Halloween weekend at Louisville High School hosted a Shakespearean production of the play As You Like It, a purposefully confusing romantic-comedy.

The story follows two cousins; Rosalind (played by Daisy Rich ’22), who is a giddy and light hearted character and her cousin Celia (Lily Rich ’22), a realistic thinker who spends the majority of the play keeping Rosalind in check. As they handle Rosalind’s banishment by her mother (Valerie McFadden ’23),, Rosalind pursues a newfound crush on Orlando (Rose Dubois ’23), a young man from her town.

Rosalind and Celia hide out in the nearby forest, where they encounter many different characters, including the heartthrob Orlando , a jester (a show-stealing performance Boo Kilroy ’23), a shepherd obsessed with his believed wife-to-be (Jacob Matthews ’23 and Jennifer Bobillo ’22) and a miscellaneous band of misfits.

“It’s about love, joy and many types of love and how all of that love makes joy,” said Daisy Rich ’22 on her “hot take of the night’s performance” after Saturday night’s show.

The many plot twists and intense laughter this play invokes grant it a five star rating from everyone who came out to see it.

The stage crew took advantage of the COVID protocols and set the stage outside on the senior lawn. Almost as if it was planned, the majority of Shakespeare’s scenery for this play was set in the forest, so having the actresses and actors perform outdoors added an intentional creative aspect. Characters off stage sat on benches, watching for their que to enter and nervously whispering to their other cast members.

“There’s logistics of setting up a complete theater in the outdoors,” said director Mr. Dan Mailey. “You’ve got sound and lights and getting actors used to how to use their voice outside.”

The cast members took advantage of the entire lawn, including one scene where the shepherd calls out to his beloved across the stage, then hopelessly wanders down the senior lawn pathway.

Another unique aspect to this year’s performance is the amount of experience the cast and crew collectively have. With roughly a year and a half gap between the upper and lower class men's experience level, getting to know each other was an important part of the production.

“A lot of this cast was brand new and they’re learning the process,” said Mr. Mailey. “My crew is entirely new, so we’re all getting to know each other and doing something really difficult together at the same time.”

Overall, the show was amazing and ran smoothly throughout the Saturday night performance I watched. The cast and crew should be proud of this take on Shakespeare and we can’t wait to see what the musical looks like in the second semester!

Comedic scenes from the production