AS YOU LIKE IT, The Factory Theatre, designed by Eugene Hare, Original Score by Sebastian Birch

I am congenitally unable to direct a "concept" production of Shakespeare, or almost any other skillful author for that matter. If one begins with a good script, one need not impose another layer of ideas on it and thereby confuse the evening so to speak. Get our of the way! The design concepts may be another matter, as in this case. Eugene wanted to build what he called "Dutch Masters" costumes, which seemed a very good fit for modern audiences. I could cast a girl with curves as Rosalind and hide them in the baggy trousers and blousy shirts without asking a 20th Century audience to overlook her curves. The problem of the constantly shifting scenes in the forest is something else again. Since we had a real black box, we started from scratch and after a number of meetings, Eugene decided to put to use his background knowledge and experience with Svoboda's designs and came up with a series of huge frames creating a forced perspective, and yet very modern space, which would frame the action not dominate it. Add to the mix a set of movable Svobodaesque trees and an upstage projection screen and the production was born.

As always, I parsed and plumbed the text endlessly, and was blessed with a talented cast and a beautiful score by the inimitable Sebastian Birch (made possible by a generous grant from the Kulas Foundation) that matched the design scheme.