Shakespeare’s comedies hit MVHS this November 5, 6, 12, and 13

Make no mistake. This year the Drama classes are producing two of Shakespeare’s comedies served with a side of side-splitting laughs—just as you like it.

On Nov. 5, 6, 12, and 13, the Drama department will be performing two of Shakespeare’s best known comedies: “Comedy of Errors” and “As You Like It”, which will be part of a full-blown Shakespeare Festival. On Nov. 6 and 13, actors will perform both plays along with a special Green Show in between. The Green Show will happen before the shows on Nov. 5 and 12.

The actors have been rehearsing for over eight weeks and are in their final tech rehearsals before the show. In the process of preparing for their presentation of shortened Shakespeare, they have enlisted the help of several professionals for set design, costume design, choreography, and even acting.

The set for these plays literally the experience to another level. It has a platform seven feet above the ground with escapes on either side and will be a high-action area. This set was designed by Kit Wilder, the owner of local theater company City Lights. The platform has two exit doors leading out to smaller platforms, where characters will change costume. The whole setup is dramatic—and dangerous.

“I walked up [onto the platform],” Drama teacher and director of both plays Holly Cornelison said, “and asked the guys that built the set, ‘What do you think I want?’ They said, ‘A railing.’”

Perhaps the person who needs this most is Rosalind, a character in “As You Like It” played by senior Kelly Jackson, who will have 30 seconds standing on a teetering platform behind an exit door to transform into Ganymede.

When Rosalind is banished to the woods by her jealous aunt, the Duchess (junior Teddy Ivanova) she goes incognito as a man named Ganymede because the woods are unsafe for a woman. There she meets Orlando (senior Gavin Mueller), who has also been banished and is in love with her—except he doesn’t recognize her because she’s now dressed as a man. During their banishment, Orlando seeks relationship advice from the very girl he is in love with. As “As You Like It” concludes, a dancing number by the cast segues smoothly into the ten-minute Green Show.

The Green Show involves three dances, two songs, and one amazing cast. Many of the students participating in this show didn’t audition for the play itself, but still have this chance to be a part of the show. This has been put together by Kim Saunders, who was involved in theater for years and has been part of an actual Green Show at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. The students are doing many things typical of a proper Green Show, from dancing with swords to singing the traditional favorite, “Greensleeves.”

“We also have a fool whose job is to weave in and out of the dances, and mess with the audience,” sophomore and Drama student Dania Khurshid said. “There is no fourth wall [in the set], so our main hope is that the audience gets super into it.”

After the Green Show, the audience is hit with part two of the double-whammy. The “Comedy of Errors” is a tale about two servants and two masters that were born together and separated during a tragic shipwreck in their childhood. Each decides to look for their long-lost twins and stumble upon wind up in the same town while they are doing so. Here’s the catch: neither Antipolus, Antipolus, Dromio nor Dromio (played by sophomore Aditya Nag, sophomore Elad Michael, senior Lena Jenny, and senior Anna Crouch respectively) knows their counterpart is in the same town. But everyone else notices it. This tale will leave the audience in stitches as it follow the couples and their doubles through the resulting troubles.

“The experience of the theater is so much different than a movie because everything’s right up there in front of you,” assistant director senior Revati Dhomse said.

These two comedies are really bringing up the quality of the classic fall production. The comedy is accessible, and the laughter will really bridge the gap between Shakespeare’s era and ours.

“I don’t think people get how much Shakespeare relates to everyday life,” Dhomse said. “That’s why we’re doing these plays. To show people that Shakespeare is still relevant to everything we do.”

You might have missed: Theatre: My big huge Shakespearian wedding, Theatre: ‘The Comedy of Errors’ mastered to perfection

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