said.
In the show, Lysander, a young Athenian nobleman, is a romantic and chivalrous suitor who defies convention to pursue his love for Hermia. With a passion that borders on obsession, he woos her with tokens and sweet words, winning her heart despite her father’s disapproval.
But when the fairy kingdom’s mischief intervenes, Lysander’s devotion is tested, and he finds himself entangled in a complicated web of love and magic.
Carpenter, who has performed in youth and adult shows at the Mansfield Playhouse, said his goal is to become an English teacher — giving him the chance to expose students to more Shakespeare.
He acknowledged simply reading the words in a classroom may not capture their imagination.
“I dread teaching it because I know how my classmates work with Shakespeare. But I also know that reading Shakespeare, if done properly, is extremely entertaining.
“A a lot of the time when students are called reading scripts, they don’t connect with the material. But if you show them clips or audio of recordings from performances, then they get engaged with it, because people breathe life into it,” Carpenter said.
