Tasty Shakespeare As You Like It fills the bill. 

—Chuck Graham review

What a delightful production! It is the perfect antidote to COVID gloom. The cast is charming, the music is lovely, the set and costumes are beautiful and the entire play feels both familiar and fresh. 

—Ronda Lustman, Audience Member

As You Like It beguiles and delights at The Rogue Theatre.

—Broadway World review

I loved the eloquent staging, the gorgeous tunics and costumes, the timing and beauty of the music and soloist. The actors were tremendous in all of their parts. And, of course, the play itself is hilarious and divine.

—Regine Ebner, Audience Member

I left the theatre “glad of heart.”

—Gian Paul Morelli, Audience Member

Performance run time of As You Like It is approximately two hours and twenty-five minutes, including one ten-minute intermission.

As You Like It

by William Shakespeare

PRODUCTION SPONSORS: 
John Wahl & Mary Lou Forier

Directed by Cynthia Meier
Music Direction by Russell Ronnebaum

April 22–May 9, 2021

Thursday–Saturday 7:30 P.M., Saturday & Sunday 2:00 P.M.
Video available April 29–May 16, 2021.

In one of Shakespeare’s most fanciful comedies, Rosalind (disguised as a boy) and her friend Celia make the journey from oppressive town to open country. Genders become confused when Rosalind pretends to be a woman in the process of enticing her love, Orlando.

The Rogue Theatre at The Historic Y
300 East University Boulevard

Free Off-Street Parking
See Map and Parking Information

Supporting Materials

Free “Open Talk” Video on As You Like It

The Revelry of As You Like It
Dr. Peter Medine, UA Professor Emeritus of the English Department, provides an enlightening analysis and interpretation of Shakespeare’s great comedy, As You Like It.

This open talk is supported in part by a generous gift from Kay & Philip Korn.

As You Like It video trailer: Click on the image below

Watch the creation of Russell Ronnebaum's beautiful score—a prelude to As You Like It
(click on the image below)

Essay
For more background on the play, check out Jerry James’ essay
The Black Death
Shakespeare and the Plague

View the full-sized poster for the play

Reviews

As You Like It beguiles and delights at The Rogue Theatre
Season finale delivers old-fashioned comedic romp
Review of As You Like It by Robert Encila-Celdran on April 25 in Broadway World

Tasty Shakespeare As You Like It fills the bill
Review of As You Like It by Chuck Graham on April 24 in Let The Show Begin! at TucsonStage.com

Cynthia Meier (Director) is Co-Founder and Managing & Associate Artistic Director for The Rogue Theatre and holds a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from the University of Arizona. She has directed 36 of The Rogue’s 76 productions to date including Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Moby Dick, The Secret in the Wings, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Galileo, Bach at Leipzig, The White Snake, Hamlet, Waiting for Godot, Betrayal, Naga Mandala, and The Four of Us for which she received Arizona Daily Star Mac Award nominations as Best Director, as well as Arcadia and Richard III for which she won Mac Awards for Direction. Cynthia has created stage adaptations for The Rogue of Thornton Wilder’s The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Virginia Woolf’s The Lady in the Looking Glass, James Joyce’s The Dead, Kafka’s Metamorphosis, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tales of the Jazz Age, and (along with Holly Griffith) Moby Dick. She has also pruned all eleven plays by Shakespeare which The Rogue has produced. She is co-founder of Bloodhut Productions, a company performing original monologues and comedy improvisation, which toured throughout the western United States. She also directed The Seagull (featuring Ken Ruta) for Tucson Art Theatre, and she directed Talia Shire in Sister Mendelssohn and Edward Herrmann in Beloved Brahms for Chamber Music Plus Southwest. Cynthia has also been nominated for nine Mac Awards for Best Actress from the Arizona Daily Star, and in 2008, she received the Mac Award for Best Actress for her performance of Stevie in Edward Albee’s The Goat at The Rogue Theatre.

Cynthia Meier’s direction of As You Like It is supported in part
by a generous gift from Betsy Parlato & David Zucker.

Notes from the Director

A single phrase of Shakespeare’s is worth thinking about for a long time. As You Like It contains one of the most profound speeches about life beginning with the famous line “All the world’s a stage...” And there are dozens of other breathtaking bits of philosophy as the characters make their way from the strife-filled world of the court to the pastoral world of the Forest of Arden.

Who is the “you” in As You Like It? Scholar Julia Dusinberre suggests that the title is borrowed from a Chaucer tale, which concludes with a knight allowing his wife sovereignty over her own life. He says, “For as you liketh, it suffiseth me.” Shakespeare may have taken this line to refer to the main character in As You Like It—Rosalind—as she achieves sovereignty over her own life—as she likes it.

The title might also refer to the gender-switching in the play. Rosalind dresses as a man throughout much of the play and interacts as a man with Orlando, her would-be lover. Orlando seems a bit confused at times as he finds himself attracted to a young man (little knowing that the young man he meets is actually a woman). It strikes me that the title might be Shakespeare’s wink to the homoerotic nature of the play. Do “you” like “it” with a man or a woman? The abundant sexual innuendo in the play would support this interpretation of the title. 

Queen Elizabeth I was still the sovereign of England when Shakespeare wrote As You Like It. Dusinberre writes: “When Rosalind at the end of Act One, decides to put on a man’s clothes, she announces that her heart will remain a woman’s, while her outside brags of manhood. Queen Elizabeth said the exact opposite in her famous speech of 1588 to the troops at Tilbury before the Spanish Armada. She said, ‘I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king and a king of England too.’” Shakespeare was cognizant of the power of women as he watched his queen from a very close vantage point. Rosalind and the sincerity of her friendship with her cousin Celia are reflections of that strength and humanity.

We sincerely hope that you are renewed by this excursion with us to the Forest of Arden—a land where love (and everything else) is as you like it.

—Cynthia Meier, Director
director@TheRogueTheatre.org

Cast

Jeffrey Baden (Charles the Wrestler/Amiens) is ecstatic to be working with The Rogue in his second production of the season, As You Like It, by the beloved William Shakespeare. Jeffrey has previously performed in A View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller as Marco and in Moby Dick as Queequeg with The Rogue. Some of his prior plays were The Scoundrel & Scamp Theatre’s Blood Wedding as Leonardo, Benny in In the Heights, and Romeo in Romeo and Juliet with Shakespeare in the Park. He also studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London and at Pima Community College.

Jeffrey Baden’s performance is supported in part by generous
gifts from Chris Wozney and Paul Winick & Ronda Lustman.

Julia Balestracci (Audrey) is thrilled to join the cast of As You Like It in her second Rogue production; she was previously seen as Clytemnestra in The Oresteia. She has appeared in past seasons at The Scoundrel and Scamp Theatre in The Light Princess, The Little Prince, Blood Wedding, Eurydice, and Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play. Julia has a M.M. in voice from Longy School of Music of Bard College, and a BA in Theater Studies from Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts at The New School.

Julia Balestracci’s performance is supported in part by
generous gifts from Jill Ballesteros and Paul & Mary Ross.

Bryn Booth (Celia) is a graduate of the BFA Acting program at the University of Arizona. She was most recently seen as Electra in The Oresteia, Mary Shelley/Elizabeth in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and as Catherine in A View from the Bridge. This is Bryn’s fourth season as a member of the Resident Acting Ensemble with The Rogue where she has performed as Clotho (Moby Dick), Ruth Condomine (Blithe Spirit), Tour Guide (Middletown), Abigail (The Crucible) for which she was nominated for a MAC award for Best Actress, Snake-Leaves Princess (The Secret in the Wings), Hero (Much Ado About Nothing), Ensemble (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time), Little Monk (Galileo), Regan (King Lear), Rose of Sharon (The Grapes of Wrath), Sybil (A House of Pomegranates), and Lady Macduff (Macbeth). In 2018, Bryn played Mag in the Scoundrel & Scamp’s production of Lovers, for which she was nominated for a MAC award for Best Actress. Other credits include The Love Talker (Scoundrel & Scamp) Romeo & Juliet (Tucson Shakespeare in the Park), and Othello (Arizona Repertory Theatre). She also had the pleasure of understudying with Arizona Theatre Company in Romeo & Juliet and Of Mice and Men. Bryn wants to thank Joe and Cindy for giving her the best job she’s ever had with the most amazing people she’s ever met.

Bryn Booth’s performance is supported in part by generous
gifts from Sally Krusing and Andy & Cammie Watson.

Erin Buckley (Phoebe) is thrilled to be in this production. This is her third show at the Rogue after having appeared in The Crucible and Blithe Spirit. Some of her other past credits include Cabaret, The Cherry Orchard, and Macbeth. Erin is currently a senior at the University of Arizona studying theatre and is getting ready to graduate this May. Erin is also passionate about social justice, the environment, and movies. She would like to thank her parents for never doubting her even when she doubted herself. 

Erin Buckley’s performance is supported in part
by a generous gift from Chris Wozny.

Lance Guzman (Lord Lance) is happy to be joining The Rogue for As You Like It. He was previously in Moby Dick as Fedallah and in the chorus of The Oresteia. He has also appeared in the Scoundrel and Scamp productions of Salome, Mr. Burns, Blood Wedding, The Little Prince and most recently in It Is Magic. He is a University of Arizona graduate with a BA in Theatre Arts and a student of the Bennett Theatre Lab.

Lance Guzman’s performance is supported in part
by a generous gift from Kristi Lewis.

Hunter Hnat (La Beau/Sylvius) is grateful to be in his third season as a member of The Rogue Resident Acting Ensemble. You may have seen him in previous Rogue productions as Brenden in The Weir, Orestes in The Oresteia, Lord Byron/Frankenstein in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Rodolpho in A View from the Bridge, Ray Dooley in The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Flask in Moby Dick, Edmund Tyrone in Long Day’s Journey Into Night, the Mechanic in Middletown, Ezekiel Cheever in The Crucible, Ensemble in The Secret in the Wings, Claudio in Much Ado About Nothing, Christopher in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Andrea in Galileo, Oswald in King Lear, Steindorff in Bach at Leipzig, and Ensemble for A House of Pomegranates. Other credits include Salomé (Scoundrel & Scamp), U/S in Romeo and Juliet (Arizona Theatre Company), How the House Burned Down (Live Theatre Workshop) as well as several other workshops and readings. He is a U of A alumnus with his BFA in Musical Theatre, class of 2015. Enjoy the show!

Hunter Hnat’s performance is supported in part by generous gifts
from Chris Wozny and Denice Blake & John Blackwell.

Christopher Johnson (Oliver) first came to The Rogue in 2011 to play Jewel in As I Lay Dying, and now serves as Artistic Associate, General Manager, and producer of The John & Joyce Ambruster Play-reading Series, as well as overseeing Rogue’s YouTube and Instagram content. He has appeared on stage with Fairbanks Shakespeare Theatre, Invisible Theatre, Live Theatre Workshop, Winding Road Theatre Ensemble, The Bastard Theatre, Brachiate Theatre Project, Sparrow & Cicada, and The Scoundrel & Scamp. Select acting credits include Joshua in Corpus Christi, Peter in Bug, The Master of Ceremonies in Cabaret (2013 Mac Award Winner – Best Actor, Musical), Doug in Gruesome Playground Injuries, The Narrator in The Rocky Horror Show, Alan in Lemon Sky, Pale in Burn This, Hedwig in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Chicklet in Psycho Beach Party, Thom Pain in Thom Pain (based on nothing), and Prior Walter in The Rogue’s production of Angels in America, Part 1: Millennium Approaches (2016 Mac Award Winner – Best Actor, Drama).

Christopher Johnson’s performance is supported in part by generous gifts
from Paul Winick & Ronda Lustman and Stu Salasche & Els Duvigneau.

John Keeney (Duke Frederick/Duke Senior) is an interdisciplinary artist, thrilled to be working with the Rogue again. He has previously appeared on stage at the Rogue in Galileo and Much Ado About Nothing, and with The Scoundrel and Scamp in There Is a Happiness that Morning Is, and as music director for Two Plays for Lost Souls. He provided guitar and vocals for Rogue’s recent production of The Weir.

John Keeney’s performance is supported in part by generous
gifts from Jane & Jim Peterson and Laurie & Tom Pew.

Joseph McGrath (Jaques) is Co-Founder and Artistic Director for The Rogue Theatre and has appeared in The Weir, A View from the Bridge, Moby Dick, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, The Crucible, The Secret in the Wings, Galileo (2018 Mac Award for Best Actor), King Lear, Bach at Leipzig, Celia, A Slave, Macbeth, Penelope, The White Snake, Angels in America Part One, Tales of the Jazz Age, Miss Julie, Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Merchant of Venice, Waiting for Godot, Jerusalem, Awake and Sing, Arcadia, Measure for Measure, Richard III, The Night Heron, Journey to the West, The Winter’s Tale, The New Electric Ballroom, Shipwrecked!, Major Barbara, New-Found-Land, Old Times, The Tempest, Ghosts, Naga Mandala, Othello, Krapp’s Last Tape, A Delicate Balance (2009 Mac Award for Best Actor), Animal Farm, Orlando, Happy Days, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Red Noses, The Goat, The Cherry Orchard, The Good Woman of Setzuan, Endymion, The Dead, and The Fever. Joe is a graduate of the Juilliard School of Drama and has toured with John Houseman’s Acting Company. He has performed with the Utah Shakespearean Festival and has been a frequent performer with Ballet Tucson appearing in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and for seventeen years as Herr Drosselmeyer in The Nutcracker. He has also performed with Arizona Theatre Company, Arizona Opera, and Arizona Onstage. Joe owns, with his wife Regina Gagliano, Sonora Theatre Works, which produces theatrical scenery and draperies.

Joseph McGrath’s performance is supported in part by generous gifts
from Bill & Nancy Sohn and Paul Winick & Ronda Lustman.

Dennis O'Dell (Adam/Corin/Hymen) is thrilled to be returning to his first love, theatre, after a 26-year hiatus in the world of Retail Business Management. Dennis and his wife founded and operated an Off-Loop Professional/Educational theatre company, The Center Ring, in Chicago in the 1980s and 1990s, with an emphasis on training young actors and showcasing them in production with working professionals. As an actor, favorite roles include Shaw in Dear Liar, Tevya in Fiddler on the Roof, Glas in Slow Dance on the Killing Ground, and anything and everything Shakespeare. He was seen earlier this season at The Rogue in The Oresteia.

Dennis O’Dell’s performance is supported in part by
generous gifts from Carol Mangold and Clay Shirk.

Christopher Pankratz (Dennis/Sir Oliver Martext/William/Jaques de Boys) has performed at The Rogue Theatre in The Grapes of Wrath, King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing, The Crucible, Moby Dick and A View from the Bridge, and directed last season’s play reading of An Enemy of the People. Christopher has also joined the production staff of The Rogue as Prop Master. Christopher teaches acting and theatre tech at Flowing Wells High School where he has written and produced several plays including Black Friday, Frankenstein, Cuando Soñamos, Spinning Tales the Musical, Leave It to the Snakes, Cuando Mentimos, Cuando Perdonamos, The Snow Queen, You Can’t Make Wine from Raisins, and two newly-published plays: The Longest Day of April and The Story Seller’s Tale. Christopher would like to thank his colleagues, family, friends, and students for their support and inspiration.

Christopher Pankratz’s performance is supported
in part by a generous gift from Sally Gershon.

Carley Elizabeth Preston (Rosalind) was last seen on The Rogue stage as Valerie in The Weir. Now in her second season as a member of The Rogue Theatre’s Resident Acting Ensemble, Carley has also appeared as Beatrice Carbone in A View from the Bridge, Mrs. Bradman in Blithe Spirit, and as Tituba in The Crucible. Carley received her BFA from the University of Arizona where she was a member of the Arizona Repertory Theatre. Some of her other stage credits include Time Stands Still (Mac Award for Best Actress), Molly Sweeney, Enchanted April, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (Live Theatre Workshop), Mrs. Mannerly (Mac Award Nominee for Best Actress), Boston Marriage, By the Bog of Cats (Something Something Theatre), Miracle on 34th Street (Mac Award Nominee for Best Actress) Kimberly Akimbo, and Good People (Winding Road Theatre). Carley is also the Diversity Specialist for The Rogue. She would like to thank the loves of her life, Jerrad “Large Father” McMurrich and their fur baby Loki Björn Hiddleston for always supporting her theatre habit.

Carley Elizabeth Preston’s performance is supported in part by generous gifts
from Sally Krusing, Gary Youngling and Brock & Chantal McCaman.

Aaron Shand (Orlando) was last seen on The Rogue stage as Jim in The Weir. Now in his third season as a member of The Rogue Theatre’s Resident Acting Ensemble, Aaron has also appeared as Agamemnon in The Oresteia, Eddie Carbone in A View from the Bridge, Ishmael in Moby Dick, The Cop in Middletown, Hathorne in The Crucible, The Sea Captain in The Secret in the Wings, Don Pedro in Much Ado About Nothing, Sagredo in Galileo, Noah Joad in The Grapes of Wrath and Duke of Albany in King Lear. Born and raised in Tucson, he received his B.F.A. in Acting from the University of Arizona, performing for the Arizona Repertory Theatre in Bus Stop, The Miracle Worker and Romeo & Juliet. He also spent a season with the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, performing in The Cherry Orchard, State of the Union and A Christmas Carol.

Aaron Shand’s performance is supported in part by generous gifts
from Chris Wozny and Stu Salasche & Els Duvigneau.

Evan Werner (Touchstone) has previously appeared with The Rogue in the ensembles of Hamlet, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead, and as Basil Hallward in The Picture of Dorian Gray. He studied theatre at DePaul University and Pima Community College. In the course of his work as a theatre artist he served as Directing Producer for Purple Summer Productions in Bay City, MI, as well as spending three seasons in a variety of roles at The VanBuren Theatre, and one season as a member of Winding Road Theater Ensemble. Notable acting credits include Puppeteer/Ensemble in Psycho Sarah, Jules in boom, (Mac Award Nomination, Best Actor) Ronald in The Altruists (Mac Award Nomination, Best Actor), Howie in Speech & Debate, The Man in Joan Is Burning, Haemon in Antigone, Christopher Belling in Curtains, Seductra in Head: The Musical, Sir Oakley in Anything Goes, Algernon in The Importance Of Being Earnest, Beane in Love Song, Jeff in I Love You Because, Clifford in Deathtrap, Amos in Chicago, Hal in Proof and multiple local appearances with Stories That Soar!

Evan Werner’s performance is supported in part by generous gifts
from Sally Krusing and Brock & Chantal McCaman.

Composed and directed by Russell Ronnebaum
Recorded by Jim Brady Studios

Harp: Michelle Gott
Cello: Robert Marshall
Flute: Zach Warren

Preshow (instrumental)

Under the Greenwood Tree
Wedding is Great Juno’s Crown
It Was a Lover and His Lass
Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind

Production music

Lyrics by William Shakespeare
Vocalist: Jeffrey Baden (Amiens)
Vocalist: Evan Werner (Touchstone)
The Forest of Arden
Under the Greenwood Tree
Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind
O Sweet Oliver
The Deer
It Was a Lover and His Lass
Wedding is Great Juno’s Crown
Wedding Dance

Russell Ronnebaum (Music Director) serves as The Rogue Theatre’s Director of Music and Resident Composer. He holds a Master of Music degree in collaborative piano from the University of Arizona where he studied under Dr. Paula Fan. He currently serves as the assistant director of music at St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church in Oro Valley, as well as the staff accompanist for the Tucson Masterworks Chorale. As a classically trained pianist, Russell has performed with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, the American Wind Symphony Orchestra, Artifact Dance Company, Arizona Repertory Theatre, and as a concerto soloist with the Tucson Masterworks Chorale. Russell made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2016 performing the music of composer Dan Forrest. Past credits include The Rogue’s recent productions of Much Ado About Nothing, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Blithe Spirit, Moby Dick, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Awakening, A View from the Bridge, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and The Oresteia (Music Director, Pianist, and Composer) and The Secret in the Wings (Vocal Director). Russell also composes the music for Rogue Radio, a radio play series produced in partnership with Arizona Public Media, NPR 89.1 FM. Recent composition commissions and premieres include music for bassoon quartet, live theatre, strings, brass, voice, choir, and piano. Recordings, videos, sheet music, and upcoming concert dates can be found at www.RRonnebaum.com.

Russell Ronnebaum’s music direction is supported in part
by a generous gift from Shawn Burke.

Michelle Gott (Harp) enjoys a collaborative career in solo, chamber, orchestral, and interdisciplinary genres. She has subbed frequently with the major orchestras of New York, Boston, St. Louis, Houston, Toronto, Ottawa, and Vancouver. As a soloist, Ms. Gott has been featured at the National Arts Centre and the National Art Gallery in Ottawa, as well as with Symphony Nova Scotia. Ms. Gott received her BM, MM, and DMA degrees from the Juilliard School, where she was also a recipient of Juilliard's Peter Mennin Prize for Outstanding Leadership and Achievement in the Arts and the Richard F. French grant for her doctoral research on the music of Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer. She currently leads the harp department at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Please visit www.michellegott.com for more information on upcoming projects!

Robert Marshall (Cello) enjoys performing in multiple styles and settings, from orchestral and chamber to avant-garde theatrical and dance productions. Orchestrally, he serves as principal in the Civic Orchestra of Tucson, assistant principal in the Sierra Vista Symphony Orchestra, and frequently performs with the Tucson Symphony and Tucson Pops Orchestras. In 2019, he performed the Schumann Cello Concerto with the Tucson Repertory Orchestra in preparation for the orchestra’s Japanese tour. As a chamber musician, Mr. Marshall enjoys organizing recitals with colleagues in the greater Tucson area. He regularly appears as a part of the Music in the Valley series in Green Valley and has also had appearances in the Bisbee Women’s Club Love of Chamber Music festival, and at MOCA Tucson. Mr. Marshall also enjoys collaborating on staged productions in dance and theatre. He has worked with the Arizona Theatre Company, Arts Express, the University of Arizona Repertory Theater, and Artifact Dance Project. He also has enjoyed collaborating with the Rogue Theatre’s productions of The Beauty Queen of Leeane and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

Zach Warren (Flute) enjoys an exciting and diverse career as an orchestral flutist, chamber musician, soloist, and teacher. A native of Charlotte, North Carolina, Zach joined the Tucson Symphony Orchestra in the position of Second Flute and Piccolo in September 2019. He also performs as a member of the Tucson Symphony Wind Quintet. Zach holds degrees in flute performance from The University of South Carolina and The University of Texas at Austin, Butler School of Music. Zach has won numerous first prizes in young artist competitions and has been awarded fellowships with the National Repertory Orchestra, the Brevard Music Center Institute, the Marrowstone Music Festival, and the National Music Festival at Washington College. Zach has had the privilege of studying with distinguished flutists and pedagogues Marianne Gedigian, Jennifer Parker-Harley, and Jennifer Dior.

Music Director’s Notes

The fanciful nature of the Forest of Arden evokes vivid imagery of birds, animals, and lush expanses of trees. This setting inspired a music palette of instruments, which fit the complex beauty of the forest. The flute plays sweet, lyrical tones while having the agility of a bird in flight. The harp is a most dynamic instrument which can play as delicately as a flower, or as tumultuously as a storm. The cello possesses a soulful, grounded quality that ties the ensemble together.

Shakespeare’s lyrics provide direction for how each song should be interpreted. Under the Greenwood Tree, O Sweet Oliver, and It Was a Lover and His Lass have a carefree and adventurous swing about them, while Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind is a haunting look into the mirror of the true volatility of human nature. And of course, it wouldn’t be a Shakespearean comedy without a wedding! My setting of Wedding is Great Juno’s Crown pays homage to the courtly compositional style of Reynaldo Hahn (1874–1947).

With the guidance of Shakespeare’s text, and inspiration from the complementary sounds of cello, flute, and harp, the music requirements of this production allowed for a wonderfully refreshing instrumental ensemble that marries Shakespeare’s pastoral settings and the pastorale quality of these instruments playing together.

—Russell Ronnebaum, Music Director and Composer

Designers and Production Staff

Don Fox (Lighting Design) holds an MFA in Lighting Design from The University of Arizona and a BA in Theatre Administration from St. Edward’s University, Austin, TX. He is currently serving as an Assistant Professor for the University of Arizona. As a professional, freelance lighting and scenic designer and theatre producer and consultant, his clients include The Moscow Ballet, The Atlantis Resort Bahamas, Borgata Casino Atlantic City, Silversea Cruises, Music Theatre Wichita, Florida State University, Central Washington University, City Opera Ballet Company Bellevue, the San Antonio Botanical Garden’s Shakespeare in the Park, and many others. Locally, he has designed acclaimed Rogue productions since 2013 including Arcadia, Lady in the Looking Glass, Angels In America, By The Bog of Cats, The White Snake, A House of Pomegranates, The Grapes of Wrath, Moby Dick and A View from the Bridge, among many others. Please visit Don on the web at www.DonFoxDesigns.com.

Chris Babbie (Sound Design, Production Recording) started with The Rogue as a doorbell, graduated to Big Ben, and eventually became a Great White Whale. He continued providing The Rogue with sound design and sound FX for the last decade. When he isn’t touring with a band or a musical, he is working in nearly every performance space from downtown Tucson to the far reaches of the surrounding foothills and beyond providing sound for theatre, film, television, and music of all types and styles. Chris’ sound design efforts contributed to The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia; Krapp’s Last Tape; New-Found-Land; Awake and Sing; Jerusalem; Angels In America, Part One; Penelope; Bach at Leipzig; Moby Dick; The Beauty Queen of Leenane; A View from the Bridge; and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Among his other favorite theatrical sound design credits are Bent (a.k.a Theatre), Blue Window and Fall of the House of Usher (Meta Theatre), Touch and United (Damesrocket), Brahmadon (Actors’ Inc.’s), and Dual Heads (Borderlands).

Vincent Calianno (Sound Design & Audio Post-Production) Inspired by the renegade eloquence of the American vernacular, composer and sound designer Vincent Calianno (b. 1979) “blurs the boundaries between fine art and popular culture” (VICE), through kaleidoscopic colorings, muscular rhythms, extreme stasis and motion, while curiously investigating new musical possibilities through new practices and obsolescent technologies. Calianno’s music has been commissioned and performed by ensembles including the International Contemporary Ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, Thalea String Quartet, JACK Quartet, Nouveau Classical Project, Ensemble Mise-en, Jennifer Koh, John Pickford Richards, Kivie Cahn-Lipman, the Buffalo Philharmonic, Artifact Dance Project, and others. In addition to his concert works, Calianno has an active career in sound design and scoring for film and new media. His credits include music for Adecco, Morgan Stanley, and AlixPartners campaigns, as well as films and dramatic podcasts. His awards include the ASCAP Rudolf Nissim Prize, the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Award, and the Sarah Award for Best New Podcast. New projects include a new work, Ashliner, for violinist Jennifer Koh, Animal within Animal for the American Composers Orchestra and L’Astronome, a large-scale opera as part of Two Trains’ 2020/21 season. Recent highlights include the Thalea String Quartet premiere of A History of the String Quartet in its Natural Habitat, and A Painted Devil, for dance the Artifact Dance Project. In 2019, Calianno co-founded Two Trains, a hybrid music-theatre-dance project focused on abstract and inventive storytelling through the combined expressions of imagery and sound. Their first project, L’Astronome, is a nine-part opera that combines movement, text, and sound through the medium of cinema, and is set to premiere in Fall of 2020. For more information visit droplid.com.

Shannon Wallace (Stage Manager, Lighting Design) is excited for her fourth year as Resident Stage Manager with The Rogue Theatre, after a one-year hiatus. She served as stage manager for Angels in America, A House of Pomegranates and The Grapes of Wrath. She also worked on The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Uncle Vanya, Penelope, Macbeth, Celia, A Slave, Bach at Leipzig, Three Tall Women, King Lear, Galileo, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Much Ado About Nothing, The Crucible, A View from the Bridge, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and The Weir as stage manager as well as associate lighting designer. She graduated from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, focusing on both stage management and lighting design. During her time in school she worked on over 25 productions with Arizona Repertory Theatre. She has also worked for Arizona Theatre Company, the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, and the Contemporary American Theatre Festival serving on both stage management teams and company & events management teams. She is grateful to be working full-time as a theater artist in her hometown.

Shannon Wallace’s stage management is supported in part
by a generous gift from Susan Collinet and Susan Dodd.

Claire Hancock (Choreography) has been a guest teacher and choreographer for organizations including the Limón Institute, Broadway Theatre Project, Arizona Theatre Company, Arizona Opera, Tucson Symphony Orchestra, and True Concord: Voices and Orchestra. She holds a Master of Arts degree in European Dance Theatre from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London, and earned both a Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts degree in dance from the University of Arizona. Hancock co-founded Artifact Dance Project, a professional dance company dedicated to dance, live music, and film. Recently she has been developing and creating new work with composer Vincent Calianno for a new company, Two Trains, which focuses on producing works for new media. She is thrilled to be returning to the Rogue, where she has both performed and choreographed in past productions. www.clairehancock.com.

Brent Gibbs (Fight Choreography) teaches acting and stage combat at the University of Arizona’s School of Theatre Arts where he also serves as the Artistic Director for the Arizona Repertory Theatre. He is a member of Actors’ Equity Association and Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. For nine years Brent served as the director, fight director and production stage manager for one of the nation’s largest Outdoor Dramas, Tecumseh. He has gained recognition as an Advanced Actor/Combatant by the Society of British Fight Directors, Fight Directors Canada and The Society of American Fight Directors where he also holds the rank of Certified Teacher and Fight Director. He has taught combat master classes around the United States and Europe at various schools including The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. For several summers he taught stage combat workshops at the International Theatreschool Festival in Amsterdam.

Amy Novelli (Scenic Artist) is originally from Ohio and Pennsylvania. She received her Cum Laude BFA from the Columbus (Ohio) College of Art & Design in 1987 and her MFA from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh in 1994. Novelli’s scenic art career began in New York City at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Studio. Charge Scenic Artist for the Arizona Theatre Company 2010–2014, Amy also painted several sets for Arizona Opera and UA Opera, and presently paints for The Rogue Theatre and until COVID at the Arizona Broadway Theatre in Peoria (Phoenix). Amy created monstrous Halloween decor for Hotel Congress for 20 years, and was lead painter for Marshal-Fields 1998 award winning Easter Window display “Alice in Wonderland”. She supervised four public art projects in the Tucson area with high school youth and won commissions to design and paint five large scale outdoor murals across the country as well as at the Biosphere II and La Posada Hotel on Oracle Blvd. She has taught at the University of Arizona and Pima Community College. Novelli’s fine art work has been exhibited at several Tucson Galleries and in May-August 2020 she had a one woman show at the Tucson International Airport. Amy Novelli has been living in Tucson since 1996. When not painting, Novelli trains rescue horses and dogs and enjoys riding wilderness trails all over the western states.

Amy Novelli’s scenic painting is supported in part by
a generous gift from Max McCauslin & John Smith.

Nanalee Raphael (Costume Manager) has known from age five that she would work in theatre. Of course, she thought it would be as an actor, not as someone who flings fabric around. She feels blessed that she has always been employed in costuming, for both professional and academic theatres, and has never had to have a “day job.” Until moving to Tucson in 1995, she was peripatetic in her work situations, desiring to work with theatres all over the country. She has taught at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee but was lured by the bright lights of Chicago and so moved there to teach at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Following her husband to central Illinois, she then wangled a position at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where she created a successful costume rental program. She then gave up all that greenery to come to Tucson to teach and design at the University of Arizona. She has worked as a costume designer, costume director and/or draper in professional theatres in Michigan, (Hope Summer Repertory, Holland), Wisconsin (American Players Theatre, Spring Green), Illinois (Goodman, Wisdom Bridge, and Steppenwolf, Chicago), New York (The Public, NYC), Arizona (ART & ATC, Tucson), at Shakespeare Festivals in Vermont and New Jersey, and California (The Old Globe, San Diego). She received both her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Costume Design and Technology from Syracuse University. She is one of the “Pioneering Seven,” the first group of women to study full-time at Dartmouth College.

Peter Bleasby (Master Electrician) lit his first show at 13. Professionally, he was with BBC Television for several years, and was an assistant to the UK lighting designer Richard Pilbrow during the inaugural production of the National Theatre (Hamlet, directed by Olivier.) Although his career was in architectural lighting, he maintained some theatre lighting involvement on both sides of the Atlantic. In 2009, he volunteered for the Rogue’s initial season at the Historic Y. He has been master electrician at the Rogue for every show from 2013 to the present, supporting our lighting designers Deanna Fitzgerald, Don Fox, and Josh Hemmo. He devised the system that enables lights to be quickly re-arranged, allowing more time for the creative process. Elsewhere in Tucson, he directed the technical and logistical aspects of fundraisers for the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation, including the fashion show Moda Provocateur.

Susan Collinet (House Manager) earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Creative Writing and English Literature from the University of Arizona in 2008. Decades before returning to college as a non-traditional student, Susan spent twenty years in amateur theater, mostly on the East coast, as well as in Brussels, Belgium in the American Theater of Brussels, and the Theatre de Chenois in Waterloo. She has worked in such positions as a volunteer bi-lingual guide in the Children’s Museum of Brussels, the Bursar of a Naturopathic Medical school in Tempe, Arizona, an entrepreneur with two “Susan’s of Scottsdale” hotel gift shops in Scottsdale, Arizona, and as the volunteer assistant Director of Development of the Arizona Aids Project in Phoenix. Susan continues to work on collections of poetry and non-fiction. Her writing has won awards from Sandscript Magazine, the John Hearst Poetry Contest, the Salem College for Women’s Center for Writing, and was published in a Norton Anthology ofStudent’s Writing. In addition to being House Manager, Susan serves on the Board of Directors and acts as Volunteer Coordinator for the Rogue.

Thomas Wentzel (Box Office Manager, Program, Website) is a Scientific Programmer for the National Solar Observatory and holds a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Arizona. Previously he has worked as a Data Manager for several prevention programs in the Arizona Cancer Center and the Mel and Enid Zuckerman Arizona College of Public Health. He has served on the Board of the Tucson Men’s Cooperative, editing its newsletter for five years, and on the Executive Committee of Sons of Orpheus—The Male Choir of Tucson. He has sung with Furry Day Singers, Sons of Orpheus, AwenRising and Arizona Repertory Singers, and has performed with Tucson Art Theatre in Viktor Slavkin’s Cerceau and Clifford Odets’ Waiting for Lefty. Thomas has designed and built The Rogue Theatre Web site (with great assistance from Bill Sandel and Bryan Falcón in creating the 2020 Website update), creates all The Rogue’s posters and programs and has served as Webmaster, Business Manager and Treasurer.

Our Thanks

Performance Schedule

Performance run time of As You Like It is two hours and twenty-five minutes, including one ten-minute intermission.

The video viewing option will be available from Thursday, April 29
until the end of Sunday, May 16, 2021.