Shakespeare, 80s style, and New York City are all coming together on Feb. 15 at St.Paul Academy and Summit School. While most productions hosted at SPA are by SPA students, this performance, As You Like It, is performed by the Classical Actors Ensemble.

The CAS is a local acting group, and the play will be directed by Joseph Papke. According to their website, their motto is that the theater is a sacred place, and their goal is to “engage audiences by capturing the spirit in which the plays of the English Renaissance were originally performed – with immediacy, passion, and as popular entertainment.”

On Feb. 15, the play will be performed in the Huss Center from 10am to 12pm. All students in the Shakespeare English junior / senior elective classes and all ninth grade students will attend, and the performance is open to anyone else who wants to watch.

Upper School English Teachers Randall Findlay and Emily Anderson were instrumental in coordinating this opportunity.

Fair Use Image courtesy of ClassicalActorsEnsemble.com
The CAS performance of As You Like It is set in 1980s New York City.

“Ever year the ninth grade either invites a group or goes to see a performance because they read Shakespeare in English class. The Shakespeare class [does the same]. All ninth graders and Shakespeare students are required to see the [CAS] performance [today] if they aren’t in New York for the choir trip,” Findlay said.

The play takes an 80s NYC spin on the classic. From their website, CAS’s verson of As You Like It is about best friends Rosalind and Celia, who “flee to the idyllic countryside by means of a cross-dressing disguise, where romances, philosophers, music, shepherds, bad poetry, and a lion make their seemingly simple life delightfully complex.”

For those who saw this fall’s US play, As You Like It, this performance may hold similarities, but will overall prove to be a fresh take on Shakespeare’s story.