The new Mercer Island High School drama teacher and theater manager, Daniela Melgar, knew she had some pretty big shoes to fill when she took the job once held by Karen Campbell, who retired last spring.

“It’s been a really friendly community,” Melgar said. “The parents and students have been great, very supportive. Faculty and staff have been very helpful with my entrance here.”

Melgar came to MIHS from Eastside Catholic in Sammamish, where she taught English. But her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, as well as her heart, are in theater. Melgar has been performing and teaching in the Seattle area for five years.

She said this is a dream job for her.

“In the posting, they were looking for someone with theater experience and a teaching degree,” she said.

Originally from San Diego, Melgar received her master’s degree from the California Institute of the Arts. She did some acting in Los Angeles before moving here with her husband, a produce broker.

For her first production at MIHS, she chose to do a comedy accessible for all age groups, William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

A complex story with three different stories going on at the same time, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” revolves around lovers who are all in love with the wrong people, a group called “mechanicals,” with thespic ambitions, and fairies who take over the woods at night.

“This is a favorite of mine,” Melgar said. “I know it forward and backward. It’s a very magical play. It was my hook into Shakespeare.”

Most of her cast members were familiar with Shakespeare. Senior Ford Appleton plays a character called Francis Flute.

“I really like the diversity of the characters,” Appleton said.

Senior Anna Partridge, who plays the queen of the fairies, said “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” gives the actors the opportunity to be silly on stage.

“I think Shakespeare can be inaccessible; there are so many layers,” Partridge said. “But this play is hilarious.”

This is most definitely an ensemble cast, with 20 actors. No one is the lead or big star. To make it fresh, Melgar has set the action in the ’60s, with ’60s music. This is not a musical, but Melgar said there is a great deal of movement, especially to portray non-human entities. Even more fun, the play will be performed in the round, so the audience and actors will be in an intimate setting.

Many of the students/actors in the play have been in the drama program for several years. Senior Brianna Ford, who plays Hermia, is in her fourth year as a MIHS thespian. Ford, who also has vocal talent, is interested in an acting career, as is senior Jessica Kindred, who is looking at Cornish College of the Arts, as well as schools in New York and Boston after high school.

Costumes are being designed by costume designer Leslie Spero, one of Melgar’s connections, who has been designing costumes for 25 years. Spero created the elaborate headdress for the queen of the fairies, as well as a whimsical donkey head. She then pieced together the remaining costumes with odds and ends from past productions.

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” opens Thursday and will run through Saturday, then again Nov. 17-19 at MIHS, with performances at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 in advance, or $15 at the door. All of the proceeds are returned to the drama department for future productions.

Island Sound performances begin in December

Island Sound will begin their holiday season by performing Candy Land next month.

The show will be held on Dec. 10 at 7 p.m. and Dec. 11 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Both concerts take place at Mercer Island High School’s Performing Arts Center. Tickets are $15 and may be purchased at the door. For more information, contact 232-8007.