Abstract:
This project is an adaptation of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, targeted at children in the fourth grade and above. It is told as a story through an ABCB pattern of rhyme, and although it is not written in a play format, it is still separated into acts and scenes with all of the action and events taken place in the same order as the original. Its objective is primarily to present Shakespeare's work to children in a way that interests and entertains them, and also to eliminate the Shakespearean language barrier that so often deters people from understanding and enjoying his work. This will hopefully make them more inclined to read Shakespeare later in life or at least give his work more of a chance.I provide a third-person narration to the story and keep the story as close to the original as possible. Because it is for children though, I did make some alterations. I changed all of the Athenian characters' names, with the exception of the workmen who have easily recognizable names, so that they would be easier for children to pronounce and remember; all of the changed names are close to the original characters' names though. I have kept the fairies' names the same because they are unique names, and I think this helps to distinguish them as different beings. Another deviation from the story is that I changed the Indian boy, that Titania has and Oberon covets, to an emerald. In Shakespeare's play, the basis for the feud between Titania and Oberon is the fact that Titania has something that Oberon wants, and I just thought that, for children, it was more appropriate for them to be fighting over an object rather than a person. Lastly, in my work, I omitted the threat of death against Hermia if she does not follow her father's demand that she marry Demetrius. I thought a punishment of death for this was a little extreme and, again, unnecessary, so instead of death, I say the punishment will be confinement to a nunnery.Overall, in my work, there are five acts and two scenes per act, with the exception of act five which only has one scene. I also provide my own introduction and a character list at the beginning of the play.
