As You Like It is at its core about a desire we all share: the need to be seen and cared about for who we truly are. We start the play with our heroine trapped by a restrictive court and an even more restrictive self-containment, and our hero stuck under his sister’s oppressive thumb and his own oppressive anger. Only when separated from society and witnessed by the forest and each other can they realize the selves they want to inhabit. And it is not just Rosalind and Orlando who seek and find this possibility in themselves and each other, but all of Arden’s characters — who love each other in various permutations and find some of what they’re looking for in themselves along the way. I’ve learned a great deal from these characters on their quests, and hope that you all can find your own meaning in these journeys too.

[…] Many of us may resonate with Duke Senior’s call at the end of the play to “forget this new-fall’n dignity” for a moment and “fall into our rustic revelry” a little longer, but hopefully we can find some reassurance in the way our characters’ stories do resolve: leaving the forest of Arden behind, but entering a new world, literally or metaphorically, with the people you love best.