What if it proved true that the ancestors of the Native-American Lenape tribe - also known as the Delaware - had been lurking in spirit form in New York's Central Park for centuries? Lurking ever since Peter Minuet suckered them into selling him Manhattan Island for $24 plus trinkets? Lurking in the quiet of night, eager to play practical jokes on the island's now-dominant white folks?

This fanciful premise is a major element in director Glenn Bugala's Ann Arbor Civic Theatre Production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," opening for two weeks Thursday on Civic's stage. In fact, this semi-modern twist on Shakespeare's original pits two antithetical societies - the spirit world of the Lenape and Depression-era, gangster-riddled New York City - in fractious though far from lethal combat.

Bugala declares unabashedly that he's not into staging the Bard in traditional time, garb and acting style. "I believe that Americans should bring their own viewpoint to productions of Shakespeare," he says. "As George Bernard Shaw said, 'We are two countries separated by a common language."'

Thus, "by setting the play in New York in the 1930s, we have used an American city to focus directly on the play's central theme of propriety versus nature. The Central Park area is a place where nature and high society are literally across the street from each other. By setting the show in the '30s, we can utilize screwball comedy techniques, take advantage of the swing craze, and look at the separation of the classes in sharp contrast."

And what of Shakespeare's fairy world, now transformed into a Lenape spirit world? "In looking for ways to make the spirits become part of nature," Bugala says, "I asked myself, 'What kind of magic would be deep in the earth of Central Park?' I decided the best way to express it was through the magic and nature spirits of Native Americans from that area."

The director says he liked placing "Midsummer" in 1930s New York "because, for one thing, Central Park was a relatively safe place back then," and also because the era seemed to fit the play. In Civic's version Athenian ruler Duke Theseus (played by Brian Harcourt) is a Mafia overlord whose plan to marry daughter Hermia (Emily Perryman) to Demetrius (Mathias Maloff) is central to his grand scheme to unite two warring Cosa Nostra families.

"The 1930s also work for the tradesmen (i.e. Mechanicals) who are putting on a play for Theseus. Why would tradesman put on a play for a powerful man? The answer is that they can't get work because of the Depression."

As for the park spirits, "Shakespeare wrote them as magical fairy sprites named after herbs and insects," Bugala points out. "I knew I would want to pull from the nature and traditions found in New York's physical earth. The logical choice came in the form of Native American spirits."

Bugala proceeded to do extensive research on the Lenape, including "their spirit hierarchy, their dance and music traditions, and something of their clothing. After reading numerous books and contacting several Native-American sources including the Lenape in Oklahoma, I felt confident enough to proceed."The show's vigorous swing dancing has been choreographed by Ian Stines, who's also a member of the cast.

Other major cast members include Eun Joo Shuh as a female Puck, Ryan Shaver as Oberon, Jennifer White as Titania, Jimmy Dee Arnold as Peter Quince, Susie Berneis as Egeus, and Marihelen Hemingway as Hippolyta (played here as a trophy wife won by Theseus from a dead rival gangster).

Behind-the-scenes artists including set designer Mike Sielaff and costume designer Joan Korastinsky. Bugala calls the play's setting "a place in the American consciousness where nature and propriety live side by side. I think that all of the (mortal) characters in one way or another have to deal with the problem of behaving out of duty or following their natures. The humans who go into the woods ultimately are helped by the nature spirits, who guide them haphazardly toward their own true natures."