East Stroudsburg University’s Department of Theatre will present William Shakespeare’s beloved comedy, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The cast of students, directed by Jason Narvy, Ph.D., will welcome audiences through Sunday.

The show opened Thursday and will continue at 7:30 p.m. tonight and Saturday with a matinee at 2 p.m. Sunday. All performances are in the Smith McFarland Theatre of the university’s Fine Arts Building, Normal and Marguerite streets, East Stroudsburg.

Tickets are available online in advance at esu.edu/theatretickets.

Tickets will also be available at the box office one hour before curtain on performance dates.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of the most enchanting and endlessly performed plays in the English language. When a group of young lovers flee into an enchanted forest outside Athens, they find themselves caught in a web of magical mischief orchestrated by the fairy king Oberon, his queen Titania, and the mischievous Puck. Add in a troupe of well-meaning but bumbling amateur actors, and the result is a dizzying, hilarious, and ultimately tender celebration of love, imagination, and the absurdity of human desire.

Narvy, assistant professor of theatre, brings a modern twist to this classical work by tempting ESU student performers to make bold comedic choices that drive the entire show as poetic text being the blueprint. A Midsummer Night’s Dream seamlessly intertwines three worlds into one with fast-paced action with magic from lovers running away to a performer getting turned into a donkey’s head.

The cast of A Midsummer Night’s Dream includes: Brian De los Santos, a senior majoring in psychology from Tobyhanna as Lysander and Aaron Hernandez, a sophomore majoring in theatre from Albrightsville, as Puck.