Kleos is a Greek word that roughly means “glory; the epitome of a Greek man, earned through great deeds (war, quests, etc.).”  Badges of kleos included wealth, land, position/power, death on the battle field, a ballad being written in your name, and women.

Kleos is Demetrius' reason for wanting Hermia.  Helena truly loves Demetrius, and she also has a strong sense of kleos.  She is setting him up to be her rescuer (from the dangers of the woods), which would be a noble action on his part.  Perhaps one of her motives is trying to give Demetrius the kleos he is seeking by competing with Lysander.  In a sense, kleos is the real effect of the love-juice!  The flower just enhances the desire for it.  This is apparent in the way these Greek characters respond to the love spell.  Other societies (such as France or Italy which were common play settings) might turn to lust, so the play is set in Greece, because love and spouses are all a part of kleos!  The lovers are all fighting for kleos in the form of a spouse.

This is one reason why Puck does not undo the charm on Demetrius.  Puck has simply re-directed the desire for kleos to its original goal.  Puck is not coating over feelings of love for Hermia or even introducing feelings for Helena.  Rather, Puck is removing Hermia as a badge of kleos and Lysander as a competitor for said kleos. Demetrius truly loves Helena!

The Comedy of Errors is, on one level, as far from the seriousness of Hamlet as you can get!  It has the obligatory Shakespearean shipwreck to get the action going and then, not one, but two sets of identical twins who get mixed up with each other in farcical fashion throughout.  This has been such a fun show to put together and we hope you enjoy the humor as much as we have!  It has wordplay, physical comedy, general confusion, everything you could ask for in a couple of hours of leisure time on a weekend!  

But, on a deeper level, there is much food for thought.  Antipholus of Ephesus, raised at court with no knowledge of his family, sees every relationship in terms of power.  He and his wife aren’t happy, but have no idea what would fix anything (not that they aren’t trying in their own warped ways) and he has a pretty brutal relationship with his Dromio.  Antipholus of Syracuse was raised by his father, with the memory of lost family always before them; he has a much more brotherly relationship with his Dromio, and speaks of marriage in terms of service out of love for his intended wife.

The importance of fatherhood, the life of the son reflecting the “face” of his father, and the thoughtfulness about what makes a good marriage are all part of this play – though lightly presented and enjoyable purely on the level of laughter!  We hope you enjoy both!

The first time I ever cried over Shakespeare was when I studied Hamlet at the Omaha Homeschool Learning Center in the spring of 2022.  When I read plays, rarely do I feel attached to the characters in them, but this time I decided that I wanted to produce this show, hoping it could move an audience as it had moved me.

I tried to get a cast together to perform later that summer, but starting such a project so close to the deadline proved to be a bad idea, and I left Hamlet to hang until next year.  However, even after getting a cast and a script, it wasn't all easy going!  It took an extra month to find a King Claudius (thank you Sam!), multiple people were going on vacation, actors needed understudies, and I began to see why one does not have anything to do with another production when they are in the middle of performing Macbeth!

But once we got started, I found it difficult to stay stressed very long; there was always something to smile about at every rehearsal.  An actor had done some phenomenal character work, a piece of difficult blocking had been achieved, or sometimes, a mistake was made that had the whole cast roaring with laughter!  All of these were amazing, and even the less amazing moments were useful for learning.

One thing that I will never forget is how much work the cast put into this show.  People who were going on vacation still brought their scripts and memorized their lines in the car.  And as performance day drew near, a few cast members stepped up and invited everyone over to their house for a last-minute extra rehearsal.  It was moments like those that let me realize just how serious everyone was about this production, and I felt so blessed to be working alongside other people who cared about Hamlet as much as I did!