“WE REHEARSED THROUGH WIND, HEAT AND RAIN”

Director PETER PASYK staged Stratford’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a parking lot

“IN JANUARY, Antoni Cimolino, Stratford’s artistic director, got in touch to share his vision for the year ahead: a fully outdoor season. He asked if I’d be interested in directing a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It was the perfect choice. What better show to stage outside in the middle of summer?

“Because Covid restrictions were changing so rapidly, we mapped out several different versions of the show. If necessary, we were ready to stage the entire play behind plexiglass, with the actors maintaining six feet of distance from one another. We did virtual rehearsals, and our choreographer, Stephen Cota, taught the cast their dances over video chat.

“Finally, in July, weeks before we were scheduled to open, the province allowed inperson rehearsals to resume. I’m still in awe of how quickly the Stratford Festival created a makeshift rehearsal space for us. In about a week’s time, they put up a big canopy in a parking lot and stocked it with bug spray, sunscreen and water. We rehearsed through rain, heat and strong winds. One powerful gust sent hundreds of pages of scripts flying. After everything we’d been through, we were just thrilled to be together, weather be damned.

“It felt like a minor miracle that we opened as scheduled on opening night. I sat in the back row of the Tom Patterson Canopy Theatre, a covered performance space that the festival created in the parking lot outside one of its venues, and watched the sold-out audience of 100 theatre lovers trickle in. When the actors stepped on stage, the audience broke into applause. Everyone was smiling. For most of them, it was the first live performance they’d seen since before the pandemic began.

“The cast performed impeccably, competing with the sounds of the city: muscle cars revving, dogs barking. It wasn’t the glossiest show ever staged, but it was undeniably live.”