Brief Summary

Midsummer provides us with a magical romp through the forest where enemies fall in love, an actor becomes an ass, and the fairy kingdom battles over an Indian boy.  In the end, the fairy kingdom finds peace, the actors perform their play, and the lovers find happiness in a triple wedding ceremony.

• Read The Dream Unfolds for a more in-depth summary!

• Visit Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet to read the Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare for A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Read the Play

• A Midsummer Night's Dream (cut for performance by Amy Ulen)
  • Download the play as cut for performance by Amy Ulen for the Hudtloff Middle School Drama Club (Microsoft Word 2000 format)
  • Download the entire play in Microsoft Word 95 format
  • Download the entire play in Microsoft Word 97 format

• J.B. Siedlecki's annotated A Midsummer Night's Dream

• MIT Complete Works of Shakespeare

• Shakespeare by Individual Studies ~ A Midsummer Night's Dream

Discuss the Play

• Surfing with the Bard Discussion Zone

• Surfing with the Bard Play-of-the-Month Club (July 1998)

Lesson Plans

• Surfing with the Bard's Teacher Zone
  • Ideas for Teaching A Midsummer Night's Dream
  • Introducing A Midsummer Night's Dream
  • Relationship Role Plays from A Midsummer Night's Dream
  • MND Sound Ball Activity
  • "Set Your Heart At Rest" Word Plays
  • Another Herb: MND Improv
  • The Dream Unfolds ~ Telling the Story of MND

• Shakespeare Magazine's Teaching Resource
  • "Ask Me No Questions" by Pat Garrity
  • "Over Hill, Over Dale":  Finding Shakespeare's Beat by Judith Elstein

• Folger Shakespeare Library's Teaching Shakespeare Institute
  • "Such Affection Move":  Finding Staging Clues in A Midsummer Night's Dream

• 1995-1996 NEH/Folger Shakespeare Institute: Shakespeare Examined through Performance Recipe Book

• WordCruncher Exercises for A Midsummer Night's Dream by Patsy Worrall

• Quotes and Possible Essay Questions for A Midsummer Night's Dream by Ace G. Pilkington

• A Taste of Shakespeare's Midsummer Teaching Companion

Reviews

• Visit MovieFan Online to read the He Said, She Said mini-review that my husband and I wrote for the latest Midsummer movie.  You can also read the full review that I wrote for the same film.  I will eventually add a DVD review to this list...in the meantime, just be aware that the DVD doesn't have any extras...the official web site has more goodies than the DVD does.

Related Links

A Midsummer Night's Dream Guide This Surfing with the Bard guide includes the script, performance photos, links to other MND productions, and a study guide for your PC! Watch for video clips in the future!!!

• Shakespeare Illustrated's A Midsummer Night's Dream Gallery

• Imaging the Children of Pan--A Midsummer Night's Dream by Scott Walters from the Illinois Shakespeare Festival.

• Don King's Study Notes on A Midsummer Night's Dream

• Shakespeare in Japan presents A Midsummer Night's Dream

• A Midsummer Night's Moo Project

• Midsummer Madness, Dangerous Dreams: Shakespeare's Sources for A Midsummer Night's Dream by Joseph Locket. 

• Samuel B. Hemingway's 1911 essay The Relation of A Midsummer Night's Dream to Romeo and Juliet

• Shakespearean Prompt-Books of the Seventeenth Century:  includes the Smock Alley and Nursery prompt-books for Midsummer.

• ‘Once Upon A Dream’:  The Enduring Symbolism of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Jennifer Rambo

• "Swift hart" and "soft heart": Elizabeth I and the Iconography of Lyly’s Gallathea and Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Julia A. Bowen in SRASP - Volume 20, 1997.

• "Vowing, Swearing, and Superpraising of Parts: Petrarch and Pyramus in the Woods of Athens" by Kenneth B. Steele.

• Enjoying A Midsummer Night's Dream by Ed Friedlander, MD.