Not that long ago, in a park not so very far away, playwright, actor, and director Monica Stolfa took a group of powerful Jedi masters, fledglings, and foes on a journey that will culminate tonight when Ardmore Little Theatre presents “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at Ardmore’s Central Park.

This 2nd Annual Shakespeare in the Park production will open with a mighty lightsaber battle that is sure to awe and impress anyone who attends the free performances, set to begin at 7:30 p.m. Thursday tonight through Saturday on the park pavilion stage.

It was a year-long dream that Stolfa, who also directed last summer’s “Taming of the Shrew,” has nurtured. And her journey included a handful of Star Wars enthusiasts and thespians who all gathered for the first time on Oct. 15, 2023, to wield mighty swords made of PVC pipe and face off in epic battles of Light vs. Dark, all in the name of good theater and great fun.

Almost every Sunday afternoon since that day, the ragtag group of men, women and children met in various locations across the city to learn the basics of sword-fighting techniques under the guide of Stolfa and actor and die-hard Star Wars fan Josh Armstrong.

The opening battle of “Midsummer” features Armstrong and ALT actress LaTonya N’Kere battling each other as their characters Theseus and Hippolyta, who are under the spell of the Fairy King and Queen, Oberon and Titania. Instead of swords, like one might expect in a Shakespeare production, the two will duel with lightsabers. Although it’s not so strange once Stolfa explains her vision.

“I love Shakespeare, and just about every Shakespeare play has a sword fight. There was one small fight in our show ‘Taming of the Shrew,’ and I didn’t really know what I was doing. I think it was OK, but I wanted to do better,” she said. “The next show I wanted to do has a massive sword fight in it, so when I got onto YouTube and looked into the choreography of sword fighting, I found there’s a lot of people who like to learn sword fighting in a safe way. A lot of the fights were done with lightsabers. It’s a lot safer.”

This revelation led Stolfa to make a Facebook post asking if any of her theater friends were interested in doing lightsaber training to learn sword-fighting techniques. That first night in October, approximately 20 people of all ages showed up on the south lawn of Central Park ready to learn. Some wore dark hooded robes, both brown and black. Others dressed comfortably in jeans, athletic wear, and Star Wars T-shirts. All brought a sense of adventure and enthusiasm for this unusual venture that drew plenty of attention from other unsuspecting park visitors.

“We had families and kids come. There were women past 50, young ladies, and several men who showed up and they learned with me how to do the basic nine positions and we worked through that.”

Their weapons of choice were homemade lightsabers that Stolfa had constructed from PVC pipe.

“There are stage swords that you can use in plays. They’re not sharp, but they are heavy and you can hurt yourself if you don’t know what you’re doing with them. So, we made our practice sabers out of PVC pipe,” she said. “They took no more than 10 minutes each to make. It was easy. All of the materials can be found at any basic plumbing store.”

Stolfa graciously offered to make lightsabers for each group member, each one according to the individual’s specifications. She used ¾ PVC pipe schedule 40 for the sabers, finished them with end caps and wrapped the “hilt” with grip tape.

“The hilt, or handle, is 12 inches. The blade length is determined by holding your arm at a 90-degree angle and measuring from the middle of your chest to the tips of your fingers. That’s your blade. I wrapped the hilt in grip tape to make it easier to hold onto. From there, you can do whatever you want. You can paint them, write your names on them, whatever you want to do.”

Participants paired up and worked through the nine sword-fighting positions, alternating between offense and defense. As the weekly gatherings continued, they progressed to practicing inverted stances, body swings, and lightsaber swings.

Eventually, the group learned some of the actual Star Wars fight scenes, courtesy of Armstrong, who watched them and wrote down step-by-step numbered choreography using the nine basic positions.

“We learned how to strike and how to defend. The way Josh taught us was just nice and slow,” Stolfa said, adding that the link between Star Wars and Shakespeare comes by way of the Samurai masters whose sword-fighting skills were the basis of all lightsaber duels in the Star Wars films.

“George Lucas used master swordsmen to choreograph the fight scenes in the movies,” she said. “The best lightsaber choreography was done in the prequel series. It’s chaotic, yet orderly at the same time. You can see the beauty of it in old Samauri movies and films like ‘The Three Musketeers.’ My brothers and I would watch Michael York in the ’70s and we’d get long cardboard tubes and yardsticks and fight in the living room of our home, driving my mother crazy.”

Armstrong, 33, said he started as many kids do, in his yard using sticks to re-enact fight scenes from the movies. He was introduced to the original trilogy by his parents when he was between 6 and 8 years old, right before the prequels were released in theaters. When he got older, he graduated to more advanced lightsaber replicas. He now has his own saber that lights up and makes sound effects like the ones in the films.

“I didn’t start doing lightsaber duels until I was in college. Actually, a buddy of mine, who was a senior high school classmate, got me into making movies by lip synching songs. When we parted ways, I decided to keep filming, but just doing my own stuff,” he said. “I was more into action sequences at the time. I started filming myself battling my alter ego. It was hard, but fun. The editing made it look like I was actually fighting myself.”

A couple of years later, another friend who was interested in lightsaber duels approached Armstrong and the two started practicing at night using lighted sabers

“We did a trial round and approximately a month later, filmed what you guys saw at the park. That’s the only one I’ve filmed.”

YouTube is full of videos of others who have recorded their own lightsaber battles and created tutorials on how to do the different fights from the film series. Armstrong showed the group his original lightsaber fight that was mostly his own choreography mixed with moves from the fight between Anakin and Obi-Wan taken from “The Revenge of the Sith.”

“There are two levels of fans. You have Star Wars fans who watch the movies and appreciate them. Then you have the die-hard Star Wars fans who know the characters and the planets and the creatures and the fights by name.”

For the next step in the training, Armstrong posted a list of lightsaber duels on the group’s private Facebook page and asked members to pick the ones they wanted to learn. Each duel is named for the characters who face off against each other. He then studied each fight and wrote down the choreography using the basic numbered positions the group had originally learned.

“The great thing about lightsaber fighting is it’s not very aggressive,” Stolfa said. “People use it as exercise, physical concentration. I’m going to use it as a base for any swordfight I do in the future. It’s a graceful sport and you just look really cool when you do it.”

She has high hopes for the duel at the beginning of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” especially since it’s something unique, at least from her experience.

“I don’t recall ever seeing that complicated a choreography in a show on almost any stage I’ve seen fights on,” she said of Armstrong’s lightsaber duel. “Josh did a great job choreographing it and I hope everyone comes out and watches it. There’s a lot of nice movements and the way they move around onstage is impressive. I’m very pleased and hope people enjoy it. It’s something fairly new for us.”

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” will be presented at 7:30 p.m. tonight through Saturday at Ardmore’s Central Park. Admission is free. Those who come are encouraged to bring chairs or blankets and spend a night under the stars with Shakespeare and Ardmore Little Theatre. In case if rain, the production will move to The The Main Street Market. Check the Ardmore Little Theatre page for updates.