By Laurelle Walsh
Director Rod Molzahn and a cast of 19 Methow Valley youngsters present a Children’s Theater production of William Shakespeare’s As You Like It at The Merc Playhouse opening this Friday (March 6) and continuing through March 15. Thursday, Friday and Saturday performances begin at 7 p.m.; Sunday matinees start at 2 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults and $5 for youth 18 and under.
Molzahn calls As You Like It “one of Shakespeare’s funniest comedies.” The story involves many of The Bard’s classic plot devices: sibling rivalry, jealousy, romance, cross-dressing and mistaken identity.
The story begins like this: Orlando, played by Leo Shaw, disinherits and double-crosses his brother Oliver (Anja Sorensen). The Duchess (Maggie Moore) overthrows and banishes her brother the Duke (Sage McFetridge) to the Forest of Ardenne, along with his followers. The Duke’s daughter Rosalind (Camas McFetridge) falls in love with Oliver after he defeats the court wrestler. Rosalind too is banished, and escapes to the forest along with her best friend and cousin, Celia (Julia Dietz) and the court jester (Daisy Hilton).
Silliness reigns when Rosalind and Orlando meet in the forest, but Orlando doesn’t recognize her because she’s disguised as a shepherd. A young shepherdess (Willow Frady) falls in love with Rosalind, thinking she is a boy.
“Shakespeare was one of the silliest guys around, and kids love being silly,” Molzahn said, advising readers to come to the show to find out what happens next.
“Any comedy works great with kids,” said Molzahn. For one thing, many of the characters in Shakespeare’s comedies are commoners, who speak in prose rather than in verse, he said. Comedic characters also tend to be less well developed than those in the tragedies and histories, making them easier for young people to embody, he added. “It all makes sense to the kids. They feel like they know these people.”
The 19 actors in this production are all between 8 and 15 years old. “This has been a really great group of kids to work with,” said Molzahn. The cast includes Naomi Carter, Ilo Curtis, Lucy Tobiska Doran, Stella Gitchos, Grace Gonzales, Bay Harmon, Seth Kurtz, Grey Patterson, Maisy Shaw, Gunner Smith, and Emma White, in addition to the actors mentioned above.
About half the cast has also been working on “Nickel Shakespeare” — short scenes from a variety of plays — which they will perform before each show.
They will also bring “Nickel Shakespeare” into classrooms at Methow Valley Elementary School “to help the kids get excited about what they are going to come see next week,” when third-, fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade classes come to The Merc to see a special performance of As You Like It, according to Executive Director Missi Smith. The school program is funded by a grant from the Public School Funding Alliance, Smith said.
This will be Molzahn’s 21st year doing Shakespeare with children. He directs summer Shakespeare camps in Wenatchee and Newport, Oregon, and has directed several theater projects with Methow Valley students over the past few years.
“I’m used to directing these shows outdoors with no set pieces,” said Molzahn, who likewise will be keeping the stage at The Merc free of adornment for the current production.
“Other than the stage itself, Shakespeare didn’t use sets,” Molzahn said. In fact, after years of research on how The Bard staged his works, Molzahn has never found any reference to breaks for scene or act changes, he said.
In Shakespeare’s day there could be 3,000 people in the audience at The Globe when the theater was full, according to Molzahn. “Half of them, the working class, stood in front of the stage during the performances and were drunk by 3 p.m. If you stopped for a moment you’d lose them,” he said.
“Maintaining momentum is important,” Molzahn said, noting that the more he emphasizes that aspect of his one-man show “A Visit with Will,” which he brought to The Merc last month, the better the show gets.
One tip that Molzahn gives his young thespians is that Shakespeare’s scenes often begin and end in the middle of a conversation, so to keep up the pace, lines are delivered before actors enter the stage and while they are exiting.
What’s the secret to producing Shakespeare — unabridged, mind you — with children? “I start with the belief and expectation that they’re all going to do this,” Molzahn said. “They rise to the level of my expectations.”
The director admits that a lot of time in the first few weeks of rehearsals is spent translating the Elizabethan English text so that it’s understandable to modern children. “You can’t memorize lines unless you understand what you’re saying,” he said.
A special feature of this production is the artful costumes of lush velvet and brocade on-loan from Molzahn’s personal collection. Over the past 20 years Molzahn’s Wenatchee colleague Lisa Robinson has designed and sewn period costumes in a range of sizes for the summer Shakespeare camps. The collection now fills the basement of Molzahn’s Wenatchee home and props have taken over the attic, he said.
“Getting the kids in costume really builds momentum,” Molzahn said.
The director says he doesn’t know what to say when people ask him about retirement, since he sees himself doing theater for as long as he is able. “I do this because I like to do it. It’s really a lot of fun,” he said.
