Season 2017

Shakespeare’s comedy of confused and enchanted identities returned to Midsummer Scene (24th June – 5th July ), marking the Festival’s third collaboration with Helen Tennison. This time, the show took 1930s as its starting point. The stark Athenian court, for which the Fort Lovrjenac again provided excellent backdrop, dissolved into a mad lovers’ chase and also featured Bollywood-style choreography. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a classic Shakespearean comedy focusing on themes of love, passion, magic, mistaken identity and even theatre itself. It is one of the most widely performed plays from the Bard’s back catalogue and therefore proved an absolute hit with the audience of the Festival.

From Illyria to Elsinore

Photographic exhibition by Bari Goddard

Midsummer Night’s Music

Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra in concert

Držić Meets Shakespeare

Celebrating 450 years of legacy of the great Croatian Renaissance
Pre-production gallery

Photography by Andy Barker www.andybarkerphotography.co.uk

A Word from the Director

The course of true love never did run smooth
—Lysander I. 136

A Midsummer Nights Dream is an intoxicating party of a play, probably written as a bridal masque. In this light, the illicit adventures of lovers in the woods can be read as a final rebellion before commitment. I was interested in focusing on how our lovelorn characters have important lessons to learn. In order to enjoy love, they must not only overcome external obstacles, but they must also confront their internal fears. And it’s never easy to face our flaws! Helena’s love seems to lead directly to a loss of self-respect, we recognize it, laugh at it, and love her for it.

Love lookes not with the eyes, but with the minde,
And therefore is wing’d Cupid painted blinde.
—Helena  I. 238,239.

The play features numerous references to the way we ‘see’. We view our beloved as an example of godlike perfection. Puck fetches a flower that can emulate this effect, creating Titania’s passionate love for Bottom – despite the fact that he truly is, an ass. Bryony J Thompson and I plan to work these motifs into our production through her costume designs, with eye coverings and an explosion of colour as we enter the woods. When we love, we see the world in vibrant technicolour.  But love can also colour our interpretation of events so that we see insult where there is none, viewing the world through a distorted and corrupting lens. Oberon’s jealousy and subsequent row with Titania is so vicious that it unbalances the natural world.

Therefore the Moone (the governesse of floods)
Pale in her anger, washes all the aire;
That Rheumaticke diseases doe abound.
And through this distemperature, we see
The seasons alter;
—Titania II. 102-106

Shakespeare continually references the moon in this play. Reminding us that the action takes place under cover of night and the romantic light of the moon. The moonlit, fairy world is joyfully free of the restrictive morality of Athens. Here, all our lusts, grief’s and selfish passions are indulged. Perhaps the fairies are simply the repressed side of the human characters? The humans returning to Athens, and marriage, are clearly happier and more settled for letting their fairy side out to play.

The final words of the evening go to Puck.  Puck, I interpret as the random factor, the unknowable and uncontrollable sneaking into the human world just to meddle. And after all, without a little mischievous magic, would love ever flourish?

Lord, what fooles these mortals be!
—Puck III. 315

About "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

Shakespeare’s magical comedy of mistaken, confused and enchanted identities comes back to Dubrovnik where it shall be performed at Fort Lovrjenac, the most famous open air venue in this part of Europe.

The brand new production specially designed for Midsummer Scene Festival dives into the world of Faery where the stark world of Athenian court dissolves into a mad lovers’ chase.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a classic Shakespearean comedy focusing on themes of love, passion, magic, mistaken identity and even theatre itself. It is one of the most widely performed plays from the Bard’s back catalogue.

Taking the 1930s as its starting point, this production will also feature Bollywood-style choreography.

The British cast, directed by Helen Tennison, is supported by an international creative team.

CAST
  • Helena, Snout, Fairy: Hannah Blackstone-Brown
  • Theseus, Oberon: James Burton
  • Hippolyta, Titania: Kudzanayi Chiwawa
  • Hermia, Starveling, Fairy: Susan Hingley
  • Puck, Philostrate: Sheetal Kapoor
  • Bottom, Fairy: Filip Krenus
  • Lysander, Flute, Fairy: Matthew Maltby
  • Patsy Quince, Egea, Fairy: Lainey Shaw
  • Demetrius, Snug, Fairy: James Wordsworth

All other parts performed by the members of the cast.

HANNAH BRACKSTONE-BROWN (Helena, Snout, Fairy)

Hannah graduated from the BA (Hons) Acting course at East 15 Acting School in 2008.

Theatre Credits: The Gin Chronicles (The Bridewell Theatre); The 39 Steps (Lyric Theatre, Belfast);The Sting (Wiltons Music Hall); Some Girls (New Wimbledon Studio); The Missing Toreador (St James Theatre); An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein (Drayton Theatre); Cole Porter’s Aladdin (Sadler’s Wells); Emma (Sai Wan Ho Civic Theatre, Hong Kong); Elegies for Angels Punks and Raging Queens (Theatro Technis); The Browning Version (Tristan Bates Theatre); You Were After Poetry (Tristan Bates Theatre); The Dreaming (Linbury Studio, Royal Opera House)

Hannah has performed in concerts and cabarets at Lauderdale House, Battersea Barge and Hoxton Hall. She has also appeared in commercials for M&S Food, BBC Radio 2, Twix, Royal National Lifeboat Institute, Groupon, The Racing Post, Hilton Hotels and Notonthehighstreet.com

JAMES BURTON (Theseus, Oberon)

James is delighted to be back performing in Dubrovnik, having played Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night for Midsummer Scene in 2015. He trained at Mountview Academy, and St Mary’s University College, London. Other theatre credits include: Alice in Wonderland playing The Mad Hatter, A Christmas Carol (playing Jacob Marley and The Ghost Of Christmas Present), and Antony and Cleopatra as Pompey and Agrippa, all for Creation Theatre Company in Oxford. He’s played Colonel Brandon in a touring production of Sense & Sensibility for director Helen Tennison, Charles Bovary in Faye Weldon’s Madame Bovary: Breakfast with Emma (Rosemary Branch, National Tour), and Peer Gynt for the Ibsen Stage Company. He’s played Ben in The Dumb Waiter (LPC European Tour), Mr Toad in The Wind in the Willows (National Tour), and been in American Haiku (Jermyn Street Theatre, London), and Mammon Inc. (Raffles Hotel Theatre, Singapore).

KUDZANAYI CHIWAWA (Hippolyta, Titania)

Kudzanayi is Zimbabwean born actress, who graduated from Drama Studio London. She has worked with copanies such as Gecko Theatre, Two Gents, Scary Little Girls, Smooth Faced Gentlemen and Punchdrunk.  Some of her recent productions include Three Mothers, Gliwice Hamlet, Peter Pan, Taming of the Shrew, Titus Andronicus, ‘Fall’ and Dracula. This is her third time working with Helen Tennison. Kudzanayi is also an emerging Playwright; she was accepted onto the Royal Court Theatre Writers’ Program and her first play Push Up Daisies performed at The Hope Theatre.

SUSAN HINGLEY (Hermia, Starveling, Fairy)

Theatre: Wendy and Peter Pan, Orphan of Zhao, Boris Godunov, A Life of Galileo (Royal Shakespeare Company); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Globe, International Tour); Hamlet (Honey-tongued Theatre Productions, Croatia); Tamburlaine (Arcola Theatre); Dorian Gray (National Theatre Japan); Around the World in 80 Days (New Vic / Manchester Royal Exchange); Pioneer (Curious Directive); One Million, All That Is Solid Melts Into Air, Home (Tangled Feet); Splash! (Lyric Hammersmith / GDIF / Latitude Festival); Catch / Ulov (Greyscale Theatre / Almeida); The Snow Queen (Lawrence Batley Theatre); Before I Sleep (dreamthinkspeak); Soho Streets (Soho Theatre). Television includes: Doctors. Film: Shino’s Show, The Gloaming, Household Gods.

SHEETAL KAPOOR (Puck, Philostrate)

Sheetal trained at Drama Studio London. Theatre credits include: The Tempest (Get Over It Productions), Romeo and Juliet (FRED Theatre), One Year Off (FRED Theatre), The Sexy Seven (Lost City Writers) and Pristine in Blue (The Play’s The Thing Theatre). Film credits include: Rukhsati (Karakoori Productions), Guilty Pleasures (Smooth Demon Productions) and A Suitable Husband (Grand Independent). She also recorded various characters for The Jungle Book (Audible). sheetalkapoor.co.uk

FILIP KRENUS (Bottom, Fairy)

Filip trained at East 15 Acting School (BA Acting) and Drama Centre (MA in Classical European Acting). He set up Honey-tongued Theatre Productions in 2012 and is one of the co-founders of Midsummer Scene Festival. Theatre credits include: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet (Midsummer Scene) and Twelfth Night (Midsummer Scene and Vienna’s English Theatre), School for Scandal (directed by Jessica Swale), The Winter’s Tale (LittleBIG Shakespeare), King Lear and Dido, Queen of Carthage (Greenwich Theatre), Bent (Landor/Tabard), Orestes – Re-Examined (Southwark Playhouse), Peer Gynt (Riverside Studios), Hell Screen (Oval House), Richard III and Macbeth (Faction Theatre Company), The Rivals (Camden People’s Theatre), Jane Eyre (Brockley Jack) and The Right Ballerina (directed by Matthew Gould). Films include Transmania and radio includes Gino Ginelli Lives (Wireless Theatre Company)

MATTHEW MALTBY (Lysander, Flute, Fairy)

Matt Maltby spent 2016 touring the UK and Asia with The HandleBards, appearing in four-man versions of Much Ado About Nothing and Richard III. Other recent credits include Penderel in Benighted (Old Red Lion Theatre), Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Pleasance Islington), Romeo in Romeo and Juliet (Vaults Waterloo, UK & Japan Tour), Dionysius in The Bacchae (US Tour), Timber in Amok (Wireless Theatre Company) and Anton in The Point of No Return (UK & Sweden Tour). He is the artistic director of Pint-Sized, a quarterly evening of new writing at The Bunker, a member of the acclaimed Factory Theatre, and a founding member of the award-winning ONEOHONE.

LAINEY SHAW (Patsy Quince, Egea, Fairy)

Lainey Shaw trained at The Academy Drama School, London. Previous theatre credits include: Alison in A-Z (Flanaganza), Mildred Bulthorpe in Key for Two (Vienna’s English Theatre), Pam Underwood in A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, Agnes in Silence (Large Print Theatre), Aunt Jennings in Sense and Sensibility (Tour), Mrs Fairfax/Mrs Reed in Jane Eyre, Mrs Bennet in Pride & Prejudice (Rosemary Branch Theatre), Nurse in Romeo & Juliet (Young Shakespeare Company), Diana in Absent Friends, Ruth in Blithe Spirit, Grace Page in Game Plan, Dee in Jobson Roleplay, Adelaide Pinchin in Mysterious Mister Love, Jane Banbury in Fallen Angels (all in rep for MFP), She also provides the voice of on-hold marketing for various companies in the North of England.

JAMES WORDSWORTH (Demetrius, Snug, Fairy)

James trained in acting at The Courtyard Theatre in London. Previous credits include, The Prince in modern fairy-tale Waking Beauty, Jack in Jack and His Beanstalk, Wishy in Aladdin, Jon in a new musical The Girl In the Blue Coat. James also writes for stage and screen and has a short film being released this year titled Happiness starring Sophie Leigh Stone and directed by Dheeraj Akolkar. James works often with improv guru Dave Bourn and Sprout Ideas, and is part of The Rubiks improv company. James is delighted to be joining the sparkling cast and company of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Production gallery

Photography by Grgo Jelavić

CREATIVE TEAM
  • Executive Producers (Brilliant Events): Darija Mikulandra Žanetić & Jelena Maržić
  • Producer (Honey-tongued Theatre Productions): Filip Krenus
  • Director: Helen Tennison
  • Composer: Benedict Davies
  • Sound Design: Matt Eaton
  • Costume Designer: Bryony J. Thompson
  • Lighting Designer: Aleksandar Mondecar
  • Set Designer: Marin Gozze
  • Bollywood Choreographer: Sheetal Kapoor
  • Stage Manager: Virginia Bolfek
  • Assistant Director and Fight Director: Natalia Bogdanova
  • Assistant Costume Designer: Duška Nešić Dražić
  • Assistant Stage Manager: Andrea Marić
  • Hair and Make Up: Ivana Pleša
  • Sound System: Milan Tomašić, Fifi sound
  • Light System: Dubrovnik Summer Festival Team (Marko Mijatović, Maroje Kurajica, Antonio Ljubojević, Ivan Filipi, Marko Tikvica, Hrvoje Barbarić)
  • Technical Manager: Darko Ivanković, Studio DI
  • Graphic & Web Design: Davor Pukljak
  • Photographer: Andy Barker
    HELEN TENNISON (Director)

    Helen returns to Fort Lovrjenac having directed last year’s Hamlet and Midsummer Scene’s Twelfth Night, which also toured to Vienna’s English Theatre and The Bermuda Festival. As a freelance director, Helen has worked across the UK, Europe and in the United States for venues including Shakespeare’s Globe, Oxford Playhouse, Theatre Royal Winchester, Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, The Arcola and Soho Theatre. Her productions of Shakespeare include Antony and Cleopatra (Creation Theatre), Love’s Labour’s Lost and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (CSF), Hamlet, Measure for Measure and The Tempest (The Rosemary Branch), and Titus Andronicus (The University of South Florida). Helen’s tenure as Artist in Residence at the University of South Florida saw the creation of the multi-media Ravens, focused on women, race and identity in American history. With Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud and The Rosemary Branch Helen produced and directed multi Award nominated tours of Fay Weldon’s Breakfast With Emma, Sense and Sensibility and Wuthering Heights (which she also adapted). New writing includes work with Kate Kerrow for Women at RADA and The Night Before Christmas for the Herstory Festival. For five years Helen was Artistic Director of Barefeat Physical Theatre, directing numerous devised, physical performances. She has extensive education experience including work with in prisons and is committed to building links between theatre and the community. Work in development includes a new play for 2018 with Creation Theatre, research into the meeting point between naturalism and expressionism and an Arts Council supported interactive multi-media project inspired by The Rape of Lucrece. Helen is Head of the Two Year Acting Course at Drama Studio London. Her production of Alice in Wonderland is currently running at Bicester Village and Oxford University Parks.

    FILIP KRENUS (Creative Producer  – Honey-tongued Theatre Productions)

    Filip Krenus is celebrating the fifth anniversary of setting up Honey-tongued Theatre Productions this year. When he set it up in 2012, he aimed to create a cultural bridge between the United Kingdom and South-Eastern Europe. He set up and produced the first festival of Croatian contemporary drama in London Short Shrift , which was sponsored by the Croatian Ministry of Culture and the Embassy of the Republic of Croatia in the United Kingdom. The event featured five top Croatian playwrights and brought to London some of the best young Croatian actors and directors. He has launched Honey-tongued READINGS – a series of rehearsed readings of both British and South-Eastern European plays and has set up Honeybear Youth Theatre, the children’s theatre branch of Honey-tongued Theatre Productions. Hedgehog’s Home was its first production. In 2015 Filip has set up LittleBIG Shakespeare workshop series for young audiences. In Croatia, Filip has collaborated with several theatre companies. He has translated the comedy The Complete Works of William Shakespeare – Abridged for Teatar EXIT, one of the most acclaimed Croatian theatres. The translation served as a basis for the Croatian version of the project for which he was also assistant director. He also translated the works of the following playwrights into Croatian: Steven Berkoff, Jim Cartwright, Philip Ridley, Briony Lavery, Clare Dowie and Langford Wilson. For Short Shrift, he translated into English the plays by Croatian playwrights Vlatka Vorkapić and Dino Pešut. He is currently working on producing the UK premiere of Gloria by Ranko Marinković, a Croatian classic play which he has also translated into English. He has translated into English the comedy Uncle Maroje by one of the greatest Croatian and European Renaissance playwrights Marin Držić. Filip also translates for audio-visual media (Croatian National Television).

    NATALIA BOGDANOVA (Assistant Director and Fight Director)

    Natalia is a Russian actor and stage combatant, graduated from Drama Studio London in 2016. She is an intermediate actor/combatant and an Executive Committee representative at British Academy of Stage and Screen combat, and has been assisting stage combat instructors at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and Drama Studio London. In 2012, she was an interpreter and assistant to the associate director of Mamma Mia! In Moscow.

    BENEDICT DAVIES (Composer)

    As a musician, composer and producer, Ben has worked predominantly from his London based studio producing scores and soundtracks for film and theatre since 2001. Theatre works include Cinderella and Alice (Creation Theatre), Twelfth Night (Midsummer Scene), Wuthering Heights, Sense and Sensibility and Breakfast with Emma (Rosemary Branch/Tennison Quirk), Anthony and Cleopatra (Creation), Waterfall (Anu Kumar/Nitin Sawhney) and Pop’Pea (Theatre Du Chatelet). Ben’s educational projects have resulted in the composition of numerous original works for children’s musical theatre. Dramatic scores for film include Two to Tangle (Carparthia Pictures), The Hand You Are Dealt (Orchard Communications), Do You Know Why We’re Here? (Speakeasy), What If? (Orchard) with awards gained from film festivals such as World Media, Worldfest, Intercom, Midas and New York. As a pianist and keyboard player, Ben has performed with the North Sea Radio Orchestra, (Green Man Festival, Purcell Rooms, St Martin-in the-fields), William D Drake (Bush Hall), Harry Escott and Molly Nyman’s Samphire Band (Kings place) including live performance of Escott’s score to the film Shifty and of Vernon Elliot’s original scores for BBC series The Clangers. Ben recently recorded and engineered William D Drakes much-appraised new album Revere Reach.

    BRYONY J. THOMPSON (Costume Designer)

    Originally from Seattle, Bryony J. Thompson is a freelance director, designer, and writer. She studied acting and costume design at Bennington College in Vermont and was an Artistic Associate at the Rosemary Branch Theatre 2011-2016. She directed and designed Romeo & Juliet (Rosemary Branch, 2012), directed, designed and adapted Jane Eyre (Rosemary Branch 2013 and Rosemary Branch & tour 2014).  In 2014 she directed the world premiere of Spirit Harbour, a contemporary opera, for Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, which was later performed at the Tête à Tête Opera Festival King’s Cross, and directed pluck. Productions’ inaugural project, The Cow Play by Ed Harris. In 2015, she directed, adapted and designed Pride & Prejudice for The Rosemary Branch and directed a new play, F.A.N.Y., for Anonymous Is A Woman, which toured the Midlands. Costume credits include Helen Tennison’s production of Wuthering Heights (Rosemary Branch, Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud, & tour), Twelfth Night for Honey-tongued Theatre Productions in Dubrovnik, Croatia (which later went on to Vienna’s English Theatre and the Bermuda Theatre Festival), and Empty Vessels (Rosemary Branch Theatre).  In 2016, Thompson remounted her production of Jane Eyre to celebrate Charlotte Bronte’s 200th birthday, directed Venus Quarry for pluck. Productions as part of Catford-Upon-Avon and directed, designed, and adapted a new production of Persuasion (Rosemary Branch Theatre and tour). This year, she made her own wedding dress and is endeavouring to get her adaptations published. You can follow her on twitter, @bryonyjoan, or find out more about her work here.

    MARIN GOZZE (Set Designer)

    Marin was born in Dubrovnik and graduated from the Academy of Applied Arts in Belgrade in 1969 under professor Milenko Šerban. He specialized in television set design on RAI Television in Rome in 1970 and in 1985 he became the set designer for Marin Držić Theatre in Dubrovnik. He has served two tenures as the Director of Marin Držić Theatre: 1991-1994 and 1998-2002. He is a member of the Croatian Applied Artists Association. He has created more than two hundred set designs and forty costume designs for theatres in Dubrovnik, Split, Zagreb, Varaždin, Osijek, Rijeka, Sarajevo, Mostar, Nova Gorica, Ljubljana, Maribor and Klagenfurt. He designed costumes for the first performance of Marin Držić’s work in Washington, USA. Marin is also a graphic designer and provides technical support and artistic direction for art exhibitions, and works as an interior designer. He is an external professor at the Arts Academy of the University of Split where he teaches set design. Marin has received numerous awards for his work at Croatian theatre festivals.

    ALEKSANDAR MONDECAR (Lighting Designer)

    Aleksandar grew up in the theatre and has spent 35 years in professional theatre lighting. He has worked with almost every director, set designer, choreographer and costume designer in Croatia, as well as many creatives from abroad and has designer for all the theatres and cultural cnetres in the country togheter with numerous theatres abroad, having a total of over 800 shows to his credit. He has worked with the Histrions Theatre, Zagreb for over twenty years on all their projects, as well as with many groups and festivals such as International Theatre Festival Jerusalem, International Theatre Festival Berlin, International Street Festival Graz, International Festival Gent and many more. He has held a series of seminars on stage lighting and taught at Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts in 1996. Aleksandar has won several awards and prizes, including the prestigious ‘Varaždin Baroque Evenings’, and special lighting design awards from NAJ festival and the ASSITEJ (International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People). His contribution to the development of culture in the Republic of Croatia earned him the personal appreciation of the Minister of Culture. Aleksandar wrote the first book about lighting design in Croatia – Introduction to Theatre Lighting which was published in 2000 and he is a Member of the Community of Croatian Artists since 2001.

    MATT EATON (Sound Designer)

    Matt is a sound designer and composer for theatre, film, television and latterly, video games. He is an associate artist at Creation Theatre in Oxford. Recent work includes: Hamlet (Midsummer Scene Festival, Fort Lovrjenac) , Furious Folly (Mark Anderson’s large scale outdoor dadaist theatre), Not the End of the World (EFF), The History Boys (UK Tour), Ravens and Titus Andronicus (USF, Florida), Kethra (Venetian Biennale of Architecture), Sense and Sensibility and Wuthering Heights (Yvonne Arnaud Theatre), Break The Floorboards (Watford Palace Theatre)), Medea (Rose Theatre, Kingston), King Lear, As You Like It, Alice, Treasure Island and The Wind in the Willows (Creation), The Taming of the Shrew, Grimm’s Tales, Alice in Wonderland and The Winter’s Tale (Guildford Shakespeare Company). Composer: Faust (Flatpack Film Festival), Great Scott (gonzomoose tour), Drowning on Dry Land (Tarrento Productions, Jermyn Street Theatre), The Picture of Dorian Gray (Trafalgar Studios), Dracula (tour), Helen (actors of Dionysus tour), Shadow Shows (Edinburgh International Film Festival); Nosferatu (Warwick Arts Centre), The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari (Midlands Arts Centre). On the Shore with Caution (Klangbad, Germany). Film & TV credits include: The Gambler (BBC Radio 3), Volkswagen and BT advertisements, Hallam Foe (Channel 4 Films), short films for Filmficciones and Bolex Brothers. Current Projects Under the Blossom that Hangs from the Bough (ACE sponsored commission for sound art and composition), Pool Panic (video game sound design). Matt writes and releases music with Birmingham musicians collective Pram on the Domino Recordings label. The group have toured extensively worldwide, and boast a critically acclaimed back catalogue. http://tinyurl.com/Matt-Eaton-Info

    SHEETAL KAPOOR (Bollywood Dance Choreographer)

    I started to learn Bollywood dancing from the age of 6. I have performed at numerous weddings and events since then. When I went to Aston University I learnt Bhangra and Hip Hop/Street Dance. I then became Co-President of the dance society there and started choreography for beginners and intermediates. I also spent some time being part of Aston’s Bhangra Team. Since then I have choreographed Bollywood and Bhangra dances for numerous weddings and events. I am very much looking forward to choreographing the dance in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

    ANDY BARKER (Photographer)

    Encompassing PR, advertising and conceptual photography, Andy has created the beautiful and the bold with her own distinct style. She is passionate and hard working about everything she does. She brings her digital expertise and attention to detail in all she creates. Most of all she loves being out there shooting because sometimes that’s where amazing things can happen by using her insight and intuition. www.andybarker.com

    ‘From Illyria to Elsinore’

    Photographic exhibition by Bari Goddard (1st – 7th July 2017, Sponza Palace)

    Bari Goddard has been working and exhibiting under the pseudonym G O D Photography for the last 15 years. His work encompasses film-making, photography, painting and music. This exhibition showcases images from ‘Hamlet’ and ‘Twelfth Night’ as well as scenes of Dubrovnik inspired by the plays of Marin Držić. A collaboration with the internationally renowned Croatian performer Josipa Lisac is being discussed for 2017 in Dubrovnik. Recent photographic exhibitions include the Embassy of the Republic of Croatia in London 2015 and 2016, the Louvre, Paris 2015 and Cave Gallery London 2015. Relatively new to film-making, he has completed visually outlandish videos for bands such as Danse Society, Sex Gang Children and Knives, as well as CD cover artwork for Andi Sex Gang and Wormhead amongst others. He has performed with the likes of Jimmy Somerville, Madonna, Cliff Richard, Banderas, Horse, Then Jerico etc. ‘Midsummer Scene / Night Dubrovnik’ his last exhibition in Croatia, opened in Dubrovnik, on June 2016 – commissioned by the City of Dubrovnik for their annual festival ‘Midsummer Scene’. ‘The 13’ , his most recent exhibition as part of the Photography group The 13 previewed at the Embassy of the Republic of Croatia in London from May 25th till June 26th. Bari Goddard’s exhibition traces both Dubrovnik and Midsummer Scene Festival during the Seasons 2015 and 2016, when the Festival staged critically acclaimed international box office hit ‘Twelfth Night’ and ‘Hamlet’ featuring the first woman in the titular role of the play on a major Croatian stage. In a blend of behind and on the stage photographs from Midsummer Scene productions, Illyria and Elsinore – two vital, almost mythical Shakespearean locations – come together with Bari Goddard’s unique portrait of Dubrovnik that has proved as the perfect stage for great classical theatre.

    www.flickr.com/photos/g_o_d__photographygod.photography@gmail.com

     

     

    Midsummer Scene and the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra present Midsummer Night’s Music

    Conductor: Slobodan Begić

    • Woodwind Quartet: Baroque Music
    • K. Jenkins: Palladio, Concerto Grosso for String Orchestra
    • N. Rota: , The Godfather Suitearr. R. Longfield
    • J. Horner: Music from Titanic, arr. C. Custer
    • H. Mancini: Salute to Mancini, arr. James Kazik
    • Woodwind Quartet: Baroque Music
    • J. Barry: Bond… James Bond, arr. R. Longfield
    • J. Lennon / P. McCartney: The Beatles Forever, arr. L. Moore
    • A. Piazzolla: Libertango, arr. D. Palanović
    • C. Gardel: Tango from “Scent of a Woman”
    • A.C. Jobim: Girl from Ipanema, arr. L. Moore
    • C. Santana: Santana in Concert, arr. L. Moore
    • L. Demetrio / P.B. Ruiz: Sway, arr. D. Butigan
    • F. Migliacci: Volare, arr. D. Butigan

    Narrators: Mark Thomas and Filip Krenus

    The Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra is a professional ensemble founded in 1925, as the Dubrovnik Philharmonic, later named the Dubrovnik City Orchestra and then until 1992, the Festival Symphony Orchestra. Its members are musicians with academic education, mostly from the Zagreb Academy of Music. Many of them are excellent soloists, which is a significant contribution to the Orchestra’s musical offer. Several original composers among its members make the Orchestra particularly recognizable within the musical circuits. Its list of concerts is very long, including tours all over Europe, in the US and Indonesia. The Orchestra performs a repertoire consisting of pieces by baroque, classical and romantic composers in concert venues such as the Rector’s Palace, churches and the city squares. In 2005, Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra was awarded the «Milka Trnina» prize, which is the most prestigious musical branch award in Croatia. In 2015, Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra celebrates 90th anniversary and it received a special acknowledgement for contributing repute and promotion of Dubrovnik.

    CELEBRATING 450 YEARS OF LEGACY OF THE GREAT
    CROATIAN RENAISSANCE PLAYWRIGHT MARIN DRŽIĆ
    Selected scenes from Držić’s comedy Uncle Maroje
    performed in English by the Midsummer Scene Festival Ensemble
    Music by Plazarius – Ensemble for early music
    Sponza Palace  6th July at 9:30 pm

    Following a rather successful and significant cooperation in 2016 achieved through the Shakespeare meets Držić program, the House of Marin Držić, a cultural institution of the City of Dubrovnik, and the Midsummer Scene Festival have again jointly prepared for you a special program in 2017, the year when we celebrate the 450th anniversary of the death of our greatest playwright Marin Držić (1567–2017). We have also strengthened this partnership by associating with the Society of Friends of Dubrovnik Antiques that preserves, nurtures and promotes the cultural heritage and legacy. The Society of Friends of Dubrovnik Antiquities has proven itself to be an institution that takes great care of our cultural heritage; it was established in 1952 as an association of citizens whose aim was to sensitize the public to Dubrovnik’s cultural and historical heritage. Furthermore, the Society of Friends of Dubrovnik Antiques, by taking care of the maintenance, protection and reconstruction of fortifications in the Dubrovnik area (this refers primarily to the city walls), makes them attractive for cultural tourism and offers them as an experience that will enable visitors to make contact with unique social, historical and cultural characteristics of the destination they are visiting. By its powerful initiative both locally and throughout Croatia, the House of Marin Držić has been promoting the importance and values of the legacy of the most famous Croatian playwright, and the Midsummer Scene Festival has been planning from the very beginning to set one of Držić’s works on stage in English and to promote it abroad and familiarize the foreign audience with his greatness and value.
    The aim of this project is to preserve and promote cultural heritage by familiarizing the audience outside the Croatian-speaking area with the life and work of Marin Držić and by getting them to know the rich legacy of our greatest playwright.
    We will try to bring the audience closer to the richness of the Renaissance “Držić language” translated into English. In the dramatic part of the Držić meets Shakespeare program, the actors from the Midsummer Scene Festival ensemble will revive the characters from the most famous work by Marin Držić, Uncle Maroje, by performing a dramatic reading in English. The event will be enriched by Renaissance music performed by the Early Music Ensemble Plazarius.