Stage Review - A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Kitsap Forest Theater)

Stage Review - A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Presented By: Kitsap Forest Theater - Bremerton, WA
Show Run: September 06 - September 21, 2025
Date Reviewed: Saturday, September 13, 2025
Run Time: 2 Hours, 45 minutes (inclusive of a 15-minute intermission)
Reviewed By: Greg Heilman

Few plays could feel more at home in the wooded setting of Kitsap Forest Theater than A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Shakespeare’s tale of mischievous fairies, misplaced affections, and moonlit transformations seems to nestle naturally into the towering trees of the Bremerton stage. Director Mia McGlinn leans into this harmony but takes it one bold step further, setting her production, which runs on stage in Bremerton through September 21, in the Appalachian Mountains, more specifically 1960s West Virginia and its coal-mining heritage.

Mia has gone all in on this theme. The mechanicals—traditionally amateur actors and tradesmen—are here recast as coal miners. The fairies are not the winged sprites of Elizabethan imagination but Appalachian mystical animals. Even the main characters are reframed as reflections of the region’s cultural and industrial identity. It’s a daring concept, and one that permeates every design element. Costume designers Amy Fancher and Tyler Dawson-Arroyo fit the motif perfectly with a plethora of denim and fabrics that echo the work and culture of the region. Scenic design by Mia and John McGlinn blends the natural stage with Appalachian textures, while Sara McGuire’s props and Kylie Cordero’s choreography deepen the sense of place.

Perhaps the boldest choice lies in the music. Though A Midsummer Night’s Dream is not a musical, it has always been a musical play at heart. Most directors tuck songs around the text, but here original compositions by Bryce McGuire and Skye Campbell are fully integrated into the storytelling. Shakespeare’s words are set to new melodies, fresh songs are added, and the cast sings and plays regional instruments. Backed by a stellar band under Bryce’s leadership, the music carries the production with a vibrant bluegrass and mountain style. The musicians even provide pre-show entertainment, performing standards that set the mood for the world the audience is about to enter.

With great risk comes great reward, and the Appalachian theming pays off in many ways. Yet, there are moments when the design competes with Shakespeare’s story. For one, the evergreen forest surrounding the stage resists Appalachian illusion, no matter how convincingly the costumes or props are applied. On the accent front, several performers attempt southern inflections with varying results. While the fairies’ Celtic accents connect nicely to the roots of Appalachian music and traditions, elsewhere the dialects range widely—one even suggested a Louisiana drawl. Still, these choices never derail the performance, even if they occasionally distract.

The production is also ambitious in its stage action. The acrobatics of Amanda Thornton (Cobweb) and Nick Perry (Mustardseed) are executed with skill and visual appeal, but they sometimes add to an already busy stage picture that pulls focus from other scenes. Similarly, while the theming is thoroughly bought into by everyone onstage and off, a detail like a coal miner named “Snug the Joiner” proves a bit hard to reconcile.

Performances overall are strong. The lovers—Emily Stephens Kasper (Hermia), David Ward (Lysander), Charis Goolsby (Helena), and Jesse Ellis (Demetrius)—deliver their tangled affections with verve. Charis especially shines, sustaining a consistent and compelling characterization throughout. The Athenians—Charles Smith (Theseus), Ariel Doyle (Hippolyta), Walt Foster (Egeus), and Kenadi Allen (Philostrate)—anchor their scenes solidly, though at the performance I attended, there were occasional slips over names and pacing.

Among the mechanicals, Ila Faubion Dreessen (Nick Bottom) and Nina Polachek (Peter Quince) stand out, their high energy infusing not just their characters but the entire troupe, elevating the level of fun whenever they appear. On the fairy front, the conflict between Miah Campbell (Oberon) and Harley Lampkin (Titania) is sharply drawn, with Miah projecting authority and strength, while Harley’s Titania provides one of the show’s best moments when she falls in love with Ila’s Bottom, transformed by a wonderfully creative donkey costume, again with credit to the costume design team.

From costumes and props to music and movement, the Appalachian concept is applied top to bottom, and the company embraces it wholeheartedly. What emerges is a show that not only entertains but also asks us to reconsider how Shakespeare can be adapted across cultures and landscapes. At times the setting and accents rub against the text, but that friction becomes part of the experiment—an exploration of how universal these characters and themes truly are. Love found and lost, jealousy and reconciliation, mischief and forgiveness: these elements resonate whether we are in Athens, Appalachia, or deep in the Kitsap forest.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Kitsap Forest Theater takes risks, and while not every risk fully lands, the sheer commitment of the production is undeniable. From costumes and props to music and movement, the Appalachian concept is applied top to bottom, and the company embraces it wholeheartedly. In the end, the production manages to entertain, surprise, and provoke thought—reminding us of the enduring flexibility of Shakespeare’s comedy and the power of theater to reshape familiar stories in daring new ways.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, produced by Kitsap Forest Theater, runs through September 21. For more information, including ticket availability and sales, visit https://www.foresttheater.com/.

Photo credit: Joe Adkins