Love takes center stage under the summer sky: Marin Shakespeare Company Opens Production of ‘As You Like It’

CALIFORNIA NEWSWIRE (SAN RAFAEL, Calif.) — Love takes center stage under the summer sky as Marin Shakespeare Company presents “As You Like It,” adapted and directed by Evren Odcikin and running June 19 through July 19 at the Forest Meadows Amphitheatre. A dazzling, music-filled, fashion-forward romp through the Forest of Arden. Joyous and romantic, this reimagining leans into the comedy’s delicious fluidity of gender and identity. Join the celebration of love, out loud, in all its forms.

Odcikin’s vibrant production opens during 2026 Pride Month and invites audiences into one of Shakespeare’s most playful explorations of love and desire. In Odcikin’s vision, Arden is not simply a place of exile or escape. It is a world where people find the language, the community, and the courage to say who they are out loud.

The production draws a vivid contrast between the polished danger of the court and the liberated world of Arden. The court is sleek, status-obsessed, and tightly controlled; Arden is colorful, communal, musical, and alive – inspired less by a traditional pastoral fantasy than by the backyard of a queer Bay Area gathering place where “weirdos and outsiders can breathe.” With high fashion, music, movement, and the expansive beauty of MSC’s outdoor summer amphitheatre, this “As You Like It” trades the usual forest fantasy for something stranger, sharper, and more celebratory.

The production also brings two extraordinary guest artists to Marin Shakespeare Company’s summer stage. Lady Zen, appearing as Amiens and serving as composer and music director, is a Fulbright mezzo, poet, librettist, actor, and genre-defying entertainment artist whose Lyric Fusion Poetics blends opera, jazz, photography, and spoken word. Based in Mexico, she has toured and taught across Central America and Europe, and previously composed music for MSC’s “Hamlet.”

At the center of the story are Rosalind and Orlando, two outsiders who recognize something true in one another before the rest of the world catches up. Around them, Shakespeare’s beloved comedy unfolds with mistaken identities, romantic confusion, sharp wit, music, movement, and a joyful collision of hearts. In Odcikin’s adaptation, the ending becomes not simply a set of marriages, but a communal celebration of love in its many forms.

Performances run June 19 through July 19 at Forest Meadows Amphitheatre, located on the campus of Dominican University of California in San Rafael. Performances are Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 5 p.m.

Tickets are available now at: https://www.marinshakespeare.org/

PERFORMANCE DETAILS:

“As You Like It”

June 19 – July 19, 2026

Thursdays – Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.

Sundays at 5 p.m.

Forest Meadows Amphitheatre

890 Belle Ave, San Rafael, CA

Tickets $0 – $49

June 19 – “Preview” (Discount Tickets from $10-$25)

June 21 – “Senior Matinee” ($20 Tickets for Seniors 65+)

June 27 – “Full Moon” (Enjoy a full Moon rising above the stage!)

June 28 – “Family Day” (FREE Admission for youths age 25 and under)

July 2 – “Pay-What-You-Will” (Choose your own price!)

ABOUT MARIN SHAKESPEARE COMPANY:

Stories live at Marin Shakespeare Company, constantly reimagined and renewed through the bold choices of the artists who shape them. We strive to be a hub for connection, using the complexity of world stories-past and present-through multiple theatrical forms to open space for questions, reflection, and action. Our productions invite audiences into worlds that are alive, urgent, and fully human, where laughter, wonder, and challenge coexist. Marin Shakespeare Company is Playing for Good. Learn more at: https://www.marinshakespeare.org/

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This version of news first appeared on CaliforniaNewswire.com © 2026 – all rights reserved. | Photo Credit: Hunter F. Roberts