'A Midsummer Night's Dream' closes this weekend

The final four performances of A Midsummer Night's Dream begin tonight. This is the last weekend to see this show, which audiences have called "a magnificent and intimate production. Such fine acting and a joy to witness!"

Tickets are going fast (as all closing weekends do). Get yours now on Brown Paper Tickets.

Strangeloop's intimate approach to William Shakespeare’s classic tale of love, magic and fairies features promenade-style staging, in which audience members move and sit amongst the action of the play with no formal differentiation between stage and seating.

The production takes place in the 1940s – a time period that shares with the ancient Athens of Shakespeare’s original setting political turmoil, war and the subduing of monstrous beasts (literal in one case, figurative in the other). But despite the unrest of the outside world, love still finds a place to bloom during this, the shortest night of the year.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream runs through May 25 at the side project theatre (1439 W. Jarvis Ave.) in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood (just steps from the Jarvis Red Line stop), at 8 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. on Sundays.

Fairy of The Day

Cobweb (Miona Lee), left, and Peaseblossom (Naomi Lindh), right, attende their mistress Titania (Caitlin Jackson) and her new love Bottom (Michael Houghton Wagman).

Previews for "A Midsummer Night's Dream" start on Thursday, April 24, with the show officially opening on Saturday, April 26.

Tickets are available in advance at Brown Paper Tickets. But to get you in the mood for magic, we've been featuring a fairy a day on our Facebook page.

Check out all our delightful fairies (and suggest your own), as well as photos from rehearsals and tech week.

Laissez les bons temps rouler

Romance and roux: Love comes a little early this year in Strangeloop Theatre's annual production, French With Me, which takes place Tuesday, February 11, at Signal Ensemble Theatre. The gala-style event features a series of vignettes written by up-and-coming playwrights that center around the theme of love. This year’s production – our fourth – takes on a New Orleans flavor in French With Me 4: French Quarter. The mimes are back again and this year finds them wandering around the French Quarter in their continuing story of love and loss and love again. In addition, the stories include a romance that buds outside a gender reveal party, the awkwardness of first dates and a husband and wife who fall in love with their own reflections. French With Me 4: French Quarter is: Cold Lonely Gaze written by Anthony Ellison; directed by Letitia Guillaud and featuring Peter Robards, Tyler Samples, Ashley Thornton and Michael Houghton Wagman A Date With the Weird written by Keith Gatchel; directed by Zack Florent and featuring Katie Galan, Adrienne Matzen and Mike Mazzocca French With Me conceived and directed by Maria Burnham and featuring Tim Lee and Holly Robison Hey, Good Lookin' written by Rich Orloff; directed by Josh Johnson and featuring Carrie Campana, Rob Grabowski and Dennis Schnell Kieran written by Michael Houghton Wagman; directed by Ben Campana and featuring Maria Burnham and Ken Miller Podemos? written by Georgia Knapp; directed by Juan Castaneda and featuring Gina Laguzza and Sally Wippman The reception begins at 7 p.m. with performances beginning at 8 p.m. Live music will follow from Big Dixie & The Pelican Whisperers, a local Dixieland band featuring the talents of Corbin Andrick on woodwinds, Joe Clark on trumpet, Jeff Livorsi on trombone, William Russell on tuba and David Agee on drums. Signal Ensemble Theatre is located at 1802 W. Berenice Avenue in Chicago. Tickets are $20 and still available at Brown Paper Tickets