CSC: Can you relate to your character "Phoebe"? What are some similarities?
MARY :
I 'm especially excited to play Phoebe because I love how she is a young Shepherdess who is pursued by a young Shepherd who doesn't know the first thing about how she wants to be loved. So she denies him her love. And as soon as she meets a young man who somehow knows exactly how she wants to be treated, falls in love with him. Buuut, that young man will not give her a straight answer of whether or not he will reciprocate that love back to her. I can definitely relate to that triangle!!
This production will only be my second full scale Shakespeare play in New York, after Love's Labor's Lost with my class last November. Fun fact: When I was 20 I played Touchstone in a staged reading of As You Like It!
CSC: What was your first encounter with Shakespeare? Was it love at first sight?
MARY: My first experience with Shakespeare was reading Romeo and Juliet in 8th grade. I don't remember having a strong opinion either way about it at first. But after we had to memorize one of Romeo's speeches (including exact punctuation) for a written test, I started to really enjoy the poetry and musicality of the language. And then in high school, I worked on and performed several of Juliet's scenes in our Shakespeare assemblies. That is when I absolutely fell in love with Shakespeare's words...
