New Jersey Stage November 2014 | Page 48

We can thank ARB’s dancers for their commitment to their roles. A more elaborate production is in the works, however, with scenery by Kevin Lee Allen Designs and costumes by Michelle Ferrranti. The Hamilton Stage event on October 17 was only a teaser for this ballet’s premiere, February 26-27, 2015, at the State Theatre in New Brunswick. According to company director Douglas Martin, who is choreographing the piece, another act remains to be added. Martin intends to create a prologue explaining how these characters- New Jersey Stage --the four lovers, especially---came to be chasing one another through the woods at night. This prologue will help distinguish Martin’s work from other versions of the ballet, especially Frederick Ashton’s “The Dream,” which Martin danced when he was in the Joffrey Ballet and which has served as his model. In the meantime, the core of the new “Midsummer” is already in place accompanied by Felix Mendelssohn’s famous incidental music and inspired by the mix‘n-match shenanigans of William Shakespeare’s play. November 2014 pg 48