The Fall Repertory 2005

“Come, woo me, woo me; for now I am in a holiday humor and like enough to consent.”
As You Like It, Rosalind, IV, i.

Great Lakes Theater Festival has long had a love affair with Shakespeare’s As You Like It. On July 11, 1962, this wondrous classical comedy opened our inaugural season under the direction of founding artistic director Arthur Lithgow at the Lakewood Civic Auditorium, a time when the company was known as the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival. Lawrence Carra, who succeeded Lithgow, produced As You Like It not once, but twice: first in 1969, and then again in his final season as artistic director, 1975. It would be the last Shakespearean play he would direct at the Festival, a fitting conclusion to a decade’s worth of artistic leadership.

In 1982 Great Lakes made its momentous move from a Lakewood facility it had truly outgrown to the newly renovated Ohio Theatre in downtown Cleveland, becoming the anchor tenant at Playhouse Square. Vincent Dowling was the artistic director at the helm, and to usher in a new era for the Festival he turned again to Shakespeare’s As You Like It. For the first time in our history, GLTF audiences saw something we may now take for granted: the majesty of a stunning set, not in a high school auditorium, but under the lights in a world class theatre. It was a powerful sight that received an ovation from the very first preview forward. Of course one of the beauties of live theatre is that no two performances are ever exactly alike, and Dowling recently recalled an unforgettable unscripted moment from that very first night: “ At the preview the Duke, who entered with a great Irish Wolfhound in the Forest, had to wait while the dog majestically peed for about two minutes. He brought down the house.”

Near the end of his tenure with GLTF, in the winter if 1996, artistic director Gerald Freedman produced As You Like It. Under the direction of Michael Breault, the production featured design elements reminiscent of French surrealist Rene Magritte: black bowler hats and umbrellas ornamented the actors, while puffy white clouds set against soft blue skies adorned the heavens.

It has been nearly a decade since we last visited this magical play, and there are certainly no shortages of interpretations this ageless text affords. Director Risa Brainin, whose highly acclaimed staging of Julius Caesar last season brought a refreshing relevance to the well known story, has crafted another unforgettable rendition of a Shakespearean classic, one that audiences are sure to remember well after the final curtain call.

Why are artists and audiences alike drawn to As You Like It time and time again? Undoubtedly there are countless reasons, perhaps including the fact that this is a play rich with poetic beauty, imaginative in its use of language, and features a remarkable heroine engaged in the timeless quest for love. Certainly these qualities are as relevant today as they were over forty-three years ago when we first staged this play, and as compelling to audiences of the 21 st century as they were to Shakespeare’s own. Yet while it holds a special place in our history, As You Like It also serves as a catalyst for our future.

This play has often been a beacon for our company, signaling the direction in which we were heading, and today’s production is no exception. The Festival at present is truly committed to the notion of company, of creating a team of artists working together, building a body of work, thoughtfully revisiting and deeply exploring classic texts and sharing their pleasure, power and relevance with the widest possible audience. This is the path we are pursuing, and As You Like It is the play to take us there.

There is little doubt that the Festival’s love affair with this enchanting play will continue well into the future, and that theatrical accomplishments, both recent and distant, serve but as an encouraging glimpse of triumphs still to come. As Le Beau tells Rosalind and Celia in Act I, “I will tell you the beginning, and if it please your ladyships you shall see the end, for the best is yet to do.”

“Rock me Amadeus.”
Austrian rock singer Falco, 1985

On May 15, 1926, in Liverpool, England, Reka Fredman Shaffer gave birth to twin boys Peter and Anthony. There has scarcely been a more talented and successful duo of fraternal twins in the realm of published writing. After graduating London’s St. Paul’s School where his interest in music was first cultivated, Peter became a conscript coal miner in England during the last year of World War II, and served in that capacity until 1947. In 1950 he graduated from Trinity College of Cambridge University, and then joined creative writing forces with his twin the following year. Between 1951 and 1955, the Shaffer boys co-wrote three successful mystery novels under the pseudonym “Peter Anthony.” Independent success was to follow the brothers throughout their respective careers.

In 1967, Peter wrote a play entitled Black Comedy that was nominated for a Tony Award, but the competition that year included Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance, Frank Marcus’ The Killing of Sister George, and Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming, and it was Pinter who took home the prize that year. In 1971 his brother Anthony’s play Sleuth won the Tony for Best Play. And in 1975 Peter finally captured the coveted award with Equus, and then repeated the achievement in 1981 with perhaps his most successful work, Amadeus.

Amadeus opened at the National Theatre of Great Britain in 1979, starring Paul Scoffield in the leading role of Antonio Salieri, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s nemesis, and audiences responded with passionate enthusiasm. Over a year after its opening, lines at the box office continued to form as early as six in the morning on performance days. The play was significantly revised before the American premiere, and finally landed on Broadway (after a limited engagement in Washington, D.C.) starring an actor little known to audiences in the United States at the time, one Ian McKellen. After his Tony Award winning performance as Salieri, Mr. McKellen was “little known” no more. The 1984 film version featured F. Murray Abraham in the leading (but not title) role, and won eight of the eleven Oscars for which it was nominated, including best picture, best director, and best actor for Mr. Abraham.

Amadeus is truly a towering achievement. In his New York Times review of the recent 1999 Broadway revival, Ben Brantley praised the playwright for “the inspired idea of measuring genius through its impact on an artist who would never possess it.” How did Shaffer come upon this masterful concept? In researching the 18 th century rivalry between Amadeus and Salieri, the writer became fascinated by the mysterious circumstances surrounding Mozart’s death. Although he found no conclusive evidence that Salieri murdered Mozart, Shaffer declared in an interview with Roland Gelatt, that “by then the cold eyes of Salieri were staring at me…The conflict between virtuous mediocrity and feckless genius took hold of my imagination, and it would not leave me alone.”

The brothers Shaffer suffer none of Salieri’s virtuous mediocrity, as their careers have provided countless audiences with thrilling theatrical experiences for decades, and seem destined to hold a Salieri-like grip on the imaginations of theatergoers for generations yet to come.

Daniel Hahn is Great Lakes Theater Festival’s Director of Education and has been with the Festival since 1995 when he served as an actor-teacher. Mr. Hahn holds an M.A. in theater from The University of Akron.