Disclaimer: I own neither Cats nor A Midsummer Night's Dream, though both are fantastic plays. T.S. Eliot, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and William Shakespeare are great minds who left us great things. 3

A/N: Let's pretend the cats can read, eh? Otherwise, this entire setup just wouldn't work. I'll do my best to keep it as feline-like as possible, but my efforts might prove fruitless. We'll see, though.

Cast List and Rehearsals: Part 1

All the students in Gus's Theatre class were anxiously looking at the cast list for this year's Jellicle Ball performance. We had voted and decided on a performance of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and I was very excited to see what role I'd gotten. I made several attempts to push my way through the crowd, though to no avail. A small cat like me can't very well shove others aside.

"Oh my Everlasting Cat, I got a lead!" I heard a queen shout, though I couldn't distinguish who.

"Who in the world is Mustardseed? I've never heard of that person before…" another cat said.

"I think it's one of the fairies…" a tom replied.

"Jerrie, Oi got tha pa'ht Oi wan'ed!" Rumpleteazer exclaimed happily.

"'At's great, Teazah! Oi did too!" Mungojerrie exclaimed as well.

I really wished I could make it through the crowd. After a while, all the other cats in class began to depart, some with ecstatic grins on their faces, some with disappointed demeanors, and some with indifferent expressions. I finally made my way to the front to view the list.

CAST LIST:

THESEUS: Munkustrap

HIPPOLYTA: Demeter

EGEUS: Admetus

LYSANDER: Plato

HERMIA: Victoria

DEMETRIUS: Mistofelees

HELENA: Jemima

OBERON: Alonzo

TITANIA: Cassandra

PUCK: Rumpleteazer

PEASEBLOSSOM: Etcetera

COBWEB: Electra

MOTE: Sillabub

MUSTARDSEED: Exotica

ATTENDANTS: George, Carbucketty (attendants to Theseus); Coricopat, Tantomile (attendants to Hippolyta)

NICK BOTTOM: Mungojerrie

PETER QUINCE: Tumblebrutus

FRANCIS FLUTE: Victor

ROBIN STARVELING: Pouncival

SNUG: Bill Bailey

PHILOSTRATE: Asparagus Jr.

Oh, my Everlasting Cat, I got a lead! I wanted to burst with excitement. I broke out into song.

"I got a lead! I got a lead! I'm so excited, because I got a leading part!" Okay, I know, shabby song for Jellicle standards, but I was excited, okay?

"Jem, oh my goodness! You got Helena! I'm so happy for you," my best friend Electra said. She was happy in her part as a fairy.

"Thank you, Ele! I'm happy for you as Cobweb. That sounds exciting to play," I replied to her, smiling. Vicky came running up, squealing.

"Mima, Lecty, GUESS WHAT!" the white queen-kit yelled to us.

"What, Tori?" we asked in unison, knowing full well 'what'.

"I GOT THE PART OF HERMIA!!! AND PLATO IS LYSANDER! YAYYYY!" she screamed, kicking up dust in a fit of joy.

"Yes, Tori, we know," Ele joked.

"Calm down, chick. You're starting to sound like Etcy," I laughed. Victoria and Electra laughed. "If you didn't notice, I got the part of Helena, and Electra got the part of Cobweb…"

"Oh, well congratulations, guys! I'm happy for you both," she said, genuinely happy. "Well, I'd best be off to go find Cettie. Bye, guys!" She scampered off to go find her best friend.

Ele and I padded back over to the list, where we saw a small note at the bottom:

"Hello, young Thespians! I hope you all are satisfied with your roles, as I thought very hard about who would play which part. Now, please come see me at my office to come pick up your scripts. Get on those lines, Chitlins! I look forward to our first read-thru! -Gus the Theatre Cat"

"Hey, let's go now! I want to see my lines!" Ele said, excitedly.

"Okay!" I said, equally excited. How awesome is it to play a lead in a Shakespeare play? We trotted over to a big wooden box. The box was covered in playbills, tacked to the walls. "Professor Gus?" I called quietly.

"Come in, girls," our Theatre teacher said from the back of the box. We padded to the source of the voice.

"Here are your scripts, ladies. I encourage you to begin the task of line learning, as it can prove difficult sometimes. I'll see you Thursday for our first read-thru!" the kind old cat said. We smiled and waved, then walked out into the light of the afternoon.

"This should be so fun!" Ele said, happily. I nodded my head vigorously in agreement. We went to my den to work on lines.

=======================================Thursday======================================

"Okay, everyone, let's get warmed up!" Gus called out. We all formed a circle for warm-ups. We stretched and said the consonants. "Let's begin!"

Everyone pulled out their scripts.

"Now, Hippolyta, our nuptial hour
Draws on apace; four happy days bring in
Another moon: but O, methinks, how slow
This old moon wanes! she lingers my desires,
Like to a step-dame or a dowager
Long withering out a young man revenue." Munkustrap began, pausing every few seconds to ponder the pronunciation of a word or two. "Um, Gus, what does all this mean? I can't understand any of it…" the silver Tabby admitted.

"Sigh, I guess we're going to have to go the play and I'll translate what needs translating for you," Gus sighed. I didn't really need translation, personally. I rather enjoy reading Shakespeare, but that's intellectual little me, I suppose. The rest of the read-thru went very slowly, as Gus had to stop every few lines and explain something. It was very tedious. Finally, rehearsal was over. I went home to sleep, as it was dark and I was tired. I was very much looking forward to this play.

A/N: I know, I'm not using all the major players, and I'm using some uncommon characters, but I needed them to fill all the roles. I got this idea this morning, and I just had to write it. On a side note, I like the idea of Puck as a female, as it was in my high school's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. If you don't like the casting, I'm sorry, but I felt some of the roles were appropriate.