Saratoga Shakespeare to present ‘As You Like It’

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » The 18th season of Saratoga Shakespeare — which begins on Tuesday with a production of “As You Like It,” — is being labeled a “Season of Transformation.” The two-play season is offered outdoors in Congress Park, downtown Saratoga, Tuesdays through Saturdays. Shows start at 6 p.m. and all performances are free of charge. They usually take about two hours, without an intermission.

Gwynedd Vetter-Drusch who plays the lead character, Rosalind, in the opening production certainly will have a season of transformation. In the comedy, Rosalind is a female who disguises herself as a male to teach Orlando, the man who loves her, how to fall out of love with her, even though she too loves Orlando.

Does this sound confusing? Well add another three or four cases of people who are in love with other people who aren’t whom they seem and you get an idea of the merriment that takes place in this pastoral romanticcomedy.

Not only does Vetter Drusch perform one of Shakespeare’s most demanding gender-bending roles in “As You Like It,” but she also plays Hotspur in Henry IV, Parts I & II, (combined) which plays the Park July 31-August 4.

Hotspur is traditionally a male role. Vetter-Drusch did not want to talk about Hotspur, as the decision has not yet been made to play the character as a woman or as a Joan of Arc type female.

However, the actor was more than willing to discuss the concept of transformation as it relates to “As You Like It.” She says the play is about love in many forms. “There is, of course, the love between Rosalind and Orlando. There is sisterly love between Rosalind and her cousin Celia, who escapes to the Forest of Arden with her. (Celia has her own romance while in disguise.) She adds that there is also brotherly love, which happens between brothers who are in conflict with each other for much of the play.

She says the love that most fascinates her is that between Rosalind and Celia. It, she says, acts as a model for the other loves. “These are two independent women who trust each other. They defy the world together. Their bond is beautiful because they truly see each other for who they are.”

She compares the unconditional love that exists between Rosalind and Celia and laughs at Orlando’s overblown statements of his love for her. “He goes around placing bad poetry on trees expressing his love for Rosalind. But I put on a hat and he doesn’t know who I am?” She laughs a little harder at the thought.

She says that, of course, the hat is merely a theatrical device but she also sees it as a metaphor for the illusion of romance. “People don’t see each other. It isn’t until a person is willing to take off the mask, take off the disguise, that people become able to discover the essence of another person. Love can’t take place until that happens.”

Another element of romance she is anxious to explore during rehearsal is the idea that when Rosalind is disguised as the male Ganymede, how is her behavior influenced by being a male? She says it is rather telling that Orlando discovers the essence of Rosalind through her playing at being a male.

Because the play is being performed in the “now,” she feels contemporary attitudes, and confusions, towards gender are legitimately in play within the production. “Not everyone is comfortable with traditional definitions of gender. We are learning what makes femininity. Rosalind is going through that discovery. She gets a lot right, but some of her changes are only on the surface. There’s a lot left to explore.”

For Vetter-Drusch, the bottom line on Rosalind is, “She’s a woman for today. She is intent on making everything in the world back to right.” She pauses for a second or two, then adds, “Actually she’s a woman for all times.”

“As You Like It” performs in Congress Park, Saratoga Springs, Tuesdays through Saturdays at 6 pm. July 17-28. Henry IV, Parts I & II plays July 31-Aug. 4. Admission is free.