The second group of shows to open for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival‘s 90^th anniversary season in Ashland is full of entertaining crowd-pleasers. Two Shakespeare comedies and a beloved musical don’t seem programmed to break new ground, but all three feature first-rate casts and inspired design choices, and bring fresh energy to plays that audiences already love. All show off what OSF does best.

As You Like It

The first of the three to open, in mid-April, was As You Like It, which will enjoy a long run in the intimate Thomas Theater to the end of the season Oct. 25. It’s one of several of Shakespeare’s plays that draw a contrast between life at court and life away from court in a wild place of exile. Director Lisa Peterson envisions that wild refuge, the Forest of Arden, as manifesting the sunnier elements of 1960s hippie culture — a sort of colorful Oregon Country Fair, where people are apt to float into a dance or song, tuck flowers into their hair and clothing, post bad love poetry onto trees, and insist that love is all you need.

Peterson’s design team clearly reveled in the assignment. The early part of the action takes place at the court ruled by usurper Duke Frederick (René Millán, in a welcome return to OSF), and movement (choreography by Sunny Min-Sook Hitt), costumes (designed by An-Lin Dauber), and the scenic design (by Tanya Orellana) all reflect control, uniformity, and minimal space for expression during those early court scenes. Characters move in prescribed, stilted lines on a minimalist set (think the “clean aesthetic” now in vogue) wearing shades of cream, with the women in uncomfortable-looking platform shoes.  Walking in them requires practice and concentration.

The world bursts into color and texture once the characters enter Arden. It’s a world of textiles — crochet and macramé and color mixes that reflect playfulness and flow, in clothing and hair accessories, and in ground cover and what passes for furniture. (I overheard older audience members commenting that they felt transported to Haight-Ashbury of the 1960s.) Movement, too, is playful, even childlike, and several cast members enter playing instruments of all kinds. I can’t recall any other production of this comedy that has so successfully incorporated music into the show’s action; Paul James Prendergrass, the composer, sound designer, and music director, has built a blissful musical world, and this cast takes you there with abandon.

It’s a story of lovers finding each other, and the various pairings embrace the task with convincing enthusiasm. Nell Geisslinger returns to OSF after an extended absence as a buoyant Rosalind, coaching her crush on how to win her (though she is already won) while she masquerades as an attractive boy.  Newcomer Alexander Quiñones is especially compelling as her Orlando, balancing youthful energy and determination. 

The performance I saw featured understudies in two major roles — Ava Mingo as Celia and Caro Zeller as Audrey — and they both were standouts, a testament to their talent, to the depth of the repertory company, and to the intention that OSF is devoting to understudy work. Other standouts are Amy Lizardo as Phoebe and Ernie González, Jr., as her paramour Silvius, whose comedic chemistry keep the energy boosted; and David Anthony Lewis as an always-game Touchstone. González, along with Benjamin Camenzuli and Jonathan Contreras, kept the music flowing.

The story here feels less important than the vibe, which pulls the players out of their self-imposed prisons into a more spacious way of relating, helps them release rivalries and loosen power grabs that somehow seemed essential in the supposedly more civilized court.  This production aims to convey a sort of embodied playful freedom, especially palpable in the intimate performance space, and one can hope that it proves to be contagious.

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The Merry Wives of Windsor

The two outdoor shows continue the playful spirit. The Merry Wives of Windsor, playing in repertory in the open-air Allen Elizabethan Theatre through Oct. 12, has the advantage of being one of Shakespeare’s more accessible stories: It’s about middle-class people rather than royals, particularly two middle-class women (the wives of the title) having a bit of fun at the expense of the character with the highest social status — a dissolute knight, Sir John Falstaff, who foolishly attempts to woo them both. It helps that the knight is a remarkably good sport as he weathers serial episodes as the primary butt of the play’s jokes; laughs at his expense come entirely guilt-free.

This production, tightly directed by OSF veteran Terri McMahon, benefits from a solid cast led by veterans who have proven they can lead a show. Daniel T. Parker is a crowd-pleasing Falstaff, adroitly navigating the challenges of playing deluded confidence and good humor. What he makes look easy requires the most impeccable timing and skill. 

And Amy Kim Waschke  and Royer Bockus are well-matched as the titular wives. They have proven to be among the most versatile actors at OSF, and easily convince as pals accustomed to finding and reveling in the freedom that can come from being the smartest and most drastically underestimated people in any room. James Ryen and Jaysen Wright are also fine as the husbands who the wives are accustomed to navigating with a mixture of affection and amusement. 

The humor is broad and often silly; I saw the play with a packed audience that laughed appreciatively through cold temperatures and periods of rain without any sign of waning merriment. These artists keep you laughing at a knight who lies and scams, parents who attempt to manipulate their daughter in opposite directions, a husband who is needlessly and inexplicably jealous, and two women who treat these and other foibles as occasions for practical jokes — all with lightness that steers you clear of any temptation toward judgment or blame.  It’s merriment well-choreographed.

Into the Woods

The most unmissable of the three shows, in my view, is Into the Woods, also playing in the outdoor Elizabethan Theater, through Oct. 11. In part, that’s because it is one of the best musicals you will ever see and, in my opinion, should never be missed. My introduction to it was OSF’s 2014 production, also on the outdoor stage. Like this production, that one was directed by Amanda Dehnart, also serving as music director.  That first time, I was thunderstruck by the beauty of the music and the depth of the storytelling, both of which have deepened for me with every subsequent experience of the show.

This is my fourth journey Into the Woods, and, again, it is simply unmissable. A few cast members are returning from OSF’s excellent 2014 production, including Miriam A. Laube as the Witch, Royer Bockus as Rapunzel, and Anthony Heald as the Narrator. Kjerstine Rose Anderson, who played Little Red Riding Hood in the 2014 production, appears this time as the Baker’s Wife. Catherine Coulson, who passed away in 2015, appeared in several roles in 2014, including the Giant, and quite effectively reprises that role by video in this production. They are all wonderful — and so is the rest of the uniformly strong cast. 

The music of the production calls forth the best from cast members and orchestra alike, and all deliver beautifully.  The voices are heavenly — I especially loved newcomer Bebe Browning as Cinderella — and one can absolutely feel the love radiating through the ensemble. 

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Into the Woods mines the themes in fairy tales for insights about how our collective stories reveal us falling into traps that reflect a common thinking error: that we are making choices as individuals rather than with recognition that our choices are connected to the choices of many others. This central theme courses skillfully through all the stories, and the characters collectively transform over the course of the play to recognize more deeply how their stories connect. 

The music carries that accumulation of collected and collective awareness — and when you have a cast this strong, connecting beautifully in intention and tone, the energy they create together is like nothing else. This ensemble delivers in every respect — and with any luck, the shared experience of that beautifully collective energy will sink deeply into your bones.

There are fresh touches here that deepen the production’s pleasures. Linda Roethke’s costumes capture a sense that the play aims to usher us into a universal story by opening with the cast in standard street clothes and having the actors one-by-one don the attire that reflects the collective unconscious of fairy tale. Ellenore Scott’s choreography keeps the movement buoyant. 

Audience members are strategically enlisted as players, underlining that we are seeing a story that includes us. The quality of intention evident in the production deepens its pleasures and resonance.  And as with Merry Wives, I enjoyed this production on a cold night with audience members who did not want to miss a moment.

Three productions this strong offer pleasures that will appeal to all audiences, and Into the Woods especially will leave you with gifts of inspiration, hope, and reckoning.

***

• See Darleen Ortega’s ArtsWatch reviews of this OSF season’s Jitney and Fat Ham here.
• See Darleen Ortega’s ArtsWatch reviews of this OSF season’s Julius Caesar and The Importance of Being Earnest here.
• Still to come in the festival’s 2025 season are Shane, running July 31-Oct. 25 in the Angus Bowmer Theatre; and Quixote Nuevo, running July 9-Oct. 24 in the Thomas Theatre.