An early promo shot of Demetrius (Phil Schwadron), Helena (Erin Rivlin-Sakata) and Lysander (Trevor). It looks like the West Side Story version to me.

A Midsummer Night's Dream
I admit it. I love performing Shakespeare. Why? For three reasons.

First, because even his weakest stories are interesting and full of fun characters to perform.

Secondly, because his words have a wonderful flow and are written in such a way that you can tell what's going on just by listening to them.

Thirdly, because of the history. I love the fact that I can play a Shakespeare role and know that I'm sharing a common bond with thousands of actors that came before me — including some who worked with the bard himself.

In this fun play, I fell in love with my role of Lysander and totally enjoyed playing such an idyllic and honest youth (not without faults, of course). The text is so rich with meaning that I felt like I could play the part for months and months and still not find all of its nuances.

One weekend during our run, I was quite sick and actually had a 102 degree fever during an evening performance. Later, several people in the cast and crew (who didn't know that I had been sick) told me that I had been really "hot" that night. Little did they know...

The cast and crew of Midsummer. I'm standing in the middle of the photo in the burgundy vest and blue shirt.