2002-2003 Season

by William Shakespeare
Directed by Richard Corley

The Acting Company presents a new production of Shakespeare’s story of love and exile. By beginning our production in a dressing room, showing actors preparing to perform, we highlight the notion we are all players and that who we are depends greatly on who you would like us to be. Throughout the play, actors change scenery in front of us – painted sculptures of sheep on rollers and a giant rose as a tree in the forest – presenting a colorful, playful world that allows the actors to make direct emotional connections to the audience. On one level, the play was clearly intended as a diverting amusement; several scenes in As You Like It are essentially skits made up of songs and joking banter. On a deeper level, the play is a journey of discovery, in which the characters gain knowledge of themselves and the world.

At its core, As You Like It presents us with the respective worldviews of Jacques, a chronically melancholy pessimist pre-occupied with the negative aspects of life and Rosalind, the play's heroine, who recognizes life's difficulties but holds fast to a positive attitude that is kind, playful and, above all, wise. There follows a series of variations exploring the stages of life, the natural vs. the man-made world, generosity vs. self-interest and, most especially, love in all its various forms – familial, platonic and romantic. Our enjoyment of this comedy is reinforced and validated by a humanistic philosophy gently woven into the text by a benevolent Shakespeare.

	Orlando (FLETCHER McTAGGART) woos the disguised Rosalind (JESSICA BATES) in The Acting Company's production of AS YOU LIKE IT.  Photo by Carol Rosegg.

Richard Corley is Artistic Director at Madison Repertory Theatre and an Artistic Associate of The Acting Company. He has directed at Hartford Stage, Arena Stage, Dallas Theatre Center, Magic Theatre in San Francisco, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Philadelphia Theatre Company, and the Sovremennik Theatre in Moscow. He recently directed the world premieres of Marlane Meyer’s The Mystery of Attraction and Jeffrey Hatcher’s Mercy of a Storm. He is a recipient of the TCG/NEA Director Fellowship.

Costume and Set Designer Marina Draghici won the Obie award for her design of the original production of Caryl Churchill’s Mad Forest.  She has designed extensively in opera and theater, including Andrei Serban’s Cymbeline at the New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park, Joanne Akalaitis’ The Visit at New York City Opera, and productions at Arena Stage, the Guthrie Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Hartford Stage, Lyon Opera Ballet, Paris Opera and Manhattan Theatre Club.

As You Like It continues The Acting Company’s 30-year commitment to producing the work of the world’s greatest playwright and is presented in touring repertory with Pulitzer Prize winner, Studs Terkel’s, American Dreams: Lost and Found.