INDIANAPOLIS — After a dozen solo show presentations, Tim Mooney is bringing his very first multi-actor show “Breakneck Midsummer Night’s Dream,” to the Indy Fringe Festival this year. Kansas City’s Beth Byrd-Lonski, and Maggie Killian, as well as Mooney and Sara “Schmoo” Cutlip, from Chicago will grace the stage. To add to this ensemble Chicago native, Chris Bruzzini, as well as Indy’s own Matt Anderson will perform.
“This merge of divergent (and distant) talents put us into a crazy Zoom preparation phase! Usually, for my own one-man shows, I get to stand whatever feels best to me at any given time,” said Mooney. ” But now I find myself choreographing moves for five other people, with little squiggles drawn on copies of the ground plan… ‘squiggles’ which live only in our collective imaginations until such time as we all meet up in person a few days in advance of the fringe!”
Since his first Indy appearance in 2010, Tim Mooney has brought ten shows to the Indy Fringe, including “Lot o’ Shakespeare,” “The Greatest Speech of All Time,” “Breakneck Julius Caesar,” “Shakespeare’s Histories,” “Breakneck Comedy of Errors,” “Breakneck Romeo & Juliet,” “Breakneck Twelfth Night,” and “Man Cave, a One-Man Sci-fi Climate Change Tragicomedy (Volumes I and II)!” It was his production of “Breakneck Hamlet” in 2015 that caught the eye of the late Christel DeHaan, who eventually named the Tim Mooney Repertory Theatre in Imlay City, Michigan, as the recipient of a very generous Legacy Grant.
Ironically, even 430 years later, “Midsummer” shows up on censorship list. The state of Florida restricted the teaching of “Midsummer Night’s Dream” to grades 10-12 only. (What’s the big issue? Well, a male performer, in DRAG, plays the female “Thisby” and Titania, the queen of the fairies, seems to enjoy intimate relations with a donkey… or as Shakespeare repeats AT GREAT LENGTH… “an ass.”) Despite the censors, the comedy “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” remains one of the Bard’s most popular and widely-performed plays.
“Breakneck Midsummer Night’s Dream” will play for six performances only at the District Theatre Main Stage, opening Friday, August 14 at 9:30 pm, followed by performances Sat, Aug 15 (11 am), Mon, Aug 17 (8 pm), Thu, Aug 20 (9:30 pm), Fri, Aug 21 (9:30 pm) and Sat, Aug 22 (5:00 pm). Tickets are $22 ($16 for Child/Student/Senior) with discounts for “flex passes” and are available on-line at IndyFringe.org and at the door.
