Sunburst Foundation

Upcoming Events

SUNDAY, AUGUST 8: Live Music, Sparky & Rhonda, 6pm, Jax by Night.
Sparky and Rhonda Rucker perform throughout the U.S. as well as overseas, singing
songs and telling stories from the American folk tradition. Sparky Rucker has been
performing over forty years and is internationally recognized as a leading folklorist,
musician, historian, storyteller, and author. He accompanies himself with fingerstyle
picking and bottleneck blues guitar, banjo, and spoons. Rhonda Rucker is an
accomplished harmonica, piano, banjo, and bones player, and also adds vocal
harmonies to their songs. Sparky and Rhonda are sure to deliver an uplifting
presentation of toe-tapping music spiced with humor, history, and tall tales. They
take their audience on an educational and emotional journey that ranges from
poignant stories of slavery and war to an amusing rendition of a Brer Rabbit tale or
their witty commentaries on current events. Their music includes a variety of
old-time blues, slave songs, Appalachian music, spirituals, ballads, work songs, Civil
War music, cowboy music, railroad songs, and a few of their own original
compositions. CONCERT IS BY DONATION.

MONDAY, AUGUST 23: Shakespeare in the Park, 6pm, Historical Village.
"A Midsummer Night's Dream" The play features three interlocking plots,
connected by a celebration of the wedding of Duke Theseus of Athens and the
Amazonian queen, Hippolyta, and set simultaneously in the woodland, and in the
realm of Fairyland, under the light of the moon. In the opening scene, Hermia refuses
to follow her father Egeus's instructions for her to marry his chosen man, Demetrius.
In response, Egeus quotes before Theseus an ancient Athenian law whereby a
daughter must marry the suitor chosen by her father, or else face death. Theseus
offers her another choice: lifelong chastity worshipping the goddess Diana as a nun.
Hermia and her lover Lysander decide to elope by escaping through the forest at
night, intending to escape from Athens, and marry in the house of Lysander's aunt.
Hermia informs her friend Helena, but Helena has recently been rejected by Demetrius
and decides to win back his favour by revealing the plan to him. Demetrius, followed
doggedly by Helena, chases Hermia. Hermia and Lysander, believing themselves
safely out of reach, fall asleep in the woods.

Meanwhile, Oberon, king of the fairies, and his queen, Titania, were in the forest
outside Athens. Titania tells Oberon that she plans to stay there until after she has
attended Theseus and Hippolyta's wedding. Oberon and Titania are estranged
because Titania refuses to give her Indian changeling to Oberon for use as his
"knight" or "henchman," since the child's mother was one of Titania's worshippers.
Oberon seeks to punish Titania's disobedience, so he calls for the mischievous Puck
(also called Hobgoblin and Robin Goodfellow) to help him apply a magical juice from a
flower called "love-in-idleness", which when applied to a person's eyelids while
sleeping makes the victim fall in love with the first living thing seen upon awakening.
He instructs Puck to retrieve the flower so that he can make Titania fall in love with
the first thing she sees when waking from sleep, which he is sure will be an animal of
the forest. Oberon's intent is to shame Titania into giving up the little Indian boy. He
says, "ere I take this charm from off her sight, / As I can take it with another herb, /
I'll make her render up her page to me."

Having seen Demetrius act cruelly toward Helena, Oberon orders Puck to spread
some of the magical juice from the flower on the eyelids of the young Athenian man.
Instead, Puck mistakes Lysander for Demetrius, not having actually seen either
before. Helena, coming across him, wakes him while attempting to determine whether
he is dead or asleep. Upon this happening, Lysander immediately falls in love with
Helena since he is still under the influence of the flower. Oberon sees Demetrius still
following Hermia and is enraged. When Demetrius decides to go to sleep, Oberon
sends Puck to get Helena while he charms Demetrius' eyes. Upon waking up, he sees
Helena. Now, both men are in pursuit of Helena. However, she is convinced that her
two suitors are mocking her, as neither loved her originally. Hermia is at a loss to see
why her lover has abandoned her, and accuses Helena of stealing Lysander away
from her. The four quarrel with each other until Lysander and Demetrius become so
enraged that they seek a place to duel each other to the death to prove whose love
for Helena is the greatest. Oberon orders Puck to keep Lysander and Demetrius from
catching up with one another and to remove the charm from Lysander, so that he
goes back to being in love with Hermia.

Meanwhile, a band of six lower-class labourers have arranged to perform a play about
Pyramus and Thisbe for Theseus' wedding and venture into the forest, near Titania's
bower, for their rehearsal. Nick Bottom, a stage-struck weaver, is spotted by Puck,
who transforms his head into that of a donkey. When Bottom returns for his next
lines, the other workmen take one look at him and run screaming in terror.
Determined to wait for his friends, he begins to sing to himself. Titania is awakened
by Bottom's singing and immediately falls in love with him. She treats him like a
nobleman and lavishes him with attention. While in this state of devotion, she
encounters Oberon and casually gives him the Indian boy. Having achieved his goals,
Oberon releases Titania and orders Puck to remove the donkey's head from Bottom.
The magical enchantment is removed from Lysander but is allowed to remain on
Demetrius, so that he may reciprocate Helena's love.

The fairies then disappear, and Theseus and Hippolyta arrive on the scene, during an
early morning hunt. They wake the lovers and, since Demetrius doesn't love Hermia
anymore, Theseus over-rules Egeus's demands and arranges a group wedding. The
lovers decide that the night's events must have been a dream. After they all exit,
Bottom awakes, and he too decides that he must have experienced a dream "past
the wit of man." In Athens, Theseus, Hippolyta and the lovers watch the six workmen
perform Pyramus and Thisbe. The play is badly performed but gives everyone
pleasure regardless, and afterward everyone retires to bed. Afterwards, Oberon,
Titania, Puck, and other fairies enter, and bless the house and its occupants with
good fortune.

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To be notified by email regarding upcoming arts-related events, please
contact the Sunburst Foundation at mtsunburst@yahoo.com.

CALL 297-0197 FOR MORE INFORMATION.