As You Like It

Lately I’ve been really struck by the division between generations in As You Like It. This is a play about extremely different fathers, and the ways that a new generation always has to reinvent the world they live in. I began thinking about periods in American culture where the generational divide felt especially keen; where the idea of inventing a “new” kind of lifestyle was foremost. I began to think about my own youth, growing up in Northern California, the daughter of an architect and a weaver, and how much nostalgia I felt for, well . . . not the ’60s, exactly, but an idea of the ’60s. Along with my remarkable design team, we began to imagine building a world for this production that is set now, or really in the near future—but inspired by a kind of dream of the ’60s, a countercultural Arcadia. This adventure begins in a Court that is stylish but restrictive. A world where music isn’t allowed, where women must wear hip but uncomfortable shoes, where the only form of entertainment seems to be violence. And then, when our Rosalind is banished, we discover with her that there is an alternative to this plastic Court: a world where craftspeople and music are everywhere. This Forest of Arden is a kind of dream of a better world, where each individual is challenged to reinvent and define themselves . . . and maybe even find their soulmates.

In the world of the Court, families are treacherous; in Arden, families seem to be chosen, and created out of whole cloth. The energy of music, and of making things, attracts even the darkest souls. The terrors of falling in love, declaring that love, the rituals of dancing and hunting and building a more chaotic + pagan + equitable world are all themes running rampant through this hippie fantasia of a play. Maybe we all dream of a wilder, better place where we can be our best selves. I invite you all to journey through the shadows and the light alongside Rosalind—one of Shakespeare’s greatest creations. Rosalind takes the lemons of banishment and turns them into the lemonade of a new (male) persona and an adventure in the woods. Who wouldn’t want to run away to Arden with this creature?

—Lisa Peterson