American Players Theatre's Wondrous "As You Like It," Staged in the Woods

A group of actors in rustic costumes perform on an outdoor stage with grass-covered steps, wooden arches, and baskets, surrounded by trees and dim lighting, suggesting a scene from a play set in nature.

American Players Theatre’s “As You Like It,”/Photo: American Players Theatre

RECOMMENDED

I’ve seen a few gimmicky takes on “As You Like It” in recent years. In 2021, Chicago Shakespeare Theater combined the play with The Beatles’ music—that was fun. Another at Writers Theatre last year had songs by Shaina Taub, but cut too much, including the “All the world’s a stage” speech. It was cute, but puzzling.

A better gimmick is to have all the company learn the play really, really well and perform it clearly, creatively and with intelligence. That’s what you’ll see on the outdoor Hill stage at Wisconsin’s American Players Theatre this summer. Directed by American Players Theatre veteran Laura Rook, this is a production that lets the text shine, telling a beautiful story of love, forgiveness and personal transformation.

The story starts in a cruel, violent world. Duke Frederick (Gavin Lawrence) has usurped and exiled his brother Duke Senior (David Alan Anderson). At first, Frederick lets his niece Rosalind (Samantha Newcomb) stay at court to keep his daughter Celia (Sola Thompson) company, but then he exiles her, too. Refusing to be parted, Celia and Rosalind escape together to the Forest of Arden, with Rosalind dressed as a man.

There they encounter Orlando (Derrick Moore), who also fled to the forest. Orlando had fallen for Rosalind back at court. Now in the guise of a man, she tells Orlando he must practice his wooing with her, to get ready for when the “real” Rosalind arrives.

Two women in ornate historical costumes sit on green steps, facing each other and engaged in conversation. One gestures with her hands while the other listens intently.

American Players Theatre’s “As You Like It,” with Sola Thompson and Samantha Newcomb/Photo: American Players Theatre

Newcomb, who had been a strong Cordelia in American Players Theatre’s 2024 production of “King Lear,” is amazing as Rosalind—at once strong and sweet, comic and vulnerable. She holds the reins for this play and never lets it falter. Thompson is a great companion as Celia, loyal but humorously skeptical of some of Rosalind’s notions.

As the smitten Orlando, Moore exudes youthful energy and exuberance. He is just the sort of young man who can beat a wrestling champion (Sam Luis Massaro), rescue a former enemy, and pin love notes to trees. He shows his tenderness in his treatment of the old servant, Adam (the great James Ridge), who offers his life and fortune to Orlando.

Rasell Holt, who was the sinister Edmund in “King Lear,” once more shows his nuance at playing villains. Holt performs the part of Orlando’s brother Oliver not as a one-dimensional brute but as someone vain and insecure, comical in his pretensions and in his jealousy of his more gifted sibling.

Longtime American Players Theatre player and director David Daniel plays Jaques, the original lonesome hipster. His Jaques seems not so much melancholy as smarter than everyone else, and thus freer with his opinions. He delivers the “All the world’s a stage” speech with both gravity and a feeling of effortlessness. Even the birds got quiet to listen.

The play’s other brainy outsider is the jester Touchstone, usually a man’s part, played by Elizabeth Ledo. Ledo’s delivery of Touchstone’s complex wordplay is spritely and clear—she’s a philosophy professor in motley.

A group of actors in period costumes perform a dramatic scene on an outdoor stage with green steps and medieval-style banners; one man stands in front, looking pensive, while others watch or kneel behind him.

American Players Theatre’s “As You Like It,”/Photo: American Players Theatre

American Players Theatre doesn’t perform musicals, but there’s good live music in this production composed by Andrew Hansen, directed by Camela Widad. I heard audience members singing snatches of “Sweet lovers love the spring” on the way to the parking lot. There’s also an astonishing giant puppet, designed by Rachel Anne Healy.

American Players Theatre won the Regional Theatre Tony award this year, and this production helps to show why. The theater company’s take on Shakespeare is consistently excellent, bringing out the poetry of the text without being stagey or dull. In “As You Like It,” the characters go to the forest and become more fully human. The same thing happens when you see theater in the woods at Spring Green—the experience washes away the grubbiness of ordinary life and fills you with wonder.

“As You Like It” at American Players Theatre, 5950 Golf Course Road, Spring Green, Wisconsin, through October 4.

American Players Theatre’s Wondrous “As You Like It,” Staged in the Woods In Shakespeare's comedy, the characters go to the forest and become more fully human. The same thing happens when you see theater in the woods at Spring Green, Wisconsin.

“The Matchmaker” Is the Play That Became “Hello, Dolly!” On stage at American Players Theatre, Wisconsin native Thornton Wilder's play is an old-fashioned but well-made farce that was later adapted into the 1964 Broadway hit.

In a Room Full of Empty Chairs, a Couple Grapples With Nothingness The Eugène Ionesco play, on stage at American Players Theatre, is philosophically bleak, but with a comedic vaudeville feeling.

Stage Top 5: July/August 2026

“Fault” Is in the Scars: Battling Couple Comedy Crackles and Cracks Jason Alexander directs this world premiere at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, a “marital combat” play with tightly wound action that takes repeated shots at the intimate lives of its coupled characters.

October Issue
Realism

GET A COPY

SUBSCRIBE