Spring time, the only pretty ring time…
Milton presents Shakespeare’s As You Like It

“After Hamlet, of course, this is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays,” says Peter Parisi, performing arts faculty member and director of the upcoming spring play, As You Like It. For this year’s main stage spring performance, Peter was looking for a medium to large cast in a comedy, and as he explains, “As You Like It has fantastic lines, great characters, and we’re lucky to have an incredible cast with many students who are new to the Milton stage.”

This pastoral comedy of Shakespeare is set in a duchy in France, with most of the play’s action taking place in the fictitious Forest of Arden. Peter explains, “The play is essentially about transformations. There are physical transformations—mistaken identity, women dressed as men, which is all part of the comedy. It’s also about mental, emotional, spiritual transformations—changes of heart that these characters have.”

Kyle Kankonde (Class II), in her first lead role at Milton, plays Rosalind, a character who experiences one of the most significant transformations. “Kyle just has excellent intuition and instincts,” Peter says. “She knows ‘people’ and she brings that instinct to her role. She’s a dancer, so she has a very attuned physical awareness—she knows where to go onstage before I even tell her.”

Peter, who performed in his own high school production of As You Like It as “the melancholy Jacques,” has had a love for this work as far back as he can remember. “I sincerely believe in the transformative power of the arts. In the broadest sense, we see things in our students that you might not see in a typical classroom setting. It’s the nature of these classes that the students really have to dig deep and reveal a lot about themselves. You see them gain a sense of self-confidence. In performance you have the opportunity to see reflections of yourself in others, and that really helps you understand and relate to others better.”

Peter’s directorial team and the cast of As You Like It will light the stage in King Theatre on Thursday, May 17 and Friday, May 18 at 7:30 p.m. and on Saturday, May 19 at 7 p.m.

Cast

Orlando, Samuel Thorpe
Oliver, Alec Seymour
Second Brother, Manny Delgado
Adam, Noah Berman
Dennis, Gemma Soldati
Rosalind, Kyle Kankonde
Celia, Gabi Starfield
Touchstone, Robert St Laurence
Duke Frederick, Peter Elias
Charles, Brian Mason
Le Beau, Quinn Solfisburg
Duke Senior, Saeed Farah
Jaques, Jacob Hentoff
Amiens, D Stokes
Musician, Lucy Kahn
Corin, Emma Peel
Silvius, Jacob Brandt
Phoebe, Sarah McSherry
Audrey, Lili Schwartz-Orbach
William, Nick Ginsburg
Sir Oliver Martext, Gemma Soldati
Hymen, Anthony Portillo

Lords and Attendants

Manny Delgado
Angela Baglione
Lexa Gluck
Anthony Portillo
Celestine Warren
Quinn Solfisburg
Gemma Soldati
Lexie Carr
Nick Ginsburg

Directorial Team

Peter Parisi
Sarah Medeiros
Maria Steiner
Gordon Sayre
Kabeer Parwani
Michelle Kim

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