UPDATED: August 4, 2015
SHAKESPEARE ORANGE COUNTY'S PRODUCTION OF SHAKESPEARE'S
AS YOU LIKE IT SETS THE CLASSIC COMEDY IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND
Peter Uribe directs the tale of finding love in the Forest of Arden, August 15-29
GARDEN GROVE, CA. July 30, 2015 – Following its groundbreaking production of
Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare Orange County (SOC) now turns
to the comedy of Shakespeare's As You Like It.
This second Shakespeare production of SOC's Summerfest 2015 opens August
15 and continues through August 29. Opening night will offer a limited number of
premium 'Night in White' packages, with catered pre-show dinner and center
section seats in the first three rows. Preview performances are August 13 and 14.
All performances are in Garden Grove's Festival Amphitheater, located at 12762
Main St, Garden Grove. There is ample free parking available on the street and in
a nearby lot. For information visit shakespeareoc.org or call 714-5901575.
Like another popular Shakespeare comedy, A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You
Like It celebrates joy of love, liberty and great wit. The characters, and the play,
leave the structured world of court for the untamed Forest of Arden. Duke Senior
lives there in exile after being deposed by his brother. Soon, his spirited daughter
Rosalind is soon banished, too, but not before she and Orlando are mutually
smitten. Traveling with her are her cousin Celia, rebelling daughter of the usurping
Duke Frederick, and Touchstone, the wisest of fools. Disguised as a man for
safety, Rosalind encounters lovesick Orlando writing love poems to Rosalind and,
as Ganymede, advises him how to win his true love and then helps pair up other
lonely hearts for the play's climactic four-couple wedding.
"We have moved our As You Like It from its setting in France to the time and place
it was written," said Director Peter Uribe. "We're really enhancing the experience
of being back in Elizabethan England with Renaissance period entertainment
before the show and plenty of rich period costumes onstage."
"With great veteran Shakespearean actors like John-Frederick Jones, this will
definitely be a charming and enchanting production," added SOC Producing
Artistic Director John Walcutt. "It will be a lot of fun for all audiences, with great
surprises, disguises and cross-dressing antics that have made this play beloved for
more than four centuries."
The cast includes Cynthia Aldrich (Phebe), Alex Bodrero (Jacques), Marisa
Costa (Celia), Michael Drace Fountain (Duke Senior), John Frederick Jones
(Adam), Colin Martin (Orlando), Josh Odsess-Rubin (Rosalind), Blake Prentiss
(Oliver), A.J. Smitrovich (Duke Frederick) and Tony Torrico (Touchstone).
[Principle bios follow release.]
The production team is Michael Drace Fountain (scenic design), Sean McMullen
(costume design), Kevin Cook (lighting and sound design), Amelia Barron (Music
Director) and Jeff Budner (fight choreography). Cailin Luneburg and Sarah
Bond are stage managing.
Special Added Event
In a special free pre-show seminar on August 21, beginning at 7:15 p.m.,
Samantha Dressel will discuss gender dynamics in As You Like It and how they
reveal the fluid and nuanced understanding of gender and sex that existed in the
Renaissance playhouse. Currently in the University of Rochester's doctoral
program with a focus on Renaissance revenge tragedies, Dressel recently
presented a paper on verbal identity construction in Othello at the Stratford
Shakespeare Festival. She earned her bachelor of arts in English Literature from
Colgate University and has taught undergraduate writing, including a course on
rhetoric and identity in the Renaissance, at the University of Rochester.
Tickets, Information, and Social Media
As You Like It runs August 15-29, with performances Thursday through Saturday
at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15, $25 and $40, with discounts available for groups. There
will be two previews, August 13 and 14.
The August 15 opening includes "Nights in White," a special $100 package that
includes pre-show dinner and entertainment on the amphitheater lawn, with
reserved seats in the first three rows. Guests are invited to dress in white.
Thanks to generous support from Macy's, SOC is offering two "rush ticket"
programs to help make theatre affordable for everyone: On Fridays and Saturdays
beginning at 7 p.m., "7 at 7" offers remaining seats for that night's performance for
$7; and Thursdays are "Pay What You Want" for all remaining unsold seats onehalf hour before curtain.
For tickets and information visit shakespeareoc.org, call the Box Office at 714590-1575, or email info@shakespeareoc.org.
All performances are in the Festival Amphitheatre Main Stage located at 12762
Main St, Garden Grove, CA 92840. Free parking is available on the street and in
the city parking lot on Acacia Parkway one block west of Main St.
Follow SOC on Twitter, like it on Facebook, and view videos on Youtube.
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'AS YOU LIKE IT' BIOS
Peter Uribe (Director), known by Orange County audiences for playing Jesus in nine
consecutive annual productions of The Glory of Easter, is directing As You Like It for the
first time, which brings him to the halfway point in his goal of acting in and directing every
Shakespeare play. Mr. Uribe has a strong passion for creating rock operas and formed
Luna C Productions with Bill Schultz. Their rock opera production of The Who's
Quadrophenia received rave reviews in Los Angeles and lead to a UK national tour. He
has won LA Weekly Awards for Best Director and Production of the Year for Block Nine,
produced by The Elephant. In addition to acting and directing Mr. Uribe loves to teach,
mentoring the next generation of theatre artists. he has taught theatre at Cal State Long
Beach, Cal Poly Pomona (where he was co-founder of the Southern California
Shakespeare Festival), Orange Coast College and the Orange County School of the Arts.
Michael Drace Fountain (Duke Senior/Scenic Design) has been a company member with
Shakespeare Orange County for 18 years. Favorite roles in the company include Fabian in
Twelfth Night, Adonis in Venus and Adonis, Nim in Henry V, Peter in Romeo and Juliet,
Doctor Pinch in A Comedy of Errors, and Marcellus in Hamlet. Elsewhere Michael has
enjoyed playing Don Pedro in Much Ado About Nothing, Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet,
Macduff in Macbeth, Brutus in Julius Caesar, Florindo in A Servant of Two Masters, and
Capitano in a Commedia dell’arte piece titled L'abbassamento di Titanic. He has a BFA in
Theatre Technology from Chapman University.
Collin Martin (Orlando) has made acting in Shakespeare plays his primary focus. He
recently appeared as the lead in Aura Productions' 2015 film Innocent Sleep, a modern
adaptation of Macbeth. Previous notable roles include Hamlet with the California
Shakespeare Company, Iago with American River College (nominated for an Elly Award),
Macbeth with The City Shakespeare Company, and Othello in a short film adaptation of
Othello that premiered at Kenneth Branagh's Shakespeare in Film Festival. He studied
with the American Russian Theater and is currently a company member at Shakespeare
Orange County.
Josh Odsess-Rubin (Rosalind) is a 2015 graduate of UC Irvine’s MFA program, where
he appeared in 14 plays, including Angels in America, The Liquid Plain, After Troy, The
Turn of the Screw, and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. Locally, he also appeared as Da
Vinci in Counter-Balance Theater’s The Dwarf and in two seasons at the New Swan
Shakespeare Festival where he played Feste in Twelfth Night, Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet,
Demetrius in Midsummer and Edmund in King Lear. His New York credits include world
premieres at the NY Fringe Festival, Playwrights Horizons, HERE, Ars Nova, Dixon Place,
New York Stage & Film, and the Culture Project, while regionally Josh has also performed
at Yale Repertory Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Winnipesaukee Playhouse,
Yale Cabaret, and Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati. This is his third go with As You Like It
after playing Jaques at UC Irvine and Orlando for NYC’s Pulse Ensemble Theatre.
Marisa Costa (Celia) played Olivia in Twelfth Night (Shakespeare Orange County), Juliet
in Romeo & Juliet (Equine Dell Arte, and Old Vic Studio -UK), Nina/Masha in The Seagull,
Valeria in The Rover, Helen in After the Dance, and The Miller's Wife in Canterbury Tales
(Old Vic Studio -UK), Cassio in Othello (TAI -NYC), Katherine in Straw House (Primary
Stages -NYC), Mrs. Maurrant in Street Scene (Danny Kaye Playhouse -OFF
BROADWAY), Sarah in Fishing (The Macaulay Center -NYC), Harper in Angels in
America (UC Berkeley). Recent film credits include lead roles in Down to My Bones
(Carapace Entertainment), Death of a Boy (Well Top Studios), Damn Your Eyes (Target
Pictures), and Fray, which the LA Times called “Superior and deserv[ing] of attention.” She
has a BFA and an MA in Theatre and trained at the Old Vic Theatre School on scholarship
(UK), The Actors Institute (NYC), Impact Theater (NYC/Yale), Penny Templeton Studio
(NYC), and currently at Diana Castle's The Imagined Life in Los Angeles. Represented by
Bohemia Group. www.marisacosta.com
Cynthia Aldrich (Phebe) is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara with
a degree in Business Economics who decided to move to L.A. and act instead. She has
thoroughly enjoyed working with director Pete Uribe, performing in many of his productions
including as Hero in Much Ado about Nothing, Cutie in TEMPATION! and the youngest
whore in The Three Penny Opera. Cynthia is so excited to be a part of Shakespeare
Orange County's production of As You Like It, and is especially excited to be playing her
most eccentric role yet, Phebe.
Blake Kelton Prentiss (Oliver) has among his credits: Regional Theatre: New York:
Hamlet (Laertes); Washington DC: The White Devil; Kentucky: Working the Musical (Man
1) LA: Midsummer (Oberon), Julius Caesar (Brutus), and Equus (Horse). He earned his
MFA at Academy for Classical Acting with Shakespeare Theatre Company at The George
Washington University, and BA in Theatre and American Studies at California State
University, Fullerton.
Amelia Barron (Music Director/Assistant Director) has been teaching dance and musical
theatre in Orange and L.A. Counties for the past 12 years. She is currently a faculty
member at Orange County School of the Arts, South Coast Conservatory and McCoy
Rigby Academy of Performing Arts. She attended the Orange County School of the Arts
and Cal State University Fullerton. Amelia has been directing, choreographing and
producing shows in Orange County for the past eight years. With shows at Orange Coast
College, Orange County School of the Arts, Huntington Central Park and Grand Central
Art Center. Most recently she helped launch Temptation!, an original musical adaptation
with Peter Uribe. Amelia is also an accomplished vocalist and has had the privilege to
study and work with some of the top names in musical theatre and jazz including Marvin
Hamlish (A Chorus Line), Matthew Morrison (Glee, Light in The Piazza), Susan Egan
(Beauty and the Beast, Hercules), Danny Gurwin (A New Brain, The Scarlett Pimpernel)
and Jeff Hamilton (The Jeff Hamilton Trio, Clayton-Hamilton Orchestra). She has been
featured on a number of award winning albums and in music videos. She will also be
choreographing SOC's upcoming Pirates of Penzance.
John Walcutt (Co-Director/Producing Artistic Director) became Producing Artistic Director
of Shakespeare Orange County (SOC) in 2014. He had previously appeared in the title
role in Richard III, Cassius in Julius Caesar, Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet among others.
He has guest starred on nearly 200 films and TV shows including Academy Award winners
such as Titanic, Little Miss Sunshine, Seabiscuit and Mulan. His recurring TV characters
include drunk Tom Johnson on JAG, Wide Brim on Ghost Whisperer, Dennis Hopper’s
whacked-out Doctor on Crash, and the time-traveling father of Jerry O’Connell in Sliders.
His long theatre career includes work at most major American theatres. He is an awardwinning Director, Screenwriter and Producer, and teaches a very popular On-Camera
Acting Class in LA.
For additional press information and photos, or to arrange interviews, email
media@shakespeareoc.org.