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Theatre South Carolina brings Robert Richmond of the Aquila Theatre Company back to Columbia to direct a new production of William Shakespeare's sublime comedy, As You Like It. The production opens April 20 at Drayton Hall Theater.
To read an independent review of this production,
click here.
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A pastoral comedy written in 1599 or early 1600, As You Like It is one of Shakespeare's most-performed comedies. Numerous lines from the play have become modern catch phrases, including "too much of a good thing" and "forever and a day." The play's Act II introduces the famed monologue that begins "All the world's a stage."
Set in a fanciful library where bookshelves become trees, Theatre South Carolina's production of As You Like It will be "totally theatrical, a comedy that can only be experienced live, in a theater," said Jim Hunter, theatre department chair and artistic director.
The play itself takes place in a forest where the characters are hiding from treachery at court or injustice in the family. To escape from threats in the King's Court, Rosalind packs her bags and heads for the Forest of Arden to find her banished father. She may be safe from murder, but there is no escaping the threat of love. In the company of jesters, dukes, and lovers, Shakespeare's most famous heroine uses her wit and wisdom to mend wicked hearts, redeem the wrongfully accused, and give a delicate lesson in love.
For Aquila Theatre, Richmond has directed 21 shows including Twelfth Night, The Importance of Being Earnest, and Cyrano de Bergerac. The New York Times has praised his productions, writing of one staging of a Shakespeare comedy, "No one who sees the rousing production by the excellent Aquila Theatre Company will forget a whit of it."
Richmond and the Aquila Theatre Company were residents at USC in the late 1990s. Columbia audiences may especially remember their staging of the Greek tragedy, The Oresteia.
Sets for As You Like It are designed by MFA student Craig Vetter. Costumes are by MFA student Angelina Herin, and lights are by MFA student Ian DelDuca. The cast is comprised of both graduate and undergraduate actors, including MFA acting candidates Jennifer Fine and Daryl Ball, who play Rosalind and Orlando.
4/07
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MFA acting candidates Daryl Ball and Jennifer Fine will play Orlando and Rosalind in Theatre South Carolina's As You Like It.
