Jeffrey Whitty's A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM First Two Episodes Out Now

Following the success of Macbeth and Pericles, the series - presented by Next Chapter Podcasts in partnership with Play On Shakespeare - continues today with the release of Jeffrey Whitty's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Play On Podcasts bring together a team of Award-winning sound designers, composers, playwrights, directors, and performers -- with original music composition and the voices of extraordinarily, gifted artists -- to create aural storytelling experiences. It's a Shakespearean audio adventure.

"The Play On translations make Shakespeare's works accessible to all audiences, and are especially well suited to podcast audiences accustomed to the immediacy of immersive storytelling experiences," Executive Producer, Michael Goodfriend, says. "Thanks to our outstanding audio engineers, designers, directors and actors, listeners can visualize these tales wherever they happen to be."

Lue Douthit, Play On Shakespeare's CEO and Creative Director: "The translation is not to be a paraphrase, nor is it a literal explanation of what's going on. The translations are not meant to be replacements of the originals. Our goal is to learn how the plays work and to create performable companion pieces. They are new plays in that way."

With lead investment from the Hitz Foundation, which funds the Play On project and has commissioned this podcast series, Next Chapter Podcasts will adapt and produce the modernized Shakespearean scripts for multi-part audio presentations featuring the talents of extraordinary stage performers, directors and designers.

Learn more at https://playonfestival.org/.

Creative:

• Playwright: Jeffrey Whitty
• Director, Script Adaptor: Catherine Eaton
• Composer: George Whitty
• Sound Designer: Arjun G. Sheth

Cast:

• Helena: Alexandra Henrikson
• Oberon: Amari Cheatom
• Egeus, Snug: Armando McClain
• Flute: Cedric Lamar
• Demetrius: Christopher Livingston
• Puck: Daisuke Tsuji
• Theseus: David Furr
• Lysander: Gopal Divan
• Hermia: Jamie Ann Romero
• Quince: Jeena Yi
• Bottom: Jenn Harris
• Hippolyta: Manila Luzon
• Titania: Michelle Beck

Production Team:

• Executive Producer: Michael Goodfriend
• Senior Producer: Miriam Laube
• Managing Producer: Robert Cappadona
• Coordinating Producer: Taylor Bailey
• Sound Engineer: Daniel Ben-Shimon
• Sound Engineer: Sadaharu Yagi
• Dialogue Editor: Larry Walsh
• Casting Director: Karyn Casl
• Casting Director: Ada Karamanyan
• Voice, Text: Rebecca Clark Carey