As You Like It

by William Shakespeare
directed by John Tillinger / assisted by David Elliott

with Augustus Helmar Cooper, Edmund C. Davys, Patrick Garner, Sean Haberle, Denis Holmes, Kathleen McNenny, Annie Miesels, Ntare Mwine, Kristine Nielsen, Tim O'Donoghue, John Gould Rubin

produced by the Long Wharf Theatre (Arvin Brown, Artistic Director)

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Shakespeare’s lovely romp in which Rosalind and her cousin escape into the forest of Arden and find Orlando, Rosalind's love. There they encounter a variety of memorable characters, notably the melancholy Jaques who delivers one of Shakespeare's most famous speeches – the Seven Ages of Man speech ("All the world's a stage").

Eileen Atkins, who gloriously played the role of Leo in Indiscretions, suggested I work with John Tillinger and made the introduction. I would go on to work with him again later the next year when I was hired to assist him on the play Inherit The Wind.

I would work with John Gould Rubin (who played Jaques) a number of times over the coming years. And the quirky, comic turn that I watched Kristine Nielsen give to Celia would be seen again years later when when we co-produced Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike in which she played Sonia with such touching hilarity - she would receive a Tony nomination for her efforts!

While the production, with a set design by Ming Cho Lee, was not up to everyone’s taste, Variety noted, that “Tillinger’s production was brimming with life and love that’s completely suffused with the joy of acting and making theater.”