Lights, Camera, Aitken! Director Puts a Hollywood Spin on As You Like It in DC; LaChiusa Adds Music

By Kenneth Jones
23 Nov 2009

Maria Aitken
Maria Aitken
Photo by Aubrey Reuben

Maria Aitken, the director who pumped laughing gas into Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps in London and on Broadway, sets Shakespeare's As You Like It in a Hollywood sound stage for Shakespeare Theatre Company's new production opening Nov. 23.

Previews began Nov. 17 at Sidney Harman Hall for a run that will continue to Dec. 20. "In Aitken's fresh take on this Shakespearean classic," according to STC notes, "the characters' journeys take them through American history as seen by Hollywood and depicted in classic films of the past century."

A score by Tony Award-nominated composer Michael John LaChiusa (Giant, The Wild Party, Bernarda Alba, Marie Christine) will include several musical numbers.

In the play, the Forest of Arden is packed with exiles from a tyrannical kingdom. "They search for freedom, just as so many immigrants have traveled to America for similar sanctuary," according to production notes. "As characters dream of possibility, the irrepressible Rosalind, Shakespeare's most fully realized female character, finds freedom of her own as she pursues love in disguise."

Aitken stated, "Arden is a place of refuge and a place of promise, which is how many an immigrant has seen America. And since America has always mythologized its history in film, this production will take place on a movie set in the Golden Age of Hollywood. This is my love letter to America."

The company includes John Behlmann as Orlando; Francesca Faridany as Rosalind; Floyd King as Touchstone; Andrew Long as Jacques; Miriam Silverman as Celia; Anjali Bhimani as Phoebe; Mark Capri as Duke Senior/Duke Frederick; Barnaby Carpenter as Oliver; Elliot Dash as Charles/William; Aubrey Deeker as Silvius; Beth Glover as Audrey; James Konicek as Amiens; Lawrence Redmond as First Lord; Todd Scofield as Le Beau; Raphael Nash Thompson as Corin; Ted van Griethuysen as Adam/Sir Oliver Mar-Text with Meredith Burns, McKennah Edmunds, Julia Ferrara, Catherine LeFrere, Sarah Mollo-Christensen, Charlie Francis Murphy, Adam Navarro, Todd Quick, David Joseph Regelmann, Jon Reynolds and Patrick Vaill.

Aitken is remembered for her film performance as Wendy in "A Fish Called Wanda." Her U.S. regional directing credits include the Court Theatre Chicago, Sag Harbour Bay Street Theatre and Williamstown Theatre Festival (last summer's Quartermaine's Terms). Her U.K. regional credits include Chichester Festival, Oxford Playhouse, Clwyd Theatre. Other international credits include productions in London's West End and Australia. She has adapted and directed many plays and classic serials for BBC radio. Most recently she directed Sir Ian McKellen in Edmund White's play Terre Haute for BBC 3. Aitken played many leading roles in the West End, with the Royal Shakespeare Company and with the Royal National Theatre, and has performed in numerous film and television roles.

The production team for As You Like It features set designer Derek McLane, costume designer Martin Pakledinaz, lighting designer Japhy Weideman, composer Michael John LaChiusa, sound designer Martin Desjardins, projection designer Jeff Sugg, choreographer Daniel Pelzig, voice and dialect coach Gary Logan, music director Barbara Irvine and fight director Brad Waller.

For more information, call (202) 547-1122 or visit ShakespeareTheatre.org.