Theatreworks to share Shakespeare in the great outdoors

Update: UCCS faculty and staff members can get tickets for $10 by entering “UCCS” in the promotional code box of the Theatreworks ticket site, www.theatreworkscs.org/tickets.html

Theatreworks will present William Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” at Rock Ledge Ranch July 31-Aug. 23.

Shakespeare’s great comedy features woods alive with the sound of music, strange capers afoot in the Forest of Arden, poems on trees, sermons in stones, and good in everything. As a tribute to the work, the production will take place in a festival tent on the grounds of Rock Ledge Ranch, 3105 Gateway Road.

The popular comedy features a band of refugees from a corrupt court who escape to the great outdoors seeking freedom and finding love. A city jester falls for a country goatherd, a lovesick shepherd pines for a stuck up girl, and a sweet youth defaces the forest with his bad poetry. Presiding over all these confusions is Rosalind, one of Shakespeare’s most winning characters, the girl disguised as a boy who teaches the boy how to get the girl. The forest of Arden is teeming with horned beasts and lively characters including the lovely Celia, an honest swineherd, an exiled duke, and the melancholy philosopher Jaques who discourses on the seven ages of man in one of the bard’s most memorable and oft quoted speeches. At almost any moment, someone might break into song. A starving lioness and a bone-crunching wrestler also make special appearances.

Rock Ledge Ranch is the ideal setting for this much loved play, an idyllic natural setting just beyond the bustle of the city. Audiences are invited to picnic before the show. Food is also available on-site. Performances begin nightly at 7:30, Tuesday through Saturday. Pre-show music begins at 7 p.m.

Seating is limited in the intimate 180 seat tent, and reservations are recommended. Tickets are $35 for adults, $15 for those 16 years old and younger. Children less than 5 years old are not allowed. For tickets and further information go to www.theatreworkscs.org or call the box office, (719) 255-3232.

— Caitlin Green