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From the Studio: Gonzaga's "Midsummer Night's Dream"

Leslie Stamoolis, Maeve Roberts, Red Kwenda, Blake Anthony Edwards
Photo: Savanna Rothe
Leslie Stamoolis, Maeve Roberts, Red Kwenda and Blake Anthony Edwards (L–R) in the KPBX performance studio

Cast and creative members talk about GU's new staging of the Shakespeare comedy

Blake Anthony Edwards, Leslie Stamoolis, Maeve Roberts and Red Kwenda spoke to E.J. Iannelli in the KPBX studio about Gonzaga University's new production of Shakespeare's fantastical comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Edwards is a lecturer of theater and dance at Gonzaga and is directing this production. Stamoolis, who heads the university's theater program, is the play's costume designer. Kwenda and Roberts are GU students and are playing Theseus/Oberon and Helena, respectively.

Both Roberts and Kwenda talked about their characters and their dynamic with the other cast members. Edwards explained his reasoning for transferring the setting of the play from ancient Athens to modern-day New Orleans, and Stamoolis discussed how that change in setting informed her costume choices so as to convey the important class and personality distinctions among the characters.

A Midsummer Night's Dream opens this Friday (November 4, 2022) at the Harry and Colleen Magnuson Theatre on the Gonzaga University campus and runs until Saturday, November 12.

Tickets and more information are available from the GU Theatre & Dance website.

E.J. Iannelli is Spokane Public Radio's Arts and Music Director