Composer Brings Musical Sunlight to AS YOU LIKE IT
When Shakespeare wrote As You Like It in 1599, he filled it with more songs than in any of his previous (or future) plays. As director Ted Pappas began to conceive his own vision for the show, which takes place in both a palace and a forest, he decided that commissioning a score would be the most dynamic way to bring the play's lyrics and exciting transitions to life. "While honoring as many of the author's original intentions as I could, I wanted to create a custom-made Pittsburgh Public Theater production and take a brand-new look at a masterpiece," he said.
Ted's go-to musical collaborator for his Shakespeare productions is Michael Moricz, well-known to our audiences for his work here on Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing and The Tempest. He is also fondly remembered in Pittsburgh for his time as music director of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" from 1996 to 2001.
"Michael is not only an astonishing composer and gifted musician," Ted said, "he's also a superb dramaturg - meaning he has a profound understanding of language, dramatic structure, and character. I shared with Michael my approach to the play - first and foremost that I'm setting it in the Edwardian era, circa 1907, and that I am much more interested in the play's sunlight than its dark corners. His music will support everything that is beautiful and wonderful about As You Like It."
Since growing up in Moon Township, Michael has worked across the country as a composer, conductor, arranger, and pianist. After a decade in New York City, his current base is with The Houston Ballet, but he's always happy to return to Pittsburgh Public Theater.
"I'm always filled with excitement about the unlimited possibilities at The O'Reilly, which is an ideal venue for intimate, accessible, vibrant theater," Michael said. "Ted truly appreciates the way music can almost become another character in certain plays - commenting, celebrating or exploring the joys and sorrows at the heart of the tale being told. I always appreciate the chance to work with Ted and expert sound designer Zach Moore."
Michael noted that while there is always an Elizabethan glimmer under the surface of any score he does for a Shakespeare play, As You Like It will be the first time one of these productions suggests a specific period that is much closer to our own. "This opens a window to some new possibilities for the music: not only a 'Late Romanticism' in the classical music sense but also the potential for a hint of ragtime. This may well be the very first Shakespeare score in which I've ever used a piano!" he said.
The time period of The Public's As You Like It is that brief golden age after Edward VII succeeded Queen Victoria as England's monarch and before World War I. According to Michael, Elizabethan lyrics and Edwardian overtones will meet in a magical woodland setting where the sweetness of existence is rediscovered.
"Distinctions of class and gender break down as everyone discovers who they really are in this landscape where Dukes and farmers, young and old, rich and poor interact without barrier. One of the ways they will do this is by singing together, " he promised. "I feel a little bit like the character Amiens in the play, "Michael said. "He brings people together through music."
The original score for As You Like It is made possible by a generous gift from Richard P. and Virginia C. Simmons.