Though still five weeks away, the school’s upcoming fall play is already on its way to becoming an impressive show that will be enjoyed by many.
For the first time in four years, Carlmont is putting on another Shakespeare play, to be performed in late October. Passionate student actors are contributing their best efforts to enable the show to fulfill its full potential.
The play “As You Like It” is an agrarian comedy written by William Shakespeare that follows the story of a girl named Rosalind and her cousin, Celia. They journey through the Forest of Arden where they encounter various interesting people, including Rosalind’s love, Orlando.
However, because the play uses Shakespearean language, memorizing lines is all the more complex and time-consuming for the actors.
“You have a lot of other stuff on your mind, and you don’t want to mess up. The lines are really long, and especially since it’s Shakespeare, it’s even harder because you have no idea what you’re even saying,” said Nicole Coleman, a sophomore who is playing the role of a shepherdess named Phoebe.
Along with memorizing lines, choreography, and blocking, student actors must also scramble to find any spare time to complete their homework as rehearsals can take up substantial portions of the afternoon.
“I do homework when I’m not on stage, and I try just to be good with it,” said Alexandra Gische, a junior who is playing the role of the evil duchess. “Most teachers are very understanding, so you can come to them and be like, ‘Hey, next week I’m not going to be at home, like ever. Can I have some extensions?’ and they’re usually pretty good about it. It takes a lot of time, but it’s hard.”
Nancy Martin, the director, is also putting a lot of time and effort into making this play exceptional. According to her, it took “about a year to develop everything and come up with the overall vision for the show.”
Martin puts on a Shakespeare play once every four years to ensure that students have the opportunity to be a part of a different type of theatre.
She switches back and forth between dramas and comedies; thus “As You Like It” is the ideal choice for this year, as it is a combination of both. Additionally, this play has many powerful female roles, which influenced her to choose the play in particular.
Even though this play truly entails a lot of thought and hard work, Martin greatly enjoys working with everyone involved.
“Shakespeare is not easy to do, and [the students] are producing some amazing work. They work really hard, and they work well together, and that’s been delightful to watch unfold,” Martin said.
Though it is also nerve-wracking, everyone involved in the play is eager to perform and show others the product of their hard work over the past two months.
“Please come see [the show]! We put a lot of hard work into our shows, and it’s a lot of great fun to know that people will come to see it and enjoy it,” said Emily Sahar Krayn, a senior who is taking on the role of Celia.
