It has been a delight to start rehearsals for As You Like It This week! I am extra excited about this show because it will be performed for FREE in a lovely outdoor amphitheater in downtown Glendale.

It is my hope that this show will reach people who have never seen Shakespeare before and who maybe even haven’t seen much or any theatre before. I think this show can be a great entry point for those people in particular because while As You Like It might not be the most well known of Shakespeare’s plays, or even the clearest or most easily traceable plot, it is full of strong ladies, forgiveness, and FUN!

I can’t think of a more perfect play to direct during a year that is trying to focus on fun. There are people making fools of themselves because they are so in love, clowns, fools, music, shepherds, and a lot of wacky little moments.

This is a cut version of the play, which gave me some room to play with it a bit when cutting it and to really think about what aspects I wanted to be sure remained in this shorter version, which themes I really wanted to focus on. I keep coming back to the idea that the theatre is my very own Forest of Arden. More on this to come… either in a blog post or director’s note…

So with that in mind, blog posts will be a once a week affair for the month of March. My time is being focused on rehearsals, and starting today my writing will be focused on Lenten letters. I hope if you are a reader in the Phoenix-metro area that you will make sure to come see As You Like it during the first or second weekend in April!