Behind the Scenes at Roxbury Latin's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'

Roxbury Latin's Billy Smith danced and fluttered around the stage after being given constructive criticism by Director Ross MacDonald. As Smith worked on his character Puck from Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," the rest of the cast and crew busied themselves with making sure opening night would go off without a hitch.

Opening night was August 26 for the inaugural show of Roxbury Latin's summer theater program. The show, which had four performances stretching from August 26-29, combined Roxbury Latin students, surrounding high school area female students  (RL is boys only) and professional crew and actors.

Two of the busiest and most nervous students were freshmen Matt Ellison and Phillip Heilbron, as they worked tirelessly in the sound and lighting box from the top of the theater.

"We have a bunch of multimedia elements with projections. So I've been coordinating them and editing," said Ellison. "It's going to be playing as people walk into the theater instead of paper programs. I hope it works well. It's a neat idea."

As Ellison coordinated his work, Heilbron programmed the light sequences into queue so he could just push "go" when each particular light sequence was needed.

Later on, the boys were joined by Nate Piper, a school staff member, and the technical director of the show. The trio worked to make sure everything was in order as the actors and actresses readied themselves behind the stage.

In the back, MacDonald buzzed around giving instructions with his English accent. Like Brian Buckley, chair of the Art Department, MacDonald rearranged headshot photos of the staff and crew on a billboard to be displayed as people entered the theater. Along with MacDonald and Buckley, there were at least three other people who rearranged the billboard.

As student Nick Laning helped MacDonald with nametags for the billboard, the director instructed him to tape doors' locks behind the stage so closing doors couldn't be heard during the performance. Armed with tape, Laning was joined by fellow student Nelson Tamayo, as the two found and taped any door they could get their hands on.

While most of the crew and cast seemed calm, one of the calmest was professional actress Elizabeth Rimar, who was also working on the billboard, and making her way behind the scenes as she smiled.

Rimar was not the only professional actor in the play, which was a new thing for RL plays, said Buckley. "That the was the point of calling out to the many different levels of acting. And we wanted to establish a new summer theater program. It's kind of exciting we just started school on Wednesday (Aug. 26) and the next night is a play."

MacDonald, who's quite a sparkplug, will be directing New Rep's touring show of "Hamlet" in the spring.

But he was only focused on Shakespeare's midsummer dream as he invoked Smith to let all of the actor's talent out on the stage for everyone to see. MacDonald told Smith that you wouldn't ask Miles Davis to only hit one note, or Louis Armstrong to do the same. As MacDonald walked away to tend to another detail, Smith morphed back into his character and took his director's words to heart.

Daniel Franc, 17, who played Bottom, was yet to get into costume, but was by the ever-changing billboard. Franc said he gets a little nervous before a play. "It comes with the territory. This is my first production not entirely with a school production. The peak of nervousness is when you walk on stage and then it's all good after that."

MacDonald then instructed Buckley and Laning to change the billboard again, and that Franc along with all actors should be in the green room.

Franc said he needed to grab his bag before hitting the green room.

"Go as fast as the wind can take you," said MacDonald, as he moved headshots around on the billboard.

"There's so much talent here," said MacDonald. "It's a great theater. I'm hoping the (summer theater program) keeps going. It's sad if it doesn't. There's so much talent here."