TWO TONY WINNING THEATERS PRESENT AS YOU LIKE IT
THE ACTING COMPANY AND GUTHRIE THEATER’S FIFTH SHAKESPEARE PRODUCTION
FOR RELEASE AT WILL Contact: Gerry Cornez
212-258-3111
New York … The Acting Company and the Guthrie Theater present a national tour of Shakespeare’s As You Like It running from January through April 2013. Rehearsing in New York, performances begin at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis on January 12 and run through February 4 before leaving on a cross country tour to 29 cities in 22 states. It will play at New York’s famed New Victory Theater March 1-10. Dan Rothenberg, Artistic Director of Philadelphia’s Pig Iron Theatre has directed Shakespeare’s lushly lighthearted comedy.
“As I began to explore the visceral world of As You Like It, I found myself in a place
similar to Maurice’s Sendak’s seminal 1963 children’s book Where the Wild Things Are” Rothenberg states. “Rosalind and her boyfriend Orlando’s flight of fancy into exile allows them to visit their wild side. They discover that the Forest of Arden is rendered by a child: messy, whimsical full of animals personified and humans that are beastly, trees that have eyes and plants that uproot themselves. I envision a royal court that sits on the edge of the forest, so close that they can hear the rumpus the animals create. The court won’t be entirely regal, with wrestlers that resemble pre-historic animals, haunting adults and wily jesters.
“In Shakespeare’s As You Like It characters explore various forms of the stages of life: the natural and the man-made; the selfish and the generous, frightening and embracing and reminds us that we are all, simply mammals, that require the greatest healing of all: love.” Rothenberg concluded.
The superb cast includes actors from the some of the finest acting conservatories in the U.S., cast in New York and through the Guthrie Experience and its training program with the University of Minnesota.
The cast follows in the footsteps of Kevin Kline, Rainn Wilson, Patti LuPone, Jesse L. Martin, Frances Conroy, Hamish Linklater, Harriet Harris, David Ogden Stiers, Jeffrey Wright and Keith David who all began their careers on tour with The Acting Company. Founded by John Houseman and Margot Harley in 1972, The Acting Company has brought 138 productions to 49 states and 10 foreign countries earning a 2003 TONY for Excellence in Theater, Obies, Audelcos and Los Angeles Critics Circle Awards.
The Guthrie Theater, founded by Sir Tyrone Guthrie in 1963, is one of America’s leading regional theaters and is widely recognized as an American center for theater performance, production and professional training. Under the directorship of Joe Dowling, the Guthrie has built one of the finest multistage theater centers of our time. In 1982, it received a TONY Award acknowledging its outstanding contribution to the American Theater.
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