AS YOU LIKE IT, Featuring Original Music by Obie Winner Heather Christian, to Launch New Year at Folger Theatre

Folger Theatre continues its celebrated 25th anniversary season with As You Like It, one of Shakespeare's most beloved comedies. Directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch, this classic tale filled with love, laughter, and mistaken identity features original songs composed by Heather Christian and dances by Alexandra Beller. As You Like It is on stage from January 24 through March 5, 2017.

The production features Lindsay Alexandra Carter as the clever and courageous Rosalind, and Lorenzo Roberts as the smitten Orlando.

Tickets are available online at www.folger.edu/theatre or by calling the Folger Box Office at (202) 544-7077.

Rosalind is banished from court by her uncle and flees with her cousin Celia to the Forest of Arden, where she discovers the chivalrous Orlando, and a world full of passion and possibility. When she disguises herself as a man, enchantment abounds and blossoms into an exploration of young love. Featuring some of Shakespeare's most memorable passages, As You Like It remains a witty and delightful examination on love in its many forms and features a cast of clowns, dukes, and merry woodsmen.

Alongside Lindsay Alexandra Carter and Lorenzo Roberts, the cast of As You Like It features Tom Story as Jaques, Aaron Krohn as Touchstone, Michael Glenn as Oliver, Antoinette Robinson as Celia, and Allen McCullough as Duke Senior and Duke Frederick. The production also includes Kimberly Chatterjee (Audrey), Will Hayes (Charles), Jeff Keogh (Adam/Corin), Daven Ralston (Ensemble), Brian Reisman (Silvius), Dani Stoller (Phoebe), and Cody Wilson (Denis/Wilson).

"We are delighted to have the extremely talented Gaye Taylor Upchurch direct an extraordinary ensemble of actors in this inspiring and uplifting tale of the human heart," says Janet Alexander Griffin, Folger Theatre's Artistic Producer. "As You Like It's themes of connection and community resonate just as clearly now as in centuries past, and is the perfect way to start and celebrate the new year."

This production of As You Like It features original music composed by Obie Award-winner Heather Christian, with scenic design by John McDermott (Folger Theatre's Sense and Sensibility), costume design by Charlotte Palmer-Lane, and choreography by Alexandra Beller (Folger Theatre's Sense and Sensibility). The creative team also includes Eric Southern (lighting design) and Leon Rothenberg (sound design).

"The people in As You Like It are seekers," says director Gaye Taylor Upchurch. "They seek refuge, they seek society, they seek love, they seek joy-and they take great risks to obtain these things. I'm thrilled to be at the Folger, a place I've always wanted to work, directing Shakespeare's exquisite celebration of great risk-taking and human folly in love."

Produced in association with Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival.

As You Like It plays at Folger Theatre from January 24 through March 5, 2017. Tickets are $35-$75. Lower-priced previews and discounts for students, seniors, military, educators, and groups of ten or more are available and may be purchased at the Folger Theatre Box Office at (202) 544-7077 or online at www.folger.edu/theatre.

Related Programming:

Pay-What-You-Can performance is on Tuesday, January 24, 7:30pm. Tickets will be available to the public at 5pm. One ticket per person.

Folger Theatre's Stage Director Talk will take place on Thursday, January 26 at 6:30pm. Learn about the creative process, staging, and vision of As You Like It with director Gaye Taylor Upchurch. $20, includes light fare reception.

College Night will be held on Friday, February 3 at 8pm. Tickets are $15, with a valid student ID to be presented at the box office.

A Pre-Performance Talk with Folger Director Michael Witmore explores As You Like It from a scholarly perspective on Wednesday, February 8 at 6:30pm. Tickets are $20, with light fare included.

Join us before the performance for a special Valentine's Day-themed Ladies Night on Friday, February 10 at 6pm, featuring a hands-on workshop on making Renaissance-style love letters, plus other special activities, and a complimentary signature cocktail. $10 with purchase of a ticket to the evening's performance of As You Like It.

Folger Theatre's Brews & Banter Pre-Show Talk will be held on Thursday, February 16 at 6:30pm. Before the show, quench your thirst and join this small group conversation with As You Like It cast members. $15, with beer and light fare included.

Audience members are encouraged to stay and take part in our Post-Show Discussion with the cast of As You Like It on Thursday, February 23. This interactive discussion, led by Folger's Resident Dramaturg Michele Osherow, will follow the 7:30pm performance.

An Open-Captioned performance will take place on Sunday, February 26 at 2pm.

Free Folger Friday - Kellie Robertson discusses Middle English manuscripts in the current Folger exhibition, 500 Years of Treasures from Oxford on Friday, March 3 at 6pm; Free

As You Like It is presented in conjunction with the Folger Shakespeare Library's exhibition 500 Years of Treasure from Oxford, on display in the Folger's Great Hall February 4 - April 30, 2017. Founded in 1517, the library of Corpus Christi College, Oxford is a repository of extraordinary treasures, few of which have ever been seen by the public. To mark the 500th anniversary, a selection of fifty manuscripts and early printed books, ranging in date from the 10th to the 17th centuries, is brought to America for the first time, and presented at the Folger. The exhibition is curated by Caroline Duroselle-Melish, Folger's Curatorial Advisor of Early Modern Books and Prints. Visit www.folger.edu/exhibitions for details; free.

ABOUT THE CAST:

Lindsay Alexandra Carter (Rosalind) - Regional: Cirque du Soleil with UNCSA: La Boite Rouge, LUNA; No Rules Theatre: Unlimited; Peppercorn Theatre: The Importance of Being Earnest. Off-Broadway: Lincoln Center Education: Rouge. Television: Madam Secretary.

Kimberly Chatterjee (Audrey) - Regional: Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival: As You Like It, Measure for Measure, Macbeth, So Please You. Off-Broadway: Playwrights Horizons: The Christians. Off-Off Broadway: Classical Theatre of Harlem: The Tempest. Television: High Maintenance.

Michael Glenn (Oliver) - Folger Theatre: Sense and Sensibility, The Gaming Table, Henry VIII (Helen Hayes Ensemble nomination), Hamlet, Arcadia, Twelfth Night, Elizabeth the Queen; Round House Theatre Company: Stage Kiss, THIS; Studio Theatre: Jumpers for Goalposts (Helen Hayes Ensemble nomination); Arena Stage: Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery (Helen Hayes Ensemble nomination), Good People; Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: Clybourne Park (Helen Hayes Ensemble nomination); Olney Theatre Center: Marjorie Prime, Neville's Island; Theater J: Brighton Beach Memoirs (upcoming), Photograph 51; Constellation Theatre Company: Absolutely! (Perhaps), Scapin, A Flea in Her Ear, On the Razzle; Longacre Lea: Fear, Cat's Cradle, The Hothouse, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Helen Hayes Ensemble nomination); Signature Theatre: The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Fallen From Proust; Washington Stage Guild: The Underpants, A Skull in Connemara, Major Barbara (Helen Hayes Supporting Actor nomination); African Continuum Theatre: Blood Knot (Mary Goldwater Award).

Will Hayes (Charles) - Folger Theatre: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (u/s); Open Circle Theatre: The Who's Tommy; Synetic Theater: As You Like It, The Man in the Iron Mask, Romeo and Juliet; Olney Theatre Center: Colossal; Studio Theatre: The Rocky Horror Show; Arena Stage: Camp David; Wooly Mammoth Theatre Company: House of Gold; Flying V: The Oregon Trail; Longacre Lea: Goldfish Thinking; WSC Avant Bard: King John, The Tooth of Crime, The Mistorical Hystery of Henry (I)V; American Century Theatre: Macbeth.

Jeff Keogh (Adam/Corin) - Folger Theatre: Mary Stuart, District Merchants (understudy), A Midsummer Night's Dream (understudy), Pericles (understudy), Romeo and Juliet (understudy); Chesapeake Shakespeare Company: Antony and Cleopatra, Hamlet, The Merry Wives of Windsor, As You Like It, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Round Table Theatre Company: Macbeth, Hamlet; The Playground Theatre: company member 2007 to 2010.

Aaron Krohn (Touchstone) - Regional: Westport Country Playhouse, Hartford Stage, Theatre Under the Stars, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, The Old Globe, the Alley Theatre. Broadway: Cabaret, Macbeth, The Farnsworth Invention, The Coast of Utopia, Julius Caesar, Henry IV, The Invention of Love. Off-Broadway: Red Bull: Coriolanus; The New Group: Clive; Mint Theater: The Glass Cage, Echoes of the War; La MaMa: Philoktetes. Stratford Shakespeare Festival: The Homecoming, Twelfth Night, Henry V. Sam Mendes's Bridge Project: As You Like It, The Tempest, The Winter's Tale, The Cherry Orchard. Film and Television: I Love You But I Lied, Boardwalk Empire, Law & Order: SVU, Welcome to New York. Master's Degree from The Old Globe Theatre.

Allen McCullough (Duke Senior & Duke Frederick) - Folger Theatre: Romeo & Juliet; Baltimore Center Stage: Twelfth Night; Cape Fear: Amadeus; Westport Playhouse: The Diary of Anne Frank; TheatreWorks Hartford: The Seafarer; Roundabout (national tour): Twelve Angry Men; The Irish Repertory Theatre: The Hairy Ape; Living Room Theatre: Men of Tortuga, Exit the King, The Cherry Orchard, Uncle Vanya, The Seagull; Hubbard Hall: Our Town, The Real Thing, Private Lives, As You Like It; Long Wharf: The Crucible; Off-Broadway: Men of Tortuga, Ashes to Ashes, Murder in the First; also Williamstown, Theatre for a New Audience, The Shaw Project, Ensemble Studio. FILM: Martha Marcy May Marlene; TV: Vinyl, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Onion News.

Daven Ralston (Musician/Ensemble) - Rorschach Theatre: A Bid to Save the World; Solas Nua: Wild Sky; WSC Avant Bard: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Friendship Betrayed, The Madwoman of Chaillot; Arts on the Horizon: Space Bop, Snow Day; Prince George County Shakespeare Festival: A Midsummer Night's Dream; The Kennedy Center MFA Playwrights' Workshop: Cleave, The Found Dog Ribbon Dance; Center Stage: As You Like It (reading); Venus Theatre: Light of Night, We Are Samurai; Young Playwrights' Theater: New Play Festival; Theatre Lab: LES MISERABLES. Upcoming: Arts on the Horizon: Nutt and Bolt; Imagination Stage: Wonderland: Alice's Rock and Roll Adventure. Film: Macbeth Unhinged (NYCIFF Official Selection, EIFF Official Selection); Kara (DCIFF Official Selection, Best of DC).

Brian Reisman (Silvius) - Shakespeare Theatre Company: Othello, The Taming of the Shrew. Regional: Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival: The Winter's Tale, The Tempest, The Arabian Nights, A Midsummer Night's Dream; Delaware Shakespeare Festival: The Comedy of Errors.

Lorenzo Roberts (Orlando) - Regional: A Contemporary Theatre (ACT): Dangerous Liaisons, The Royale, The Mystery of Love and Sex; Seattle Immersive Theatre: Romeo and Juliet; Seattle Shakespeare Company: Henry IV Part 1, Othello.

Antoinette Robinson (Celia) - Regional: Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival: As You Like It, Our Town; Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival: Much Ado About Nothing; Seattle Children's Theater: Edge of Peace; Guthrie Theatre: Time Sensitive; Hyde Park Theater: Mr. Marmalade, The Motherf*cker with The Hat; The Queens Company: Sir Patient Fancy, The Winter's Tale, The Taming of The Shrew. Off-Broadway: New York Classical Theater: As You Like It. Film: Ol' Daddy, Consumed, 9 Actors.

Dani Stoller (Phoebe) - Folger Theatre: District Merchants, A Midsummer Night's Dream; 1st Stage: Bat Boy (Helen Hayes Award nomination), Blithe Spirit, The Italian American Reconciliation; The Keegan Theatre: Dogfight, Hair; Signature Theatre: Really, Really, Dying City; Kennedy Center Millennium Stage: Dizzy Miss Lizzie's The Brontes; Studio Theatre: Carrie, Invisible Man. National Tour: Big Nate with ATMTC.

Tom Story (Jaques) - Folger Theatre: The School for Scandal, Henry IV; Studio Theatre: The Invention of Love, A Number, Moonlight, The Pillowman, Pop, Legends!, The York Realist, The Wolfe Twins, Silence!, Moth (director), Terminus (director); MetroStage: Fully Committed; Arena Stage: The Bookclub Play, Oliver; Roundhouse Theatre: Next Fall, Seminar; Ford's Theater: Sabrina Fair, 1776, Our Town, The Glass Menagerie; Shakespeare Theatre Company: Twelfth Night, The Rivals, The Government Inspector, Richard II, Henry V, Design for Living, Major Barbara, The Winter's Tale. McCarter Theatre: Loot, Twelfth Night, The Winter's Tale, Tartuffe. Yale Repertory Theatre: Tartuffe; Seattle Repertory Theatre: Romeo and Juliet; Berkshire Theatre Festival: The Glass Menagerie, The Misanthrope, The Heidi Chronicles, Life's A Dream, Design for Living (director), and others. O'Neill Theatre, Northern Stage, The Hub Theatre, Great Lakes Theatre Festival, Mint Theatre. Affiliated Artist at The Shakespeare Theatre Company and Cabinet Member at Studio Theatre. Awards: Fox Foundation Fellowship, Berkshire Eagle Award, seven Helen Hayes nominations.

Cody Wilson (Denis/Wilson) - Regional: Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival: As You Like It, Measure for Measure, So Please You; Western Playhouse: Miss Saigon; Tecumseh Outdoor Theater: Tecumseh!; New York Credits: New York Shakespeare Exchange: Titus Andronicus; Inwood Shakespeare: Henry IV Parts 1&2; Creative Concept Productions: Haram Iran. Television: Impractical Jokers.

ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM:

Gaye Taylor Upchurch (Director) - Studio Theatre: Animal (Helen Hayes nominations for Outstanding Director and Outstanding New Play); Atlantic Theater Company : Harper Regan, Bluebird; Women's Project: Bethany (Lucille Lortel nomination for Outstanding Play); Rattlestick Playwrights Theater: Stay (Obie Award for The Hill Town Plays); The Old Globe: The Last Match; South Coast Repertory: Of Good Stock; Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival and West Point: An Iliad with Kurt Rhoads.

Alexandra Beller (Choreographer) - Folger Theatre: Sense and Sensibility. Off-Broadway: Bedlam's Sense and Sensibility (Lortel Nomination, Outstanding Choreography). New York: La MaMa: milkdreams; New York Live Arts: You Are Here, Art is as is and as it is not...; 92nd Street Y: Why Things Fall; Movement Research: other stories; Brooklyn Arts Exchange: egg; Abrons Art Center: what comes after happy; egg; Dixon Place: other stories; P.S.122: Why Things Fall; Danspace Project at St. Mark's: We Sink As We Run, other stories; The Connelly Theatre: other stories; Joyce SoHo: other stories, 50 Ways to Find a Mate, Waiting for Chekhov or a Bit of Rope, Sifting Miracles; HERE Art Center: us, You Are Here, other stories, what comes after happy; University Settlement Society of New York: Moving Men, or Telling Left From Right, We Sink as We Run; Roulette: Surprise Every Time; Symphony Space: what comes after happy; Dance New Amsterdam: Forever's Gonna Start Tonight; other stories; piece; egg; what comes after happy; Give up, or a bird lying on its back; Green Building: Give up, or a bird lying on its back; milkdreams; The Tank: us. "I." Regional: Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival: Two Gentlemen of Verona, As You Like It; Smith Opera House: Then Quiet the Hook; Institute for Contemporary Art, Boston: other stories; egg; Jacob's Pillow Dance: Why Things Fall, other stories; Kendall Hall: We Sink As We Run; Wellspring Theatre: We Sink As We Run; Pease Theatre: We Sink As We Run; Cyprus Dance Festival: lie where I fall; The Patterson: us; Berkshire Fringe Festival: us. International: Duo MultiCultural Art Center: piece Bytom Festival (Poland): what comes after happy, egg; Open Look Festival (St. Petersburg): what comes after happy, egg; Digital Dance Festival (Korea).

John McDermott (Scenic Design) - Studio Theatre: Time Stands Still. Shakespeare in Clark Park: Henry IV; New York Shakespeare Festival: The Singing Forest. New York Theater Workshop: Play Yourself. Atlantic Theater Company: This Thing of Darkness, White People; Bedlam: Hamlet, Saint Joan, New York Animals, Sense and Sensibility, The Seagull, Dead Dog Park; Rattlestick: 3C, Lady, The Undeniable Sound of Right Now, The Revisionist, Saved or Destroyed; Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival: Macbeth, Measure For Measure, As You Like It, The Winter's Tale, A Midsummer Night's Dream; Shakespeare and Company: Red Velvet, The Comedy of Errors, An Unexpected Man, Sotto Voce, The Taming, Ugly Lies the Bone. Assistant Professor, Adelphi University.

Charlotte Palmer-Lane (Costume Design) - Half Moon Theatre: The World Goes Round, It's a Wonderful Life Radio Play; Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival: Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, King Lear, The Three Musketeers, The Liar, Othello, The Winter's Tale, An Iliad; Mint Theater Company: Rutherford and Son; Penguin Rep Theatre: Drop Dead Perfect, My Name is Asher Lev, Playing the Assassin; Hudson Stage: Family Reunion, The God Game, Outside Mullingar, Other Desert Cities. BBC costume design: The Chronicles of Narnia, Miss Marple, Doctor Who, She's Been Away. Film: Guarding Tess, Quiz Show.

Eric Southern (Lighting Design) - The Kennedy Center: Play/Pause; UrbanArias: Paul's Case. New York: MTC: Sell/Buy/Date; LCT3: The Harvest; Playwrights Horizons: Pocatello, Indian Summer; BAM, The Civilians: Rimbaud in NY; New Group: Steve; Pearl Theater: A Midsummer Night's Dream, A Taste of Honey; London, CTG, New York and National Tour: Buyer and Cellar; Collected Stories: Memoir with David Lang at Carnegie Hall; Prototype Festival: Paul's Case, The Good Swimmer; Chromatic with ADI, The Kitchen, Susan Marshall and Company. Also: Atlantic Theater Company, Mint Theater Company, Rattlestick Theater, Ensemble Studio Theater, Williamstown Theater Festival, The Guthrie Theater, The Kennedy Center, Baltimore Centerstage, Long Wharf Theater, The Huntington Theater, Westport Country Playhouse, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, The Magic Theater, among others. Extensive work with the award-winning Group 600 Highwaymen. BFA, MFA: NYU.

Leon Rothenberg (Sound Design) - Regional: Huntington, A.C.T., Williamstown Theater Festival, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Merrimack Rep, Deleware Theater Co, Portland Center Stage, Arena Stage, Seattle Repertory Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Old Globe, New York Stage and Film, Two River Theater, North Shore Music Theater, Long Wharf, McCarter, Theatre By The Sea. Broadway: Violet, The Realistic Joneses, The Nance (Tony Award), The Heiress, Joe Turner's Come and Gone (Tony Nom). Off-Broadway: New York City Center, The Private Theater, Culture Project, Primary Stages, Second Stage, Tectonic Theater Project, Women's Project, Manhattan Theatre Club, The Public Theater. International: Cirque du Soleil, National Theatre of Cyprus, and Dijon Festival. Faculty, NYU/Tisch School of the Arts.

Michele Osherow (Resident Dramaturg) - Folger Theatre: Pericles, texts&beheadings/ElizabethR; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Mary Stuart, Julius Caesar, Richard III, Romeo and Juliet (dramaturg and actor), Twelfth Night, Henry V, The Conference of the Birds, The Taming of the Shrew, The Gaming Table, Othello (2011, 2001), Cyrano, The Comedy of Errors, Henry VIII, Hamlet, Orestes: A Tragic Romp, Much Ado About Nothing, Arcadia, The Winter's Tale, 1 Henry IV, Macbeth, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night's Dream (2006), Measure for Measure (dramaturg and actor). Regional: Quotidian Theatre Company: Afterplay (actor), A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur (actor), Captain Drew on Leave, Dublin Carol, The Carpetbagger's Children, The Mollusc, Tomorrow (actor), The Seagull (actor), Valentine's Day (actor), While We Have the Light (actor), Uncle Vanya (actor), A Little Trick (actor); Jewish Repertory Theatre: The Dybbuk (actor); Arden Theatre Company: The Chosen, As You Like It (actor), Love's Labors [sic] (actor). Currently Associate Professor of English at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Celebrating its 31st season in 2017, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival (HVSF) is a critically acclaimed (The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal), professional, non-profit theater company based in Garrison, NY, one hour north of Manhattan. HVSF was named among The New York Times' 50 Essential Summer Festivals in 2016, was Hudson Valley Magazine's 2016 Editors' Pick for Best Summer Theater, and was nominated for a Drama League Award for its 2015 production of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. The Festival has established a reputation for lucid, engaging, and highly inventive productions featuring exceptional industry talent and a backdrop of stunning vistas overlooking the Hudson River at historic Boscobel House and Gardens.

Each year, its productions attract a total audience of more than 35,000 from the Hudson Valley, New York City, and beyond, including New Jersey, Connecticut, and 40 other states, and regularly achieve over 80% capacity under its open-air Theater Tent. HVSF also takes the magic of Shakespeare and live theater throughout the tri-state region by touring limited runs of fan favorites through its HVSF On The Road series and by bringing student-oriented productions and education programs to nearly 50,000 elementary, middle, and high school students and educators each year. HVSF's acclaimed arts education programs also include training for early-career theater artists by way of its Conservatory Company, professional development for educators, and free audience engagement offerings before and after performances throughout the summer. More information can be found at hvshakespeare.org.

Folger Theatre is the centerpiece of Folger Shakespeare Library's programs for the public and is recognized for dynamic performances in its 250-seat Elizabethan-styled theatre and for specializing in innovative stagings of works by Shakespeare, other classical work, and new plays inspired by these traditions. Since 1991, Folger Theatre has been honored by the Helen Hayes Awards with 24 awards and 140 nominations for excellence in acting, direction, design, and production-including the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Resident Play in 2011 for Hamlet (a year in which all three of Folger's theatrical productions were nominated in that category) and in 2013 for The Taming of the Shrew. In 2012, Folger Theatre brought Shakespeare's Globe's Hamlet from London for the company's first Washington appearance and continued that collaboration in 2014 with the touring production of King Lear (featuring Joseph Marcell). Folger Theatre produced The Two Gentlemen of Verona with the highly celebrated Fiasco Theater Company, a production that went on to win two Helen Hayes Awards, including "Outstanding Ensemble in a Play," and was restaged at the Theatre for A New Audience in New York City. Last season, Folger Theatre collaborated with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for the first time to stage Shakespeare's adventure tale Pericles, and commissioned Aaron Posner's District Merchants, which had its world premiere at Folger Theatre and will be produced at South Coast Repertory in California this Fall. Janet Alexander Griffin is the Artistic Producer of Folger Theatre and Director of Public Programs which includes the Folger's music and literary series.

Folger Shakespeare Library is a renowned center for scholarship, learning, culture, and the arts. Home to the world's largest Shakespeare collection and a primary repository for research material from the early modern period (1500-1750), Folger Shakespeare Library is an internationally recognized research library offering advanced scholarly programs in the humanities; a national leader in how Shakespeare is taught in grades K-12; and an award-winning producer of cultural and arts programs -theatre, music, poetry, exhibits, lectures, and family programs. A gift to the American people from industrialist Henry Clay Folger, Folger Shakespeare Library-located one block east of the U.S. Capitol-opened in 1932 and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Learn more at www.folger.edu.

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