Ava Martinez
Reporter

The fall play “Arden City” may be a relatively little-known play set in modern-day London, but viewers who are familiar with Shakespeare may find the plot line familiar.

The play is a contemporary version of the comedy “As You Like It” and includes the first and last scenes from the original play.

“I chose to bookend ‘Arden City’ with scenes from ‘As You Like It’ because it seemed like an interesting idea and the two plays fit well together without being too repetitive,” director Pamela Rickard said.

“Arden City” revolves around cousins Rosie and Sally who run away from home to live in Arden City, a community in a park in the middle of the city. While living there, Rosie disguises herself as a boy and pretends to be Sally’s brother. Both characters find love in the end of the play, fitting in with the comedic ending of “As You Like It.”

“Rehearsal has been a lot of work this year because we are basically doing two plays,” junior Maddie Kelley, who plays Celia in “As You Like It” said. “Shakespeare is difficult to comprehend and memorize.”

Despite the added complication of having to deal with two different plays, the cast says combining the plays has advantages.

“There are more lead roles available so more people have the chance to really perform,” senior Lauren Arnold, who plays Rosalind in “As You Like It” said. “It is not like many other plays that just have a few people in the spotlight and everyone else in the background.”

The cast members say they enjoy acting in Arden City mainly because of its unique premise.

“The play is about young people, and some of the characters are easy to relate to,” senior Tori Balestrieri said.

Arnold said the play isn’t a typical boy-meets-girl type of story. It deals with family issues — love, gender confusion, strength, jealousy, revenge, quirkiness, and even some stage combat.”

Having both versions of the play to work with has helps clear up some confusion about the plot, according to Kelley.

“It is cool to see the parallels between the Shakespearean script and ‘Arden City’s’ modern script,” said Kelley. “I like being able to compare the two scripts to see the literal translation of some of the harder-to-understand Shakespearean lines.”

The cast has benefited from working with a little-known play, according to Balestrieri.

“Because the play is not well known we can make changes to it and be more creative because no one has other performances to compare it to.”

Performances for “Arden City” are scheduled in the Syufy Theater on Nov. 18 and 19 at 7 p.m. and Nov. 20 at 1:30 p.m.