Shakespeare's 'As You Like It' kicks off Kingsmen Festival

William Shakespeare's "As You Like It" will feature the music, fashion and sensibilities of the 1970s in the first production of Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival's 12th season. The comedy opens Fri., June 27, and continues June 28 and 29, and July 3, 5, 6, 11, 12 and 13. All performances are at 8 p.m. in Kingsmen Park at California Lutheran University, 60 W. Olsen Road, Thousand Oaks.

The festival grounds open at 5:30 p.m. for picnicking and preshow entertainment with musicians, dancing and comic Shakespearean improvisation.

The play features two young lovers, two sets of warring brothers and an out-of-work stand-up comic who finds himself in the last place he ever imagined. The inhabitants of a magical forest called Arden play host to a variety of banished characters who've dropped out and now find themselves at the mercy of Mother Earth.

The show includes music by Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie, Joni Mitchell and Janis Joplin.

Making his directorial debut at the festival is Kevin P. Kern, a veteran of the Kingsmen stage and a former director of the Kingsmen Shakespeare Company's Apprentice Company and Summer Theatre Camp.

Kern is a professor at the University of West Florida and a CLU alumnus. He was recently honored with a Distinguished Teaching Award, and his production of "Once on this Island" was selected as a regional finalist for the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival.

The festival is presented by the Kingsmen Shakespeare Company and CLU.

General admission is $15 and free for those under 18. Two tickets, either both for "As You Like It" or one for this play and the second for the upcoming "Henry IV," cost $25. Reserved lawn box seating is $60 to $75.

For more information, call (805) 493-3455 or visit www.kingsmenshakespeare.org.