Kitty Mortland

Actor / Musician

As You Like It

I think it has been pretty well established at this point that I love doing theatre. It perks me up when I've had a bad day, it makes me feel better when I'm sick, it gives me something to look forward to when the whole ruddy business of being an adult gets overwhelming. Theatre cures all.

But every now and again, I find myself falling so deeply in love with a show that I'm working on that I can barely sit still through the rest of my day as I wait to get to rehearsal. The pull of the characters, the full emotional lives, the energy of my collaborators is so enticing that it can be hard to do the normal things that I have to do on a daily basis like go to work and eat lunch and things like that. All I want to do is get to the theatre and dive into the work.

The production of As You Like It that I'm working on right now is one of these productions. Part of it might be that As You Like It was the first Shakespearean play that I read, and the one that made me fall in love with the Bard at the tender age of sixteen, so I may be predisposed to love working on this show anyway. I've only been dying to be in a production of it since high school. Part of it may also be that I will get to spend my birthday performing this show. But I think most of it has to do with the cast, crew, and director of the show. We have fun together and we're doing good work. I'm being challenged at the same time that I'm given a lot of room to play. And perhaps most importantly, this experience is reminding me that I really am good at this. I bring value and creativity and energy to a production, and I have what it takes to tackle something really big and make it great.

Which is a very long lead-in to me telling you that tickets are now on sale if you want to come see the show. I think it is going to be fun, whether or not you like Shakespeare. I'd love to see all of your shining faces in the audience, so get your tickets now before they're all gone!