A Midsummer Night's Dream - a musical production for children in primary and lower secondary school

A message from Karen Gledhill:

I am an actress and musician.  A couple of years ago I was asked to write an end of year production for my daughter’s primary school, and decided on an adaptation of Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, as it has a lovely story, lots of characters and masses of potential for music and lyrics.  The final result is a production of about 1hour and 20 minutes – with an interval, incorporating a choir, a fairy chorus and 20 speaking/solo singing roles.  The musical is in a narrative style, with the choir telling the story, and the main characters playing short scenes in original Shakespearean language, and singing songs with modern lyrics.  I have also set two of Shakespeare’s own songs to music.

I have seen two productions of this show.  One was with a keyboard accompaniment, a choir of 30 and a smaller fairy chorus of 14.  Another used the whole of years 4,5 and 6.  The music teacher scored it for various musical instruments and expanded the musical aspect to fit his school. It is a very flexible piece, and I have created a longer version for lower Secondary school.  I have had extraordinarily positive feedback on this show from teachers, children and parents alike, and would very much like to get it performed in other schools.  It is a fantastic introduction to Shakespeare , very user friendly, very flexible and great fun.  Many schools like to put on a musical production at the end of the year and this is an ideal opportunity to tackle something a little more challenging and extremely rewarding. 

It does need a committed music teacher, support from the head teacher and staff (in terms of rehearsal) and another teacher or parent to help with rehearsals/direction.  It is also probably easier in a school with an established choir.

If this is something that you think your child’s school might be interested in putting on, could you please let me know – and let them know too! 

For any further information, please contact me on karenpatrick@blueyonder.co.uk

Thank you – Karen Gledhill