Lady Shakes Theatre Company performs "Midsummer's Night Dream" at Redbud Park

TOPEKA (KSNT) - There is a new theater group in Topeka, called Lady Shakes Theatre Company.

Lady Shakes is an all-female theatre company that formed during the pandemic. Its primary focus is on Shakespeare and the classics with a gender-neutral focus in casting. They started work on Midsummer's Night Dream in September of 2020.

Their first performance for 2021 will be William Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream" at Redbud Park in the NOTO Arts District. Admission is free and guests are encouraged to bring a blanket or chairs.

Maeghan Bishop is the president of Lady Shakes Theatre Company and one of the company's founders.

Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy written by William Shakespeare in 1595. The play opens with Hermia who is in love with Lysander. Her father Egeus, demands that she wed Demetrius whom he has arranged for her to marry. Helena, Hermia's best friend, longs for Demetrius, who broke up with her to be with Hermia. Enraged, Egeus invokes an ancient Athenian law whereby a daughter needs to marry a suitor chosen by her father, or else face death. Theseus offers her another choice: to spend her life as a nun worshipping the goddess Diana.