Entertainment

If Jane Austen can go Bollywood in the film Bride & Prejudice, why not Shakespeare?

Junior Players is giving the Bard a Bollywood whirl with A Midsummer Night's Dream, presented in collaboration with Shakespeare Dallas, Tuesday through Aug. 3.

And that makes this Dream a dream come true for Junior Players program director Vikas Adam. Mr. Adam, 32, dates his start in Junior Players to 1992, when he was a shy junior at Richardson High School and was cast in Twelfth Night. It was the first year the company's teen troupe performed what would become its annual free Shakespeare production at Samuell-Grand Park's amphitheater.

He loved it, but it was a far cry from Mr. Adam's other favorite art form – the Bollywood movies he and his family enjoyed at home (Bollywood refers to the Mumbai-based Hindi-language film industry). For 16 years, his two worlds stayed separate. And then, this year, he talked to director Valerie Hauss-Smith about a way he thought the company could bring them together.

What if the lovers of A Midsummer Night's Dream were to profess their feelings in song, lip-synching in Hindi as Bollywood actors do? What if they all danced Bollywood style? What if Puck, the fairy who plays tricks on the mortals, were painted in blue as the Indian god Krishna traditionally is?

Ms. Hauss-Smith was intrigued. Wanting to know more about Indian culture, she went to an exhibit of Indian paintings at the Dallas Museum of Art.

"I looked at the gods and goddesses going into the woods meeting with humans," she says, "and said, 'This is incredible. This works for Midsummer,' " in which the lovers flee into the woods.

Under Ms. Hauss-Smith's direction, Mr. Adam has done the sound design, selected the music and provided the dramaturgy that keeps the Indian references authentic. Above all, he emphasizes the joyous nature of the form, which he compares to classic Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire musicals.

"The good guys win and the bad guys don't," Mr. Adam says. "The song starts and all of a sudden you have a dancing chorus supporting you in the wooing of your girl. Bollywood is like those Technicolor musicals with our own spicy twist."

It's also a sweet send-off for Mr. Adam, who will be leaving in the fall to pursue a master's degree in acting at the University of California, Los Angeles. By producing a show so steeped in his family's traditions, he has found a way to bring his parents (who are very excited about the show) and the friends he has made at Junior Players closer together.

•Attendees can bring their own food, beverages, blankets and chairs. Refreshments will also be sold and chairs will be available for rental.

WHAT THE ACTORS SAY

Here's how some of the cast members described their favorite Bollywood moments.

DENCIA BALTIMORE, 18 (plays Oberon, King of the Fairies)

"Definitely the dancing. I didn't know it was going to be so intense. I was sore for three days after the first rehearsal, but I love it. It's uplifting, it's exciting and joyous and ecstatic when everyone is dancing and smiling."

RAVEN GARCIA, 18 (plays Helena, one of the four lovers)

"I enjoy the music. My own song is called 'Crazy in Love.' Everything is very sensual, but we don't kiss. When I'm pursuing Demetrius, I break out into this song and I dance to him, and it's very fun."

MIRIAM KUZBARY, 17 (plays Titania, Queen of the Fairies)

"I like learning about languages, and learning Hindi has been fun. Even though you're lip-synching, you have to know the words to lip-synch the words. I know a little Arabic, and seeing the Arabic and Hindi words overlap is so interesting."

ISAAC FULLINWIDER, 18 (plays Puck, the biggest mischief-maker of the fairies, in full blue makeup)

"I'm happy to watch even when I'm not in a scene. When I'm not onstage, I'll find myself in the back singing one of the songs or making up stuff or tapping my feet. It's catchy music."