PACT Presents Two Weekends of Shakespeare's As You Like It to Benefit Meals on Wheels
PACT during dress rehearsal at Jackson Park. Photo Credit: David Mackintosh
By Cole Goodwin
Performances at the Adult Center Theater (PACT) will present four performances of Shakespeare’s As You Like It LIVE and onstage at Jackson Park Theater on September 10th, 11th, 17th, and 18th at 6 p.m.
The show will be the first in-person theater performance PACT has put on since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“For covid safety reasons we were particularly inspired to do an outdoor production,” said Sullivan Mackintosh, Director of the show, “And that’s why we chose As You Like It, because the play has a pastoral setting, the park environment really enhances the show. It’s exciting to be able to use a space that really suits the story and gives a 360-degree experience for the audience.”
Tickets are $20 for adults and $15 for students and seniors. Tickets are available upon arrival or can be purchased ahead of time at Waucoma Bookstore in Hood River, Klindt’s Bookstore in The Dalles, or online at Showtix4u. Proceeds will go to the local Meals on Wheels, which distributes nearly 200 meals to the community every day.
The audience will be required to mask in instances where social distancing is not possible, the audience was also encouraged to bring their own blanket or chairs for the lawn and to begin arriving as early as 5:30 as the show will begin at 6 p.m.
The cast of the show comes from all over the Gorge and contains new faces and veterans of community theater alike. It will be the first time this cast has acted together. PACT said they were looking forward to opening night with excitement.
“It’s been a really great time and the cast is just delighted to be able to do theater again,” said Mackintosh, “There’s a reason we all love the stage and it’s different than film where everything gets to be all neatly edited together- this is an experience, whatever happens, is whatever happens and the audience is in it with us and that’s the magic of it. It’s a shared experience and we’ve got our heartbeats all going together and that’s what we love about it. It’s all about sharing stories, we do it for the audience.”
About the Play
Shakespeare’s As You Like It, is a part comedy, part rom-com, part fairy tale.
It speaks to the universal truth of love, familial power struggles, gendered existences, and the chaos that they bring.
PACT during dress rehearsal at Jackson Park. Photo Credit: David Mackintosh
As You Like It follows disinherited nobleman Orlando and out-of-favor princess Rosalind, whose romance (new-kindled at a court wrestling match) is cut short when each of them are forced to flee from danger at home: Orlando from his jealous older brother Oliver, who’d like to be rid of Orlando for good; and Rosalind from her tyrannical uncle, Duke Frederick, who has stolen his title from Rosalind’s own father, Duke Senior.
Unbeknownst to one another, Orlando and Rosalind each end up running away to the Forest of Arden, where they encounter a Merry Men-like band of exiled nobles led by Duke Senior, the philosophical and melancholy lord Jaques, a crop of country shepherds, and eventually, one another.
Rosalind’s disguise as a young man (“Ganymede”) offers her more freedom, but matters are complicated by her inability to reveal herself to the doting Orlando. Her masculine presentation also carries the unlucky side-effect of garnering the affections of the young shepherdess Phebe, much to the dismay of both Rosalind herself and the Phebe-smitten Silvius. Fortunately, Rosalind/Ganymede has the (sometimes-grudging) support of her cousin Celia and the court jester Touchstone… who may yet find their own romances in the Forest of Arden!
“There’s a reason we still perform Shakespeare after 400 years. Shakespeare is for everyone. You don’t have to have studied it. You don’t have to know exactly what’s going on. That’s our job. We’re here to tell the story and make it fun,” said Mackintosh.
The Cast
Orlando - William Thayer-Daugherty
Adam, Corin - David Dye
Oliver - Kenji Stasiewicz
Charles, Jaques - Charlie Buss
Rosalind - Savannah Rogan
Celia - Emily Walker
Touchstone - Kathleen Morrow
Le Beu, Forest Lord, Audrey - Rosemary Shepardson
Duke Frederick, Duke Senior - Kendra Behn-Smith
City Lord, Forest Lord, Phebe - Ahmira Elyard-Jaeger
City Lord, Silvius - Theo Levine
Amyens, Martext, William, Brother - AveryDeane le’Swift
Page - Syl Perrin
Music - Bill Weiler
Director - Sullivan Mackintosh
PACT during dress rehearsal at Jackson Park. Photo Credit: David Mackintosh
Director’s Notes
By Sullivan Mackintosh
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is widely regarded as the greatest playwright of the English language, and for that reason is also perhaps the most overrated playwright of the English language. *gasp!* Overrated? Did she say overrated? Let me explain… We modern listeners have been taught that Shakespeare is difficult! over our heads! only to be enjoyed by the exceptionally well-educated!
But Shakespeare was never intended to be high-brow. He wrote for the masses, stealing stories from a wide array of sources, tweaking them to suit his own sense of narrative (and to draw a crowd). He was creating the popular entertainment of the day -- after all, there was no on-demand television streaming 400+ years ago! Sure, we aren’t going to understand every word, but neither did Shakespeare’s audiences. He’ll make sure you get the really important bits.
Although Shakespeare was well-known and well-regarded in his day (and even favored by royalty), he was not a rich man. He wrote to make a living and so he wrote what he thought would most delight -- often churning out plays during periods where the theatres were shut down due to outbreaks of the plague. Sound familiar?
And so here we are to share As You Like It with you, in all the glory of its villainous schemes, runaway princesses, over-the-top wrestling match, catchy music, clever disguises, confounding love triangles, and lost-and-found family. We’re honored by your presence here this evening.
