Class Info
Shakespeare is Back!
To Our Nights with Shakespeare Audience
Classes for A Midsummer Night’s Dream began on Tuesday, March, 21 at 6:30 pm and run through May 9, 2023.
• March 21st
• March 28th
• April 4th
• April 11th
• April 18th
• April 25th
• May 2nd
• May 9th
R. D. Scinto is thrilled to be welcoming back Leo Schaff and Shakespeare to the Shelton Corporate campus. Nights with Shakespeare is returning with one of the greatest love stories in the canon and one of Shakespeare’s most beloved plays!
Ay me, for aught that I could ever read,
Could ever hear by tale or history,
The course of true love never did run smooth. . .
Lysander, AMSND, Act One, Scene 1
A comic fantasy of four lovers who find themselves bewitched by fairies is a play that deals with the very real subjects of love, jealousy and marriage. A Midsummers Night’s Dream was first performed in 1596.
As the play begins Theseus, Duke of Athens, is preparing for his marriage to Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, with a four-day festival of pomp and entertainment. He commissions his Master of the Revels, Philostrate, to find suitable amusements for the occasion…
The Art
Born in Lambeth, London on September 19, 1867, Arthur Rackham was a prolific artist from a young age. Sneaking pencils into his bed to draw under the covers, he eventually resorted to drawing on his pillow case when paper was taken from him.
The year 1900 marked the breakthrough of Rackham’s success as a book illustrator with the publication of his illustrated The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm. This book featured ninety-nine black-and-white drawings with a color frontispiece.
J.M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan, commissioned Rackham to illustrate the first edition of his classic children’s tale Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1906).
Some of his classic works include Rip Van Winkle (1905) A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1908), Gulliver’s Travels (1909), Undine (1909), Aesop’s Fables (1912), Mother Goose (1913), A Christmas Carol (1915), The Romance of King Arthur (1917), Cinderella (1919), The Sleeping Beauty (1920), Comus (1921), The Tempest (1926), The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1928) The Night Before Christmas (1931), and Fairy Tales by Hans Andersen (1932).
An obituary in London newspaper The Times described him as “one of the most eminent book illustrators of his day” with “a special place in the hearts of children.”
Norman Rockwell Museum, Illustration History
The Music
Felix Mendelssohn composed music for William Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream (in German Ein Sommernachtstraum) two separate times, in 1826 and in 1842. At the start of his career, he wrote a concert overture (Op. 21). Then a few years before his death he wrote incidental music (Op. 61) into which he incorporated the existing overture.
The overture is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, ophicleide, timpani and strings. The ophicleide part was originally written for English bass horn (“corno inglese di basso”), which was also used at the first performance; the composer subsequently replaced this instrument with the ophicleide in the first published edition.
The incidental music adds a third trumpet, three trombones, triangle, cymbals, soprano, mezzo-soprano and women’s chorus to this scoring.
Audiences across the globe instantly recognize one section of this classic work, The Wedding March.
Is this play the most popular of all Shakespeare’s work? It certainly has been filmed many times!
 Director Max Reinhardt, William Dieterle Starring James Cagney, Joe E. Brown, Dick Powell |  Director Peter Hall Starring Derek Godfrey, Barbara Jefford, Nicholas Selby |  The adventures of four young lovers, a group of amateur actors, and their interactions with fairy inhabitants come to light in a moonlit forest. Director Elijah Moshinsky Starring Robert Lindsay, Helen Mirren |
 Shakespeare’s most popular play has been transposed to the golden sunlight and green terraces of northern Italy near the end of the nineteenth century. Director Michael Hoffman Starring Kevin Kline, Michelle Pfeiffer, Eric Lloyd |  From the mind of award-winning director Julie Taymor (The Lion King on Broadway, Frida, Titus) comes a Shakespeare adaptation like none other. Director Julie Taymor Starring Kathryn Hunter, David Harewood, Tina Benko |
The Class
Nights With Shakespeare is generously underwritten and presented FREE to the public by R.D. Scinto, Inc., one of the state’s largest real estate developers, at his corporate Auditorium located in the Shelton Corporate Park at 3 Corporate Drive, Shelton, Connecticut.
Tuesday evenings, from 6:30 to 7:30 pm
Seating is limited and is available on a ‘first-come’ basis.
Each participant receives one FREE copy of the play. Additional copies of each play can be downloaded as PDFs from our Scripts page.
Contact Info
203.929.6300
info@nightswithshakespeare.com
For directions with Google Maps, go here.
Before class stop by the new Pranzo Caffé for a delicious meal.
Shelton Corporate Park
Shelton, CT 06484
203-929-6300