Directors Notes for A Midsummer Night's Dream

Last year, after helping Dad (Kelly Knowlden) as he directed Korczak’s Children, I wondered, “What play can we do after that?” Since I couldn’t possibly match it in inspiration, I decided to go to the opposite end of the theatrical spectrum and look for something that would make people laugh.

Although humor can be used to mock others, the truest humor surprises us or points out our own silliness. Slapstick makes us laugh because we all experience it, and are a little embarrassed by it, so we turn that insecurity into a laugh - a nervous response to minor anxiety. Puns are funny because they make surprise connections between two things that aren’t related by topic, but are by vocabulary. The punchline of a good joke is an unexpected turn of events, or makes a connection that we haven’t seen before. But of course, the most important part of comedy is … timing.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of those stories that makes me laugh every time. From the ridiculous plans of Oberon and mistakes of Puck to the hilarious passion of Pyramus and Thisbe, from the lovers’ banter to Lysander waking up and falling in love with the wrong girl, the play provides every sort of humor. But even Puck knows that humor can be offensive, so he asks the audience to laugh, and if you can’t laugh, to wake from the offense as you would from a bad dream.

Humor, in that sense, is related to humility. Both humor and humility keep us from becoming over-important or taking ourselves too seriously. Instead, both humility and humor have the potential to unite us with the rest of humanity, understanding that we all are sometimes petty and often mistaken and broken.

In the middle of this brokenness, God calls to us. In humility, we respond. The more we understand and accept how much God loves us, the more we can laugh with the joy of not having to prove ourselves as something important. Jesus already said we were important enough to die for, but in the greatest turn of events (comedy), he defeated death and rose again. In the humility, provided by His love, we can see humanity’s inconsistencies, pettiness, and failings, but instead of feeling humiliation, we can laugh because we are loved.