Puck (played by Sean Finerty, ’06) wakes up Lysander (played by Marcelo Pereira) after mistakenly giving him the love potion. Photos by Gavin Li
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A floor covered with crunchy fall leaves and a room lit by hanging light bulbs set the stage for an alumni theater troupe’s production of a Shakespeare classic this summer.

Bathwater Productions, a theater group founded in 2003 by five alumni (plus one alumnus of School of the Arts and of Saint Ignatius), performed A Midsummer Night’s Dream from Aug. 4-6, 11-13 and 18-20. The ensemble featured eight alumni.

Director Anne Marie Bookwalter, a Lowell alumna and daughter of drama teacher Teresa Bookwalter, chose to present the play in the black-box Steve Silver Theater where the small space helps incorporate the audience into the performance.

The simple set design, with the fall leaves on the ground, light bulbs hanging from the ceiling and no backdrop allowed the audience on the three sides of the theater to feel like they were in the scene themselves, with actors often entering and exiting from exits behind the seats. In one performance scene, Moonshine’s dog, played by actress Sarah Kingon’s dog Louis Pepper, jumped on the lap of an unsuspecting playgoer.

The theater department gave the second Lowell Theater Alumni Award to alumnus Andrew Vose (Class of '06) during the performance on Aug. 12. “He spent many hours helping direct the fall plays,” said Teresa Bookwalter, who chose Vose for the award for his support of the theater in an astounding fashion. “He also coached actors for the Ohlone competition and the Shakespeare monologue competition. He has a talent for working with young people.”

After directing The Green Bird, a commedia dell ’arte, at the Steve Silver last year, Anne Marie Bookwalter chose A Midsummer Night’s Dream because Shakespeare is her favorite playwright. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of my favorites because of the element of magic, the balance of comedy and violence, and because it so beautifully ties up at the end.”

A Midsummer Night’s Dream follows the intertwining storylines of four Athenians involved in a love web, the king and queen of the fairies, and six manual laborers who plan to put on a play for a wedding.

Special to their production of the play, Bathwater incorporates circus movements and always keeps the actors involved performing various percussion instruments and singing, even when off-stage. “We only work with live sound effects and music,” Anne Marie Bookwalter said. “It keeps the ensemble invested in the story, even when they’re not in the scene. Everyone is supporting everyone at every moment. It’s a Bathwater thing.”

Bathwater performed at Lowell because the troupe likes to connect to its roots, according to Anne Marie Bookwalter. “People feel food is best if locally grown and rooted. We feel the same way about art because when we produce art, we want to stay rooted in who we are and communicate what we want to give,” she said.

Eight members of the ensemble are alumni, including actors Lesley Benedict (Class of '03), Sean Finerty ('06), Sarah Kingon ('05), Andrew Vose ('06), Shannon Sullivan ('10), stage manager Jack Hamm ('11) and costumer Vanessa Yee ('06).