Jobsite has already extended its run of A Midsummer Night’s Dream to Feb. 16, having already sold out its opening weekend even though the first preview isn’t till tonight, and that can mean only one thing: Jobsite fans love what the company does with Shakespeare.
The casting and production details bode well for the theater’s take on the Bard’s most enchanted romantic comedy. The always impressive Giles Davies, who won kudos for his feral Caliban in The Tempest and his wily Iago in Othello, is set to play that most delightful of fools, the donkey-fied Bottom, and Katrina Stevenson, whose Ariel acrobatics were a Tempest highlight, is back to work more magic as Puck (and to choreograph the production’s aerial and circus elements). The four mixed-up lovers will be played by an attractive group of young actors, including American Stage favorites Matt Acquard and Sadie Lockhart; Adam Workman and Haley Janeda look to be a formidable pair of fairyland royalty; and there’s an original score with songs from The Florida Bjorkestra’s Jeremy Douglass. No wonder it’s selling out already!
Previews 1/15-16. Opening night 1/17. Continues through 2/16. Jobsite Theater at the Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center, Tampa, 813-229-STAR, jobsitetheater.org.