Trivia / ISP Presents A Midsummer Night's Dream

• The Cast Showoff: Bottom’s character allowed his actor to ham it up as much as he wanted. Oberon’s character allowed his actor to gay it up as much as he wanted.
• The Danza: Not with names, but with nationalities. When Lysander insults Hermia by referring to her as an ‘African’, one of the fairies (a rather white one) raises a sign saying “I’m African”. The actress in question is in fact from South Africa.
• Throw It In!: So, so much. Many improvisations done by actors and even backstage during rehearsals made it to the final cut. This ranges from MLP references (see Shout Out) to rewriting lines (Bottom’s actor, for instance, cut down virtually all his lines during the Pyramus and Thisbe and fairy scenes, and added in his own) to Demetrius’s ‘ha-HA’ to Puck handing Oberon a shoe. Perhaps the most iconic example: Bottom’s donkey noises were improvised in an early rehearsal, and stuck.

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