PIQUA — The Edison Stagelight Players will present William Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” April 8, 9, 15, 16, at 7:30 p.m. and April 17 at 3:30 p.m. All performances will be in the Robinson Theater of the Piqua Campus.
“As You Like It” is a breezy comedy about the art of courtship, young love among the sun-dappled trees and the potential for growth and change amidst social upheaval and altered circumstances. Like several of Shakespeare’s works, the play is also an exploration of how people reveal themselves and discover each other through speech.
The play is also an ancestor to the modern romamtic comedy, with a female protagonist who gets herself mixed up in an unusual relationship with her prospective boyfriend and must use all her wits to work things out, accompanied by all kinds of comic relief.
“We’ve set the play in a dream world out of the 1960s, which is in keeping with the text’s pastoral setting, its cast of social outcasts who have found a communal oasis in the wilderness and its theme of youthful romantics who become disillusioned with their elders in a time of political unrest. Plus there’s lots of music,” said director Jayson Grigsby, of New Bremen.
“Our costumer, William Loudermilk, is designing an array of outfits that reflect a range of brightly-colored ’60s styles, each tied to the three main groups of characters. As you might imagine, lighting is an important element of a play set in a ’60s milieu, and Ben Bullock will be handling this with a combination of naturalistic lighting for forest settings, as well as more psychedelic effects for key scenes,” Grigsby added.
Tickets cost $7 for adults, $5 for students, $3 for seniors; children 12 and under are admitted free with parental supervision. Tickets are available at 937-381-1502 and at the door.
