We’re on the hunt for a spectacular costume for Moonshine, a character in Pyramus and Thisbe, the famous “play within a play” which is performed at the end of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by the farcical Mechanicals. We’re asking young people to help design what this character is going to wear, with the winning design brought to life on stage as part of the production.
Judged by the designer of the play Elin Steele, and Creative Engagement Manager Timothy Howe, other entries will be displayed in the Sherman Theatre foyer during the run of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The closing date for submissions is 30 July.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream Competition Task:
Do you know what a moon might wear? Perhaps you’ve helped a moon dress? If you have then we need your help! We are asking young people to create images of what they think Moonshine in our production might look like.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream features the performance of a play within its story called Pyramus and Thisbe and Moonshine is a character within this play. It is performed by a group of actors called ‘The Mechanicals’ – but they aren’t very good. It’s meant to be a very serious play but the audience find it very funny!
The person playing Moonshine has only got this really small role, but they’ve decided to steal the scene with their costume. It’s very eye catching… and very homemade! We hope you can imagine what that might look like. It’s time to start creating!
You could produce something that is an accurate representation of what you think a moon looks like, it could be abstract or even a collage – what do you want Moonshine to be? Does it have to be a big round shape? Sparkling or reflective material? Or perhaps even lights everywhere? The only limit is your imagination.
Be adventurous. Your design picture could be made of a collage of images and textures or perhaps you could use images cut from magazines or off-cuts of material?
We want to be captivated by your efforts so try to challenge us with your artistic decisions.
One of these designs will feature in our autumn production but the rest will be displayed in our foyer!
N.B These drawings should be on paper no larger than A4.
Send the images along with the following information to the theatre by 30 July and see if we’re enchanted by their designs:
Name of the designer –
Name of school and contact –
Address to send them to:
Moonshine Costumes
Sherman Theatre
Senghennydd Road
Cathays
Cardiff
CF24 4YE
Entrants must be aged 10 – 16 and entries must be received by 30 July.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Directed by Sherman Theatre Artistic Director Joe Murphy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the latest, and the first since 2019, in Sherman Theatre’s longstanding series of autumn classic productions which present bold new takes on much-loved plays. This production promises all of the magic audiences have come to expect from A Midsummer Night’s Dream whilst offering new insights and opportunities to think about our world now.
Two of Wales’ most exciting writers, Mari Izzard (HELA) and Sherman Writer in Residence Nia Morais (Crafangau / Claws) will offer fresh new perspectives on this evergreen classic with newly written adaptations in the Welsh language. Mari and Nia’s have created new dialogue for the fairies and other characters whilst enchanted by the fairies.
The production promises to playfully upend expectations of this masterpiece, including gender roles and sexuality. A Midsummer Night’s Dream will be performed in English with the new Welsh language adaptations captioned at each performance.