Hillsboro High School students will be performing their fall production of William Shakespeare’s classic comedy, “As You Like It,” which opens Saturday.
Showtimes will be at 8 p.m. Nov. 15 and 7 p.m. Nov. 22; and 2:30 p.m. Nov. 16 and Nov. 23 at the Hillsboro High School Theatre, 123 Leon Hall Parkway. Tickets will be available at the door and will cost $5 for students and $10 for adults. The run time is two hours and 30 minutes with one intermission.
“As You Like It” follows Rosalind, who along with her cousin Celia, flees the wrath of her uncle under the disguise of a young man to England’s Forest of Arden and eventually finds love along the way.
Stephanie Williams, a Hillsboro High English teacher and director of the play, said she chose the play because it presented a challenge to the young cast.
Willams also said the community should come out to the show because of the Shakespearean humor.
“Shakespeare is so much fun to do and to watch,” she said. “Because even though the language can be impenetrable, once you start watching what people are doing, you start to understand what’s going on even if you don’t understand what’s going on.”
Backstage pass
Cara Johnson, a senior, plays Rosalind, the play’s heroine.
Johnson said she had read the play before. However, going into her audition she was still nervous.
“I think Shakespeare is kind of a daunting thing to go into especially when you’ve never really done anything like it before,” she said.
Johnson also said people should buy tickets because of the play’s colorful cast of characters.
“We put a lot of work into it, and it’s gonna be a fun play just because there’s so much going on with all of the characters,” she said. “With Shakespeare, a lot of the work is put into the characters more than anything else.”
Brendan Smith-Hynes, another senior who plays Touchstone, a court jester, said learning dialogue was an exciting challenge.
“It’s almost like the sentences are in normal dialect (but) reversed and random old timey words that just pop out of nowhere, it’s a whole lot of guessing until you get it right,” he said. “Once you get it down it’s really fun, you feel like you’re back in the 1600s.”
Smith-Hynes also said he sees his time in high school theater coming to end as a way to pass the torch instead of a sad occasion.
“I’m not the first one to experience this, and I’m not gonna be the last,” and I want to make it memorable while it lasts and hopefully pass down some thoughts and messages to kids younger than me,” he said.
Other featured cast members include: seniors Hayden Hasty, Bradley Roettger, Hunter Sonntag and Kayla Tubbs; juniors Marshall Bedell, Bre Danback, Paige Hodge, Elizabeth Pierce, Savanna Reed and Ryan Russell; sophomores Kris Greenlee, Alex Hott, Jadon Read, Cameron Reynolds and M. Steel; and freshmen Luke Heine and Domonic Thompson.
Ensemble members include: juniors Ellie Butler, Aubrey Coomer, Echo Kneip and Madison Pritchett; and freshmen Conley Barton, Eleonore Hopping, Abby King, Millie McLean, Alaina Priscu and Ashley Wemhoff.
Hillsboro High library specialist Leigh Kalista serves as the technical director. Junior Kenzie Shelby is the stage manager.
Other members of the crew include: senior Clara Bradley; juniors Hunter Anderson, Isaac Owens, Charli Strite and Hallie Sturgess; and sophomores Chloe Bader, Jared Kanz and Norah Testa.
Williams said Russell also composed the music for Shakespeare’s song lyrics in the show, and Matt Mitchell, the high school wrestling coach, helped choreograph a wrestling scene.