By Jennifer Birkett

Birkett: As You Like It, like Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, is a play where we expect two very distinct settings and a bold contrast between the two. When you started designing the set, what was your inspiration for these two designs and the transition between the two?

Park: The beginning of the production process, before I actually met with Sara (the director), I thought about how we might ‘tweak’ things. With As You Like It, there is always a stereotypical sense that Arden will have foliage and be a woodland. I wanted to show something visually unexpected. When I met with Sara, she brought a lot of ideas that connected with other theatre audience work, one being Bread and Puppet Theatre and the other being Geoff Sobelle’s Home production. Those were are key inspirations for where we headed in our designs.

Birkett: How do we evoke a clear shift from the court to Arden when both are more interior spaces that exterior spaces?

Park: Well, we wanted to get away from focusing on a physical location and focus more on the concept and feeling of the place: What is the concept for the court? What is the concept for Arden? For Arden we focused on collaboration, utopian equality, people doing things together, rather than focus on whether we were inside or outside. We also pulled in a lot more design collaboration as well with the props, lighting, and puppetry.

Birkett: So what about the court? My understanding is this production does not have a specifically designated time period, but did you have any look or idea that guided your concept of that space?

Park: The court needed to be a visual contrast to Arden. We knew Arden was going to be crazy and complicated, so the court would be simpler, with more solid lines, and less props. Essentially, the set is rather stark at the beginning and then it becomes crazy! We begin with simplicity, an operational feel, and then later move to something more festive.

Birkett: Did you have a favorite part of the set design? What about a difficult part, any piece of the set that just kept giving you trouble?

Park: My favorite part of this set is the movement. We are still using the fly system, but not completely. The set opens up in exciting ways that allows the actors to work together to build the new setting. The most difficult part of designing the set was, actually, also that collaboration element which meant the design was not really complete until we put together all of the elements, props, lights, puppets, etc. I couldn’t really predict what would happen.

Birkett: Well, you wanted it to be unexpected! I’m sure our audience is going to be excited by this set and all its thoughtful details. Thank you so much for chatting with us today. We cannot wait for opening night!

Park: Thank you.