As You Like It
Plymouth State University
October, 2001
Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by Kevin Gardner
Lighting design by Stuart Crowell
Costume design by Angela Pitrone
Technical Director: Bob Bruemmer
Set Design by Matt Kizer
The director for As You Like It asked me for “…a wonderful forest that the audience will want to run around in.” From former experience with him, I knew he was a fan of Maxfield Parrish paintings. Though I looked at a lot of visual styles for this show, I kept returning to that particular artist.
This is a classic wing-and-drop forest, with cut and netted drops. The drops get smaller as they go upstage, creating a strong forced perspective even in the absence of straight lines. We surfaced the platforms and ramps with mossy-looking artificial grass, and placed flowers everywhere. The forest was very inviting, and loaded with entrances and exits. It was a fitting setting for this comedy.
The period was early twentieth century. The evil Duke Ferdinand was modeled after the facist dictators of the era, Hitler and Mussolini. I designed variations of the swastika that used the letter F. This motif flew in the Duke’s palace, and was used on the arm bands of his henchmen.