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“All the world’s a stage,” wrote Shakespeare in As You Like It, and the newly formed Rose City Stage Company decided to embrace this mantra. Portland’s newest classical theater company is dedicated to bringing performance to unconventional spaces, and is putting on the comedy in Darcelle XV Plaza on Sept. 3–12. The show is particularly well suited for the space.
As You Like It follows Rosalind, a young woman who runs away to the Forest of Arden to escape her wicked uncle. She dresses as a man and calls herself Ganymede to stay safe in the dangerous wild, which causes some confusion. Orlando, who is in love with Rosalind, doesn’t recognize her in drag. In fact, they devise a “wooing game” to help Orlando get over Rosalind—little does he realize he’s seducing her alter ego. The supporting cast includes a fool, an exiled duke, and a shepherdess.
Grant Turner, Rose City Stage Company’s artistic director, directs this production. He says the play’s structure is much like an episode of The Love Boat: disparate stories happen all over the forest and, in the end, they all come together in the same place for a happy resolution.
“You’re just following different characters and different storylines,” Turner says. “One’s kind of a romance. One’s kind of a comedy. One’s got a little bit of melancholy to it.”
Founding member Kelsey Glasser, who stars as Rosalind, loved the play so much she named her restaurant, Arden, after its setting. The restaurant doesn’t make a great theater, but Glasser says Darcelle XV Plaza fits the show perfectly, for a few reasons. “The plaza is themed around Summer of Love [which is] about loosening the rules about gender and identity, championing your true colors, love having no boundaries,” Glasser says. “A lot of that is aligned with As You Like It.”
While the plaza has some seating, catching Shakespeare in Portland’s newest outdoor performance space has a bit of a picnic vibe. The troupe recommends bringing blankets and setting up under Darcelle’s vibrant pink and orange sails flying overhead. Ponzi Vineyards, a sponsor, is selling wine.
The performance will also have the casual tunes to match. Backing the script’s lyrics, Rose City’s production incorporates live music in the style of the actual summer of love, inspired specifically by late-’60s artists like George Harrison and Lou Reed. Aesthetic cues come from the early ’70s. While the set is minimal—as it would have been “back in the day,” the costumes and tone are styled after a Royal Shakespeare Company production from 1971 that was set in its present.
The ’70s garb stands out as a novelty in 2026, but the way As You Like It leans into androgyny proves timeless. “Embracing that fluidity, which is inherent in the play,” Turner says, “really resonates with our contemporary audience.”
In Shakespeare’s day, women weren’t allowed to act, so young men played the female roles. “Men dressed up as women,” Turner says, “allowing them to show a side of themselves that they wouldn’t be able to show otherwise.” Actors who got to play both genders “had the opportunity to see the world through both sides.”
Speaking of seeing the world through both sides, Macy Seelochan, who in 2023 made history as the first trans woman to lead a production at Shakespeare’s Globe in London, serves as assistant director and creative consultant on this local run. “As You Like It is a play about joy, mystery, play, the rejection of the norm and love,” Seelochan tells WW. “It centers desires and resisting following tradition, and I think all those aspects are things we could use a reminder of in today’s world.”
GO: As You Like It at Darcelle XV Plaza, 800 SW Harvey Milk St., rose-city-stage.stageworks.io/event/as-you-like-it. 7 pm Thursday–Monday and Thursday–Saturday, Sept. 3–7 and 10–12. Pay what you will. All ages.
