Assistant Direction by Emma Ditnes

Seating is general admission.The house opens for seating at 6:30 PM.

Love, exile, politics, banishment, life in the court v. life in the forest, cross-dressing, sport, feuding families, unrequited love…As You Like It brings all of Shakespeare’s favorite topics and tricks together in one play.

Exile… Duke Senior has been forced into exile from the court by his usurping sister, Duchess Fredericka. He takes refuge in the Forest of Arden with a Squad of faithful friends—fellow lovers of music, food, laughter, and good conversation—including the melancholy Jaques. Meanwhile, Rosalind, daughter of Duke Senior, has been kept at court as a companion to her cousin and best friend, Celia (the Duchess Fredericka’s daughter).

Wrestling… Orlando de Boys, youngest son of the late Sir Rowland de Boys, has been kept in poverty by his eldest brother, Oliver de Boys, since their father’s death, while middle brother Jaques de Boys (not to be confused with the melancholy Jaques), has been sent to school. Orlando decides to seek his fortune by wrestling the renowned champion, Charles, at Fredericka’s court. There, Rosalind and Orlando meet and fall in love-at-first-sight.

Banishment… Duchess Fredericka banishes Rosalind, fearing that she is a threat to her rule and to Celia’s position in the court. But Celia, refusing to be parted from her cousin/bestie, hatches a plot for them to run away together to the Forest of Arden to seek Duke Senior. For safety, they disguise themselves – Rosalind as a boy, Ganymede, and Celia as his sister, Aliena – and persuade the court fool, Touchstone, to accompany them. Upon arriving, they meet the old shepherdess, Corin, who sets them up with a cottage on the outskirts of the Forest of Arden.

On hearing of a plot by his brother, Oliver to kill him, Orlando, accompanied by Adam (friend to Orlando and servant to Oliver), also flees to the Forest of Arden and soon happens upon the exiled Duke Senior. Orlando and Adam join up with Duke Senior and his Squad.

Love… Posting love poems through the forest, Orlando encounters Rosalind disguised as Ganymede. She challenges his love-sick state and suggests that he should practice and prove the strength of his love by wooing Ganymede as if he were Rosalind (thus, Rosalind pretends to be Ganymede pretending to be Rosalind).

Elsewhere in the Forest, other loves blossom: the young shepherd Silvius suffers unrequited love for the disdainful shepherdess, Phoebe, who has fallen for Ganymede, while Touchstone is pursuing the goat-herding Audrey.

Oliver—sent into the Forest by Duchess Fredericka to hunt down Orlando—has his own life saved by his brother. He becomes filled with remorse for his past behavior and falls in love with Aliena (aka Celia).

Frustrated by the pain of his love for Rosalind, Orlando is unable to continue wooing Ganymede, so Ganymede promises he will conjure up the real Rosalind and that all the lovers will finally be wed…

Fight Choreography by Brian Cowden. Original compositions by Zack McKenna