Nick Bottom

Snug, read by Elizabeth Klett.

The Part of Bottom, read by Simon Taylor.

Bratis Flute, read by David Nicol.

Sonaut, a tinker, read by John Leader, Bloomington, Illinois.

Masters, spread yourselves.

Answer, as I call you.

Nick Bottom, the weaver.

Ready? Name what part I am for and proceed.

Read by Kathleen Watt.

Bottom, the weaver.

Read by Bob Gonzalez.

Flute, the bellows-mender.

For ere Demetrius looked on Hermia's eyne, He hailed down oaths that he was only mine, And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt, So he dissolved, and showers of oaths did melt.

i will go tell him of fair hermia's flight then to the wood will he to-morrow night pursue her and for his intelligence if i have thanks it is a dear expense but herein mean i to enrich my pain to have his sight thither and back again

exit helena scene two the same a room in a cottage Enter Snug, Bottom, Flute, Snout, Quince, and Starveling.

Is all our company here?

And he said, well, Ted, who are you? And Ted said, I'm Bottom.

And he said, no, Ted, who are you? And he said, well, I'm Bottom the Weaver.

He said, no, you're not.

But Ted, who are you? And said, I don't know, I'm a mechanical? He was lost.

Our popular tales tell us of a man who is so wise that he touches the supernatural, like Dr. Nicola.

But they never tell us, like the popular tales of the past, of a man who is so silly that he touched the supernatural, like Bottom the Weaver.

We do not understand the dark and transcendental sympathy between fairies and fools.

We understand a devout occultism, an evil occultism, a tragic occultism, but a farcical occultism is beyond us.

Nay, a man can be entirely great because he is entirely foolish.

We see this in all the great comic characters of all the great comic writers of whom Dickens was the last.

Bottom the Weaver is great because he is foolish.

Mr. Toots is great because he is foolish.

Gravedigger is a Shakespearean trope of these foolish men who come on, usually in a tragedy where people are like, God, I need a little bit of air, and that they will lighten the load by sort of explaining things in a silly way and kind of pondering the plot out loud.

But Bottom here, played by Kevin Kline...

He's an aspiring amateur dramatics actor, and he really wants to set the stage on fire.

Ends up being transformed into an ass-headed man.

I think they're of the summer court, so this is like playful stuff rather than the danger of others.

And then at the end, there's a whole extra act we don't need where the two new couples go back to David Strathern, who's like, we should see a play within a play.

Let's see what Bottom's got going on.

And in the end, a character who hasn't really been in it all that much, who's playing a Juliet type in this, uh ends up killing herself because her love is is dead and it's such a great performance even though it's supposed to be a comedy um actually no it's supposed to be a tragedy but also fun i don't know uh but the entire audience are moved by it and it's like yeah

Snug, read by Elizabeth Klett.

The Part of Bottom, read by Simon Taylor.

Bratis Flute, read by David Nicol.

Sonaut, a tinker, read by John Leader, Bloomington, Illinois.

Athens.

Quince's house.

Enter Quince, Snug, Bottom, Flute, Snout, and Starveling.

Is all our company here?

But really, it can be done at any time and also works if you do it alone.

When I was in sixth grade, I got to play the part of Nick Bottom in our class's production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Bottom is kind of the comedic star of the show.

At one point, he's turned into an ass by a fairy.