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Our new musical for schools A Midsummer Night's Dream has been adapted from Shakespeare's play and makes an ideal musical performance lasting about 1 hour. .

The play has eight catchy songs to learn, a script which is full of fun and mischief, and opportunities to include performers from many year groups with parts that are both big鈥nd small. On the pages below you'll find videos of the songs, backing tracks to download and sheet music to help you rehearse鈥verything you need to stage a memorable performance that everyone will enjoy.

The songs

1. What a Lovely Midsummer Day

The opening song is an upbeat celebration of the forthcoming marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta.

1. What a Lovely Midsummer Day

2. Meet the Mechanicals

The Mechanicals have their own comic song with a rap solo for Nick Bottom.

2. Meet the Mechanicals

3. The Land of the Fairies

A hushed, magical song - tinged with Celtic folk - for the woodland fairies.

3. The Land of the Fairies

4. The Flower's Spell

A song about the power of the magic flower - the cause of all the confusion and mayhem.

4. The Flower's Spell

5. The Man of My Dreams

A comic love song for Titania and Bottom - now transformed into a donkey.

5. The Man of My Dreams

6. Love Rectangle

A song for the angry and confused young lovers - with a hint of Gilbert and Sullivan.

6. Love Rectangle

7. By the Morning Light

The lovers are reunited in the morning and the action moves towards a party.

7. By the Morning Light

8. What a Lovely Midsummer Night

'If we shadows have offended ...' A stirring finale, with snatches from some earlier songs.

8. What a Lovely Midsummer Night

Resources

Download / print the script (pdf)

A Midsummer Night's Dream - A Musical for Schools

A medley of clips from the songs. video

Listen to a two-minute medley of clips from the eight songs.

A medley of clips from the songs

A visual guide to the names of the characters in the play (pdf)

Meet the characters

How to use these web pages

The content has been arranged around the eight songs to learn. On each page you will find:

  • A karaoke style video of the song with the lyrics appearing on screen. Use this to learn and rehearse the song with your group.
  • A karaoke style video of the instrumental version of the song - the 'backing track' (available in the 'Resources' section on each page). Use this to polish your performance once your group has become familiar with the song.
  • An episode of the story. Each song is closely linked to an animated episode of the story. You can use these episodes to ensure everyone is familiar with the events of the narrative and to offer performance tips for individuals playing the main characters in the play.
  • A downloadable mp3 file of the instrumental versions of the songs. These are intended for your performance.
  • A lyric sheet for each song. Distribute these for rehearsals when you are not using the online videos and to memorise the lyrics.
  • A copy of the sheet music for the song, for those schools who wish to rehearse with a pianist or make use of the chords.
  • A variety of additional resources to support your production - including images for settings that you can use to project as backdrops.

The musical has been specially-written to provide a large number of roles of varying sizes for both boys and girls鈥nd many roles where gender is not relevant. There are plenty of opportunities to include performers from a wide spread of year groups including younger children. The songs have been written to include opportunities for whole cast ensembles as well as solos and smaller groupings.

See also...

A Midsummer Night's Dream in our English section鈥

A Midsummer Night's Dream. collection

Shakespeare's play of love, magic and mayhem is adapted in eight short video animations.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

In our English section you'll find the eight animations of A Midsummer Night's Dream accompanied by a set of which include a comprehensive range of activities. You'll also find worksheets and transcripts of all the episodes to download / print.