Las Vegas Weekly

August 11, 2009 · 1:23 PM

A pirate’s life for you: Midsummer Night’s Dream teases and tips

By Sarah Feldberg

702.tv Anchor Denise Spidle makes one helluva pirate. (Just look at that sneer!) Watch your back, Keira Knightley.

Photo: Sarah Feldberg

Ahoy, all ye scallywags and wenches. Banish thy scurvy and prepare thyself for a night of rum slinging and booty plundering. Arrrrrrrre you game?

Now that the mandatory pirate-speak is out of the way, let’s get on to the goods: For the third year running, the Playboy Mansion’s Shakespeare-inspired Midsummer Night’s Dream party is coming to Vegas. The epic feast of skin and sin, which was named one of the world’s top 100 parties by Forbes in 2006, is making its way to Vegas and dropping anchor at the Palms.

Plunder Our Pirate Booty

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Oh yeah, and it’s pirate-themed.

But this year’s bash is no ordinary scantily clad, hosted-bar, Playboy-affiliated soiree.

“This event is a little bit different … only because it follows a theme and a storyline,” explained Midsummer 2009 producer and artistic director Genevieve Cleary.

Cleary, who also produces the Cirque du Soleil-esque show at Perfecto every Saturday night, has pulled out all the stops for this Saturday’s poolside bash, employing scores of performers and actors all dressed to the nines and ready to engage the guests in what will truly be an interactive night on the town. As she sat in Ghostbar last week, discussing costuming, sets and activities for the party, Cleary juggled two cell phones, switching personas between enthusiastic party planner and meticulous producer as she talked into one line or the other.

“The guests are going to enter this amazing village that basically gets attacked by pirates at one point during the evening,” Cleary continued. “As the pirates get through the village, it adds on to the performers’ way of acting… At one point there’s going to be a real attack, and then… I won’t say who wins. You have to come.”

Sarah Feldberg

Booty!

And when you come – gents, tickets run $200 and ladies can purchase a ticket or sign up online to be one of Midsummer’s Dream Girls and enjoy the party free of charge – you will come in costume. A mask or costume is required for entrance, and Cleary’s well-engineered fantasy land, complete with torture chamber where guests will be imprisoned by beautiful guards, pirate ships and half-woman half-animal creatures that languish in cages, doesn’t work without you playing the part of Captain Double Shot.

“The guests are really a big part of the storyline this year,” Cleary emphasized. “We really based the story around the idea that the guests are going to be pirates and that our characters are going to be interacting with them as villagers, as mermaids, as different kinds of creatures that are inhabitants in this village. From 9 or 9:30 p.m. until 2 a.m., it’s pretty much a real-time movie.”

A movie of the R-rated variety, that is. If E!’s Wild On! were still on the air, they’d be taping here.

“Midsummer has been recognized as a very sensual – maybe a little sexual – event where I think people are really allowed to just let loose, let go and go as wild as they want wearing costumes, playing their parts and creating their own character throughout the evening,” Cleary explained. “We’re really trying to create a huge playground right now.

Sarah Feldberg

Mmm, tastes like mutton.

“If the guests aren’t costumed, the story doesn’t work. I need the people to get dressed, because the way we wrote the story they have a part that they’re playing. You’re not just going to be there to observe, you’re part of it. If we don’t have any pirates to trap inside the prison, there’s no torture chamber!”

Cleary says she appreciates guests putting their own creative twist on the pirate theme and taking on characters for the evening. Donning eyeliner and fake dreads a la Captain Jack Sparrow, while fitting, isn’t going to win you any points for originality. Savvy? (If you can translate music piracy into a costume, however, we’ll be impressed.)

Sarah Feldberg

Avast! I'll banish ye scallywags to Davy Jones' locker!

For mates with less than stellar costumes waiting around the house, check out the photos above of 702.tv Anchor Denise Spidle and Technical Director Ryan McAfee for inspiration, or poach these tips from Cleary herself for becoming an instant renegade of the dark seas:

*Don a fabulous eye patch: An eye patch adds instant credibility to any pirate, but Cleary suggests you take yours in a more blinged out direction. “Add fake diamonds to it; personalize it,” she offers. Pirates are, after all, just water-logged pimps.

*Brand thyself: Like prison inmates and Army personnel, every good pirate has a smattering of inky tattoos that reflect your love of violence, wenches, rum and treasure. Just make sure to tell everyone you used a shark’s tooth to etch it into your skin. No one brings tattoo guns on the high seas.

*Cover thy head: Much like the Nevada desert, the open ocean has a tendency to get hot and sunny (pirates prefer the south seas, of course), and no one likes a sunburned scalp. Grab a pirate hat or a bandana to cover your noggin and it can do double duty to soak up the sweat from a long hot night by the pool.

*Re-embrace skulls: Skulls were cool, trendy, then totally passé, but for this one night it’s totally above board to re-embrace the pirate emblem and rock it with pride. How are you supposed to intimidate commoners without a handy drawing of what you’ll do to them if they don’t give you all their gold?

*Wear red: We’re not exactly sure how red became the color of choice for the bandits of the high seas, but we know better than to question a pirate. Wear red, preferably with white stripes and try to avoid looking like a candy cane. Good luck!

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