As You Like It

Join the School of Drama for a bold adaptation of William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, directed by Glynis Rigsby, Associate Professor of Dramatic Arts. This production proudly opens our Bank Street production season.

Performance Details

Thursday, October 23rd at 7:30pm

Friday, October 24th at 7:30pm

Saturday, October 25th at 2:00pm

Saturday, October 25th at 7:30pm

On-Demand Viewing

Monday, November 3rd (4:00pm) - Tuesday, November 4th (4:00pm)

Synopsis

Sometimes family is your greatest enemy and sometimes family makes home wherever they go. In this vibrant new imagining of Shakespeare’s comedy, Arden becomes both a dance floor and a dreamscape: a place where you might escape villains, but never the voice rising from within. Exiled nobles, lovesick shepherds, and sharp-tongued fools collide in a world where identity shifts, desire runs free, and every heart is tested. Here, love may be foolish, messy, and exhilarating—but it always finds the spotlight.

“In November 2024, I found myself in a Brooklyn warehouse dancing like I had in the early aughts to DJs half my age. That cathartic and restorative experience carried me into a reimagined Forest of Arden—one where music holds our joy and despair, and ultimately leads us back to those who hold us most dear.” — Glynis Rigsby, Director.

This production sets Shakespeare’s classic in a utopia inspired not by the pastoral woods, but by the transformative power of nightclubs. Just as Shakespeare imagined the forest as a place of healing and renewal, our Arden is recast as a fictional projection of clubs across cities like San Francisco, Miami, and New York—spaces where generations have sought connection, release, and redemption.

Exploring class, gender, sexuality, romance, and identity across time and place, this As You Like It becomes a bold meditation on how communities imagine, build, and find utopias in their own time.

Creative Team
Glynis Rigsby | Director / Adaptor

Gavin Petersen | Production Stage Manager

Austen Parent | Assistant Stage Manager +

Cat Raynor | Scenic Designer

Colleen Doherty | Lighting Designer ^

Bryn Scharenberg | Sound Designer

Jasmine Lewis | Costume Designer

Mark Alberto McKnight | Projection Designer

Patrick Anthony Surillo | Production Manager

* Contemporary Theatre Performance

+ BFA Dramatic Arts Alumni

^ Local USA 829 Union Member

Presented by the College of Performing Arts at The New School.