Dallas Theater Center Collaborates with SMU Meadows
The 2017 Regional Theatre Tony Award recipient Dallas Theater Center, in collaboration with SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts and AT&T Performing Arts Center, presents Public Works Dallas’ As You Like It, a groundbreaking community engagement and participatory theater project designed to deliberately blur the line between professional artists and Dallas community members.
Directed and choreographed by Ann Yee, As You Like It will run for five performances from Friday, Aug. 16 to Sunday, Aug. 18 at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre.
Performances are at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, and 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Ticketing information will be released at a later date, but tickets will be free to the public and available at several community locations, by phone, and online.
The musical adaptation of As You Like It will feature 200 actors and community members, only five being professional actors.
Making up the majority of the cast are community actors, many from Public Works Dallas’ community partner organizations: Bachman Lake Together, the City of Dallas Park and Recreation, Jubilee Park and Community Center, and Literacy Instruction for Texas.
Written by William Shakespeare, Public Works Dallas’ As You Like It is adapted by Shaina Taub and Laurie Woolery, with music and lyrics by Taub.
Named one of The New York Times’ best shows of 2017, As You Like It is an immersive dream-like tale of faithful friends, feuding families and lovers in disguise. Forced from their homes, Orlando, Duke Senior, his daughter Rosalind and niece Celia escape to the Forest of Arden, a fantastical place of transformation, where all are welcomed and embraced. Lost amidst the trees, the refugees find community and acceptance under the stars. Featuring an original folk-pop score by Taub and running 90 minutes long, As You Like It is appropriate for all audiences and groups.
Joining director and choreographer Yee is music director Vonda K. Bowling (A Christmas Carol, Hairspray, Public Works Dallas’ The Winter’s Tale); set and costume designer Lex Liang (Fetch Clay, Make Man); sound designer Andrea Allmond (Public Works Dallas’ The Winter’s Tale, Twelfth Night) and lighting designer Amanda West (Real Women Have Curves, Hairspray, Fade).
Support for As You Like It is provided by presenting sponsors Embrey Family Foundation, Susan and Bill Montgomery, NEA Creativity Connects, O’Donnell Foundation, Theatre Forward, Meadows Foundation, Donna Wilhelm Family Fund, and Hersh Foundation.
