University Communications
Emory University
Atlanta, GA 30322

Release date: Feb. 9, 2000
Contact: Deb Hammacher, Assistant Director, 404-727-0644, or dhammac@emory.edu

Theater Emory's Elizabethan Theater Comes To An End With "As You Like It" Feb. 18-March 4 and a Swan Song Feb. 22-23

Three years ago Emory University's Department of Theater Studies built a replica Elizabethan theater to see what role the physical space played in the creation and success of work by Shakespeare and his contemporaries. The Black Rose-which took its name from the Rose and Blackfriars theaters that it was patterned after-was to be in place only for that semester, but was such a hit with audiences, artists and the national media alike that it still stands. The investigation of the Black Rose now comes to a close, however, with the final full production, Shakespeare's "As You Like It" Feb. 18-March 4.

To celebrate what Theater Emory has learned from the project, two nights of reminiscences and snippets from Black Rose performances will be shared during a "swan song" Feb. 22-23. These will include scenes from some of the first productions. Actors Anna Bahney and Scott Higgs will return from New York and Chicago, respectively, to reprise their roles. Bahney was a lead actor in "The White Devil" and Higgs a lead actor in "The Tempest," both productions in the Black Rose's opening Renaissance repertory.

In Theater Emory's production of "As You Like It" director Janice Akers seeks to capture the majesty and pageantry of English theater during the Elizabethan court. The play features two of Shakespeare's most popular female heroines-Celia and Rosalind-and, appropriate for the last performance in the Black Rose, was written in the midst of a crisis over theater space for Shakespeare's company.

"As You Like It" emerged from desperate, dark days for Shakespeare and his company, the Chamberlain's Men, according to Michael Evenden, dramaturg for the production. A few years before, the company's owner-manager, James Burbage, had staked their future on a gamble. Burbage had taken the unprecedented step of buying (not renting) a building in the upscale Blackfriars section of London, with plans to remodel it as a private, indoor theater where the company could perform year-round to an up-market audience. Several crises ensued: the neighboring citizens of Blackfriars successfully petitioned to outlaw a theater in their district; then Burbage died, leaving the company broke, leaderless, and without a place to perform. Burbage's sons, including the company's leading actor, Richard Burbage, managed for a time, renting one inadequate performance space or another, until they hit on a desperate plan.

They hired a builder and, under cover of night, the company took the timbers and other materials of the old, unused Theater-their home prior to buying the Blackfriars building-and rowed them across the Thames to a new property, where they re-erected the same basic structure, calling it the Globe. Then, just as they prepared to open the Globe, their principal clown, Will Kempe, for whom it is believed Shakespeare had written the role of Falstaff, left the company. Shakespeare was left to devise an audience-pleasing comedy for the new theater, while in the midst of the company's homelessness, headlessness, and its improvisational recklessness in re-making itself, according to Evenden. "Shakespeare also had to integrate a new kind of clown, Robert Armin, whose sophisticated, verbally dexterous wit was a marked contrast to the hearty vulgarity of Kempe," says Evenden.

The marks of these disruptions are evident throughout "As You Like It." A tightly-structured first act, in which verbal wit lightens a sinister political tale of betrayal, gives way in the second act to a world of wandering, exploration and play. It is as if the rudiments of theater have to be rediscovered-role-playing, improvisation, elaboration of conventional themes and characters, and discovering a clown who can think and speak like an educated man. "All those things echo the wanderings of the Chamberlain's Men as they sought to re-make their situation," says Evenden.

Bill Moore, Theater Emory's technical director, did the set design for the production. Moore designed most of the Black Rose interior when it was initially built to accompany the original blueprint for the Black Rose, created by Canadian designer Bill Zimmerman. Leslie Taylor has created lush period costumes in keeping with the Elizabethan era. Judy Zanotti is the lighting designer and sound consultant. Charles Spenser is the composer and musical director.

The ensemble cast includes professional and student actors lead by Brittany Paige as Celia, Katy Carkuff as Rosalind, John Ammerman as Touchstone the jester, Tim McDonough as Jacques, Stuart Ambrose and Allen Read as Orlando and Oliver de Boys, and Harrison Long as the duke.

The specific show information is as follows:

"As You Like It," by Shakespeare. One of Shakespeare's most popular romantic comedies brings the pageantry of the Elizabethan court and the bucolic retreat of the forest of Arden to Emory's nationally acclaimed Black Rose. Black Rose/Mary Gray Munroe Theater, Dobbs University Center, 605 Asbury Circle, Emory. $6 Emory students with i.d.; $10 seniors, Emory staff and faculty, other students; $14 general admission. 404-727-5050

7:30 p.m. Feb. 18

8 p.m. Feb. 19, 24, 25, 26, March 1, 2, 3 & 4

3 p.m. Feb. 20, 27 & March 4

The Black Rose "swan song" will be 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, Feb. 22-23, and is free and open to the public. For more information or to order tickets, call the Arts at Emory box office at 404-727-5050.

A map of campus is available on-line at www.emory.edu/MAP/.

Theater Emory is the producing organization of Emory University and is affiliated with the Department of Theater Studies. Theater Emory is a constituent member of the Theatre Communications Group, Inc., the national organization of non-profit professional theaters, and a member of the Atlanta Coalition of Theaters. It operates under a Small Professional Theater agreement with Actors Equity Association.

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