Horsham St Brigid’s College students are preparing to return to the stage for the school’s first production since 2019.

The college will present Midsummer Jersey at Horsham Town Hall from August 5 to 7.

Teacher and director Vicki Thomas said rehearsals were progressing well, with a cast of about 35.

Midsummer Jersey is a re-telling of Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, set on the boardwalk of a seaside town in modern-day New Jersey. 

“It’s a contemporary version and it’s about four teens who basically all want to be in relationships with each other,” Mrs Thomas said.

“It’s also positioned around the governor’s wedding. 

“Within all those relationships there are a whole lot of fairies that like to create a bit of mischief.

“That mischief sees people fall in love with the wrong person, but in the end, it all gets fixed.”

Mrs Thomas said the show was a play, rather than the musical style of performance the college had traditionally presented in the past.

“We’ve added musical elements to it throughout, but we’ve decided to step away from musicals this year and are having a go at a play,” she said.

“The kids seem to be responding really well to it.”

Mrs Thomas said the school was due to present Cinderella in 2020, but ‘obviously COVID put an end to that’.

“Cinderella was all cast and ready to go, except a lot of the lead cast were year 12s, so we decided we’d leave that one be this year,” she said.

“But I think this show opens up opportunities for kids who don’t necessarily like singing and dancing and all those sorts of things. 

“There’s a big emphasis on characters and acting and having a bit of a go at something new and different.” 

Mrs Thomas said there were several lead roles, with cast split up into groups.

“The four teen characters who have a fairly big role are Murphy Wright, Daniel Bell, Ella Officer and Ulani Hobbs,” she said.

“Then we’ve got our main fairies, Zenith Wearne, who’s playing Oberon, Nadya Nugraha, playing Titania, they’re the king and queen fairy, and we’ve got Grace Camilleri playing Puck.”

Mrs Thomas said cast had almost finished the ‘blocking’ stage of the production, with a couple of scenes still to go.

“We’ve got a few half-day rehearsals coming up,” she said.

“Everything has come together and all going well I think we’ll be right to go, as long as they don’t lock us down or anything in the meantime.”

– Sarah Matthews  

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