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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Midsummer MAGIC


The fairies dance around Titania played by Rebecca Thompson,17, and Oberon, played by Teko Dumoulin,17, in the Stage Door to the Future production of
Penny Larocque Correspondent

Nearly three thousand miles away in a misty, purple-tinged Georgia swamp, a community of 600-year-old fairies lives undetected by the human population around them. Two young couples, distracted by their passions, become lost and must spend the night among the crickets, frogs and alligators that also inhabit the fairies’ domain. In another part of the marsh, a beautiful fairy queen, dazed by the juice of a magic flower, falls madly for a donkey-headed bumpkin.

“Man, this is the weirdest dream I’ve ever had,” the lucky young man says. But this is no dream; it’s just one of the many plot twists you’ll see onstage at Eastern Washington University’s theater this week.

For three nights, Stage Door to the Future, Eastern’s summer conservatory for teens, will perform “Midsummer Dreams.” This is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s 17th century comedy, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” conceived by Eastern’s technical director of theater, Don McLaughlin, and written by Jess Thomas, who is a graduate student at Eastern.

The script may be 400 years old, but the plot is timeless, says McLaughlin. It revolves around two pairs of young lovers and the chaos that ensues when they unknowingly venture into the realm of the fairies. “There’s mystery, magic, love, confusion. But in the end it all works out,” McLaughlin says.

Thomas modernized the play, and most of the action occurs in a grove of cypress trees near Athens, Ga., instead of a forest outside Athens, Greece. To appeal to a 21st century audience, much of the Elizabethan dialogue has been replaced with updated language, costumes and music. Only the fairies retain the ethereal look and flowing speech Shakespeare envisioned.

McLaughlin and Thomas pared down the material to a manageable 90 minutes and included a playful original score with a bluegrass feel that features a violin, piano, percussion and guitar. There’s even a speed-metal performance of “Ave Maria” in the final scene that’s simultaneously ear and side-splitting.

Stage Door to the Future began in the spring of 1994, when families stationed at Fairchild Air Force Base called on Eastern to provide an artistic outlet for their children. Using a $25,000 grant from Fairchild, and with the help of some colleagues from the Spokane arts community, McLaughlin founded the summer program with the idea that kids who participated would have fun, but also gain a better understanding of what professional theater work was like.

While producing a play was the immediate goal, McLaughlin wanted camp participants to do more than just learn how to act. He expected the Air Force kids to get fully involved in all aspects of the production. They painted and constructed sets, worked out prop and lighting problems, and generally did whatever needed to be done to get the show up and running.

The Fairchild families loved the program and the base continued to fund it for a number of years.

“Although Fairchild still sends kids to participate in the summer programs,” McLaughlin says, “they are no longer able to contribute funds. Following 9-11, money previously allocated to the program was pulled and redirected toward military efforts.” Now, the university has taken over part of the financial responsibility and, together with the tuition the kids pay, the program is able to continue.

For a few kids, Stage Door is just a summer diversion their parents coerce them into, but for most who participate, the experience sparks a lasting love affair with the theater. Sixteen-year-old Ashleigh Vereen, who plays the smitten young Helen in “Midsummer Dreams,” joined Stage Door three years ago. She played the Witch in the group’s performance of C.S. Lewis’ “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” her first year.

Although she’s been performing in school and community plays since she was eight, Vereen says the knowledge and confidence she has acquired in Eastern’s program is what influenced her decision to pursue acting as a career. “Because you’re working with college students and you see how professional they are, it inspires you to do your best. And the instructors make you realize it’s something you can do,” she says.

Teko Dumoulin, the soft-spoken 17-year-old who plays the Fairy King Oberon, also began acting as a young child. His fifth grade teacher told him about Stage Door to the Future; now he’s a seven-year veteran of the program. “I did plays at my elementary school, but this program is what really got me involved in theater.” Dumoulin will join Eastern’s theater department this fall and hopes to teach high school kids after graduation.

Rebecca Thompson, a Mt. Spokane graduate who plays the Fairy Queen Titania, saw a flier for the Stage Door program three years ago and thought, “Well, why not?” Like Dumoulin, she also will attend Eastern in the fall, but is leaving her future options a bit more open. “I hope to perform, but I also want to be knowledgeable in all aspects of theater, so that if I can’t make it (as an actress), I’ll be able to make it as a tech.”

After nearly 30 years of professional work in the theater, McLaughlin doesn’t sugarcoat the unpleasant truths of the business. He tells the kids that life on the stage is not for the faint-hearted, and those who pursue it must be ready to live on a shoestring for years before realizing any lasting success.

For teens like Vereen, Domoulin and Thompson, the struggle is a part of the process they’re willing to accept. “Yeah, it’s a ton of work, but it’s worth it,” Vereen says.