8/20/23 Free Performance of Shakespeare Comedy at Ripon College
20 August 2023 News
RIPON — Starling Shakespeare Company, which held a summer rehearsal residency at Ripon College, returns to campus Aug. 31 for a performance of William Shakespeare’s comedy “As You Like It.”
The performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Benstead Theatre, C.J. Rodman Center for the Arts. It will be free and open to the public.
The company was co-founded by Ripon College alumna Jessie Lillis, Class of 2013. She is the co-artistic director of the touring company.
Lillis majored in communication with a minor in theatre production at Ripon. “Honestly, a lot of how and why I ended up where I am right now is because of Ripon,” Lillis says. “I always liked Shakespeare, but it wasn’t until I took Ann Pleiss Morris’ ‘Shakespeare in Pop Culture’ class that I really fell in love. Beyond that, Ann is the reason I found the MLitt/MFA program at Mary Baldwin (University), which played a huge part in preparing me to start a company.” She received her MFA from Mary Baldwin University’s Shakespeare and Performance program with a concentration in directing.
She says she focuses on works by Shakespeare because the plays are timeless. “Despite the fact they were written 400 years ago, the characters, things that are happening and how the characters are dealing with them feel so modern. The emotions they are feeling are the exact feelings we go through. They feel so familiar and representative of the human experience. It was true 400 years ago and it is still true now.”
Photo description: Jessie Lillis, Class of 2013, right, performs in “As You Like It” earlier in the season.
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