Director Gary Griffin has double-cast several key roles in this production. Playing both Theseus, the Duke of Athens and Oberon, King of the Fairies is Timothy Edward Kane in his thirteenth CST production. Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune named Mr. Kane's "jaw dropping" portrayal in An Iliad at Court Theatre earlier this season the #1 performance of 2011.

The roles of the Duke's fiancée, Hippolyta, and Titania, Queen of the Fairies are both played by Tracy Michelle Arnold. CST audiences will remember Ms. Arnold from her Jeff Award-nominated performance as Amanda Prynne in Private Lives, or from her work at Writers' Theatre, Northlight Theatre and Steppenwolf Theatre Company.

Much of the comic fuel for Dream is provided by the group of Athenian workers who endeavor to put on a play for Theseus and Hippolyta's wedding ceremony. The Second City alumnus and Evanston resident Tim Kazurinsky plays Quince, the leader of these plebeian thespians. Audiences will recognize Mr. Kazurinsky from his four seasons on Saturday Night Live and his roles in many films including Somewhere in Time and Police Academy II, III and IV. Quince has his hands full with the bombastically overconfident Bottom played by Ron Orbach. Mr. Orbach's impressive career includes numerous appearances on Broadway (Never Gonna Dance, Dance of the Vampires, Chicago, Laughter on the 23rd Floor), and creating the role of David O. Selznick in the world premiere of Moonlight and Magnolias. Snug the joiner (who portrays the rather timid lion in the play-within-the-play) is Richard Manera, whose CST credits include Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, The Tempest and the Olivier-Award winning Pacific Overtures at CST and The Donmar Warehouse in London.

Oberon's spritely jester Puck is played by Elizabeth Ledo, whose CST credits include As You Like It, Amadeus, Funk It Up About Nothin' and A Midsummer Night's Dream in CST's first season at Navy Pier. And returning for his eleventh CST production is Matt Schwader, whom audiences will remember as Orlando in As You Like It, Roderigo in Othello, and Claudio in Measure for Measure. Mr. Schwader plays Demetrius, a young man of Athens who is wildly in love with Hermia...until he falls wildly in love with Helena! "Lord, what fools these mortals be!"