Evanston actors in mid-winter ‘Midsummer’

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Ron Orbach (left), and Tim Kazurinsky as Mechanicals putting on a play for the royals in "A Midsummer Night's Dream." | Photo by Peter Bosy

Updated: January 31, 2012 8:26PM

Two Evanston actors play the guys in charge in Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

Timothy Edward Kane has the dual roles of Theseus, Duke of Athens, and Oberon, King of the Fairies. Tim Kazurinsky plays the carpenter Peter Quince, who has the frustrating responsibility of leading the other Mechanicals as they prepare a play to present for the Duke and his wife Hippolyta.

This is Kane’s fourteenth production with Chicago Shakespeare Theater. “The material is always very, very good — being Shakespeare,” Kane joked, adding on a more serious note that he loves “the opportunity to do it in such exuberant, lively and full-blooded productions. They have the resources to make the play come alive.”

This is the second time that Kane has played the roles of Theseus and Oberon at the theater under Gary Griffin’s direction. He was in a Short Shakespeare family production of the play about eight years ago.

Kane noted that in this production, “Gary’s idea was to represent that in the forest, or in the dream of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ the characters’ subconscious is represented to a certain extent.”

Women problems

Parallels can be drawn between Kane’s two characters. “Theseus and Oberon are connected in terms of their relationships with their wife and fiancé, respectively — their feelings about these women, their power, the love they feel for them and the complications of what each wants from each other. You have Theseus first. Then you have Oberon working through a bunch of issues with Titania and then it seems as though Theseus has come to some understanding since we’ve seen him last and perhaps he’s learned something through the dream.”

Being onstage is a rare treat for Kazurinsky, who launched his performing career at the Second City and then appeared on TV’s “Saturday Night Live,” but has been a screenwriter for the last 20-plus years.

Kazurinsky was lured back to the stage by an acting friend. “George Wendt had invited me to do ‘The Odd Couple’ in Kansas City, playing Felix to his Oscar in March,” he said. It was such an enjoyable experience that Kazurinsky told his agent that he would be interested in doing more theater.

“Next thing I know there’s an audition and bingo-bango, I’m doing Shakespeare,” Kazurinsky said. The actor admitted that nothing has prepared him for this experience. “It’s like going right after the high-wire act,” he said. “I cut my teeth at Second City. Then I did little things at small black box theaters where you brought your own wardrobe. This is an incredible operation. At the first meeting I said, ‘Are we putting on a show or are we invading Vietnam?’ There’s so many people and the great thing is they’re all so nice. Everyone’s there to help you.”

Luckily, Kazurinsky shares some skills with his character, who wrote and is directing the play-within-a-play. “I am an author and I have directed a few television things,” he said.

Some nerves

Kazurinsky described Peter Quince as “sort of a nervous character.” That characterization turned out to be inadvertent. “The first day of my audition, I was a little overwhelmed at going to that place and I was running a bit late so I was a bit on the nervous side,” he explained. “That sort of led to my portraying him as a nervous type.”

He noted that the carpenter “has his hands full with his difficult cast — his fellow masons and craftsmen. He’s trying to remind them that he’s the boss, but not too successfully.”

Despite the fact that he gets little respect from his fellow Mechanicals, Quince “is actually pretty clever because he puts together this troupe,” Kazurinsky said. “Their performance turns out to be good and charming and amusing.”

Kane concluded that he believes audiences might find Griffin’s staging of this work, “surprising in the most positive way.” They will learn, “This isn’t just a story of mistaken identity and love, and star-crossed lovers, all the wackiness that ensues and the play within a play. There are themes about recognizing certain parts of yourself, dealing with them, being open and honest, and the responsibility of love.”