​Thursday February 17, 2017 was opening night for Blackhawk Theatre Company’s honor play production, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, a play that switches between three different love stories and shows how complicated love might be. Demetrius (Noel Castaneda), has false love towards Hermia (Brooke Ochoa), that prevents Lysander (Andrew Olson), from being with his love Hermia. This causes the main conflict in the play. The play also deals with themes of  lust, disappointment, confusion, and marriage. The stories that create the play are two lovers, Lysander and Hermia, falling asleep in a mystical forest, where the Fairy King and Queen( Raphael Berglas and Megan Hillard), their fairies, and a group of wannabe actors attempt to put on a play for the wedding of the Duke of Athens.  

As it is a Shakespearian play, a modern audience may have trouble understanding what is going on. Freshman Kaylie Gregg says, “The show was great! I couldn’t exactly understand the dialogue but the actors did a fantastic job of making it clear through their actions.” Throughout the show there is a lot of stage direction to make the audience pay more attention on what will happen next. Puck ( D’angelo Parks), also know as Robin Goodfellow, is the jokester throughout the show. He loves a good joke more than anything else in the world. After he transforms Nick Bottom’s (Matthew Klimper) into an “ass,” people may think Puck is the heart and soul of the play because of his  fun-loving spirit and willing to prank anyone in sight. Puck’s actions creates a fun and rowdy atmosphere which would make the audience more intrigued. He is also the one who creates the main conflict in the plot also, but  he does fix it.

The major conflict in the show is when Puck mistakenly squeezes Oberon’s “love juice” in the eyes of Lysander’s which causes all the comical misunderstanding of the show between Helena (Denali Linton), Demetrius, Hermia, and Lysander. This turns the world of the young lovers upside down. Though Puck caused the problem in the show he also finds a way to get things back to normal. By giving the antidote to the lovers except Demetrius, he allows Helena to have her one wish and that is for Demetrius to love her back.  

Overall the show was beautifully performed, the actors really showed what a Shakespeare play is about. If you went to go see the show you were in for a real treat. Everything about the show was put together nicely. 10/10 would recommend going to go see a Blackhawk Theatre production.