If you’re in an English class this semester, you may have heard about the upcoming Murray Shakespeare Festival. This University tradition offers a great experience for both new and seasoned theater-goers.
Murray State has held this annual festival since 2001. Warren Edminster, professor of English and director of the Honors College, acted as festival chair for several years before turning the responsibility over to William “Rusty” Jones, professor and English and philosophy department chair, in 2010.
The Shakespeare festival’s purpose is to bring professional actors and classic theater to Murray at an affordable price. Many people may not have the time or money to travel to Paducah or Nashville to see live theater. When the University hosts traveling theater troupes at low ticket prices, local residents and regional school groups have the opportunity to see live Shakespeare performances.
Jones said the community has come to rely on the festival as a cultural outlet. Teachers from nearby middle and high schools factor each year’s show into their curriculum so their students can learn about the play in class and then see it performed at Murray State.
This year’s play is “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Unlike many popular Shakespeare shows like “Romeo and Juliet” or “Hamlet,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is a comedy. The story revolves around four young Athenians who run into the forest to escape an arranged marriage. In the forest, the magic antics of King Oberon of the fairies and his servant Puck pull the four humans into a confusing and silly romantic rivalry.
“It was kind of exciting this year to have a comedy,” Jones said. “[It’s] a chance for students and community members to see a play that’s just as funny and goofy and dumb as you can imagine… ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ is a great introductory play because it’s not that hard to follow, and it’s just so silly.”
Andrew Black, professor of English, is teaching a Shakespeare course this semester that covers six plays and a number of sonnets. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” stands out among other works with its chaotic humor and representation of women that distinguished Shakespeare from his contemporaries.
Black said many of Shakespeare’s comedies could have easily been tragedies if events unfolded differently. He compared Midsummer’s Hermia and Lysander, a young couple told they cannot be together, to Romeo and Juliet, whose similar circumstances end very differently.
“I think that plays by Shakespeare are either about the challenge or the joy of being alive,” Black said. “In tragedies, it’s about the way that we don’t really have control of anything. Comedies are about that, too, but it’s about the sort of joy and humor of not having that control.”
Since 2020, traveling actors from Kentucky Shakespeare have headed the festival performances. Kentucky Shakespeare is a nonprofit theatre company based out of Louisville, Kentucky. Their traveling shows employ a troupe of six or seven actors playing multiple roles, similar to how the original shows would have been performed in Shakespeare’s time. Kentucky Shakespeare commits to an authentic experience of these plays with limited stagecraft, vocal projection without microphones and audience interactivity.
“Seeing a Shakespearian play done by a group of actors who understand the language, and are trying to make you understand it, is remarkable,” Black said. “[We are] seeing people interpreting this four-hundred-year-old text that still speaks to us to this day.”
Sometimes people expect Shakespeare to be boring or require deep thought, but the Murray Shakespeare Festival brings the community plays anyone can enjoy.
“I think there’s a massive difference having read a piece versus seeing it, because when you see it, and the actors can bring the emotions to life, you get a much bigger sense of what the stakes are and become more invested,” said Jones.
Jones records small script readings for WKMS each year to promote the festival. This past Monday, he and a group of students went to WKMS to record segments about “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and its comedic nature. He said these recordings entertain listeners while giving an idea of how the show will be performed.
Four performances of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” will be held in Lovett Auditorium at:
10 a.m. on Wednesday, March 6
10 a.m. on Thursday, March 7
7 p.m. on Friday, March 8
2 p.m. on Saturday, March 9
The ticket price for all students and Murray State faculty and staff is $5, and the general public ticket price is $10.
