The writer is cast as Demetrius in this summer’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, opening this weekend.

It is final dress rehearsal. We are in act two, scene one of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and it starts to pour. For our company, the rain means no show, because we perform at the amphitheatre in Vineyard Haven. The dirt paths quickly turn to mud and we take refuge under an old tarp propped up over our outdoor dressing rooms. Since the stage needs to dehydrate before we can use it again, we spend the rest of rehearsal partially soaked, doing a speed run-through of our lines. Tomorrow is opening night.

This scene took place on Wednesday before last night’s scheduled opening of Shakespeare’s famous romantic comedy that will run from July 15 to August 15, Wednesdays to Saturdays at 5 p.m.

In rehearsal, when not in a scene ourselves, we sit in the audience of the outdoor stage by the Tashmoo Overlook and watch our fellow actors work. It’s fun to watch the other scenes take form because soon we won’t be able to see them — we will be “backstage,” along the paths and woods.

The cast is young; no one is over the age of 40. As the cast comes together — completed with the addition of 10 children who are cast as little fairies (complementing the big fairies such as Oberon, Puck, Titania and her entourage of fairy attendants) — show time looms. It is at once exciting and stressful.

Some cast members acknowledge the four weeks of shows as a good thing: the long run will allow us to continue to hone our performances. On the other hand, when we hear director M.J. Bruder Munafo say, “You guys are doing wonderfully,” or “This is going to be so funny!” our confidence soars. And still there is that bit of nagging doubt: how the audience will respond?

For Ms. Bruder Munafo, directing the play is a labor of love. “I love this play so much,” she said on the first day of production. Indeed her love of the play is infused in all the actors’ performances — she has swiftly guided us in the three weeks that we have had to rehearse the play into a production that now needs the next step: an audience.

At the beginning of the run, Ms. Bruder Munafo said she was determined to have grass growing on the stage. While there is still much grass, the rambunctious antics of the cast have turned the once-lush center patch to dirt. Still there is greenery aplenty seeing as the trees that surround the amphitheater are so old that they truly are akin to the virgin forest outside of Athens where the play takes place.

The rehearsal process has been short yet action-packed, as virtually every member of the cast has dived into the vivid characters and relationships that the show holds. The characters of Theseus and Snug were cast late but by actors who nevertheless quickly got up to speed in this 90-minute version of Shakespeare’s three-hour long show. Ms. Bruder Munafo describes it as “short and snappy,” which is delightfully true. The play maintains pace while not omitting plot points, and it retains almost all the humor and beautiful language.

Rehearsals have had a casual, creative quality. Different actors will step in to read a role if someone is missing for the day, and small asides about the situations of the play are common, as we laugh our way through the scenes.

For those who have not seen or read the show, it is a fantastical play set mostly in the forest outside Athens, where four lovers (two girls and two boys) find themselves lost in the woods trying to find or stay with the one they love. When the “knavish sprite” Robin Goodfellow (or Puck) drops “fairy juice” (as the cast calls it) in their eyes, the object of their pining is switched by virtue of the fairy magic. Mayhem ensues. All the while the laborers, led by Bottom and Quince, are rehearsing a play to present to the Duke on his nuptial day. At the same time Oberon and Titania, king and the queen of the fairies, are having a feud, which shakes the ground for all the characters who have vget caught up in the crossfire.

It is a lighthearted story of love and quarreling, trickery and humor.

The cast includes: Victoria Campbell, Katie Clarke, Liz Hartford, Laurel Johnson, Zachary Kamin, Christopher Kann, Duncan MacMullen, Ben Mankoff, Chelsea McCarthy, Eliza McKelway, Ned Moore, Adam Petkus, Xavier Powers, Jon Ryan, Matthew Shear, Emma Urban and Anna Yukevich.

The rotating cast of “little fairies” includes: Annabelle Brothers, Faith Fecitt, Anya Kisselgof, Esme Lee, Isabelle Littlefield, Dauphine Michel, Ciara Seccombe and as woodsprite, James Seccombe. The show is being stage managed by Geneva Monks and Caity Crisp with the help of Ned Moore, and costumed by Chrysal Parrot and Susannah Hallagan.