As the corona impact creeps into summer and onto fall
The Shakespeare in Delaware Park production of "As You Like It," is the latest casualty to the corona virus pandemic. Intended to be the first show of the 45th Anniversary SDP season, the production, scheduled to run Jun 18 through July 12, was officially nixed last night.
"As You Like It" would have featured Genevieve Ellis as Rosalind; Darryl Semira as Orlando; Jay Desiderio as Duke Frederick; Jamie Nablo as Celia; Chris J. Handley as Touchstone; and Tom Makar as Jaques.
The venerable festival still hopes to stage A Midsummer Night’s Dream, beginning mid-July, but advises patrons "that any upcoming production is contingent on government mandate and the health and safety of you, our friends."
"As You Like It" features many memorable lines:
Tom Makar will not say:
"All the world's a stage
And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages.”
Jaques, Act 2 Scene 7
Genevieve Ellis will not say:
"Do you not know I am a woman? When I think, I must speak.”
Rosalind, Act 3 Scene 2
Chris J. Handley will not say:
“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”
Touchstone, Act 5 Scene 1
Genevieve Ellis will not say:
“I pray you, do not fall in love with me, for I am falser than vows made in wine.”
Rosalind, Act 3 Scene 5
Genevieve Ellis will not say:
“Love is merely a madness and, I tell you, deserves as well a dark house and a whip as madmen do, and the reason why they are not so punish’d and cured is that the lunacy is so ordinary that the whippers are in love too.”
Rosalind, Act 3 Scene 2
Genevieve Ellis will not say:
“Time travels in diverse paces with diverse persons I’ll tell you who time ambles withal, who time trots withal, who time gallops withal, and who he stands still withal.”
Rosalind, Act 3 Scene 2
Darryl Semira will not say:
“Oh, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man’s eyes!”
Orlando, Act 5 Scene 2
Other cast members were to include: James Wamsley as Silvius; Marie Costa as Phebe; Heather Casseri as Audrey; David Hayes as Oliver de Bois; Christopher Guilmet as Duke Senior; Mike Garvey as Corin; Ben Caldwell as Charles; Larry Rowswell as Adam; Max Daminai as Jaques de Bois; Arianna Lasting as Le Beau; Taylor Hall as Denise; Collan Zimmerman as William; and Jay Wollin as a musician.
To paraphrase Louisa May Alcott, summer won't be summer without Shakespeare in Delaware Park!
Let's keep our fingers crossed for "Midsummer Night's Dream."