Living up to "Rosalind"? We think she's done it! : Catching up with Meera Kumbhani

With the role of Rosalind, comes about 400 years of baggage- every theatre person has an expectation of who she is and why she is one of the greatest female characters Shakespeare has ever written. Literary analysts call her things like: the most perfect human being, more intelligent than all of the audience combined, the female "Hamlet." 

Harold Bloom says: "If Rosalind cannot please us, then no one in Shakespeare or elsewhere in literature ever will." 

Talk about pressure.... Whew! How on earth is one supposed to play that on stage? Okay, Meera, now go be a perfect human soul. Now!  Hmmm...what?

Needless to say, at some point I had to let go of all these voices. And I realized - perfection is not a thing that actually exists. Maybe the best I can do is just be myself. To trust that I am a unique individual and play this character in a way where only I, Meera Kumbhani, could play her. And from there, I realized that there was something even better about her than perfection: simple humanity. In a way, she is an 'everyman.' (and, of course, everywoman.) Meaning that, everybody falls in love with Rosalind as a character because everybody can see something in her that they can relate to. Within this story, she experiences the full spectrum of emotion - from grief to lust to mistrust to jealousy to love. And those emotions are the stuff of life. Without them, we have nothing.

Sometimes my dream in life is to work on nothing but Shakespeare. I say these speeches in performance every day now in this show, and yet everyday I learn a handful more about what I really am saying, and what the words and metaphors are alluding to, and how these phrases are making me feel. There is so much meaning in every single one of his words that I could spend a lifetime learning about these characters. I am a young actor and I have so much to learn about EVERYTHING Shakespeare has given us and how his words and images move through us. 

Being A Sour Berry with Jason Martin "Jacques"!

CSC: Which Shakespearean character do you most relate to? Which Shakespearean character would you most want to play?

Jason Martin: Identifying with Shakespearean characters???  They're so moody and funny and fickle and dramatic...um...maybe Benedict cause he's rather snarky sometimes but has a heart of gold!!!?!!!!

In general, I find it pretty difficult to play characters that are happy all the time...I can be a bit of a sour berry so usually I enjoy a character who has seen some darker side of life...villains are amazing to play!  I want to play kings and tyrants for the rest of my life...lovers are good and all but why fall in love on stage when you can take over the kingdom!!!  But to be totally honest, a dream role would actually be to play a female role like Olivia in Twelfth Night.  I saw an all male production from England with Mark Rylance (coming to Broadway in Jerusalem) and he played Olivia...He was amazing!  For the first time I discovered all the nuance and subtleties found in Shakespeare's words if a man is playing a woman.  And other times, as with Viola, it's fascinating with a man playing a woman who is playing a man!!!  So many layers, who wouldn't want that challenge!

"More Villain Than Thou?": An Interview with Will Cespedes (Oliver)!

CSC: How has the rehearsal process been going?

Will Cespedes: The most interesting aspect of the rehearsal process over the past month and half has been how the character of Oliver has changed. Originally James, our director, and I saw Oliver as a very weak man. But it wasn’t till we approached the final weeks that we discovered that Oliver truly hates his Orlando and Duke Fredrick’s line “More villain thou”, is referencing Oliver’s true self. So he is a plotting villain and would fight Orlando and does. But, Oliver doesn’t want anyone to know that he killed his own brother, since that would look bad. Much like Iago in Othelllo. Where this hate comes from is eternally a mystery with most of Shakespeare’s Villains. In the end, when working on a character of Shakespeare, you have to look to what the character says when he is alone.

Oliver says “[Orlando] is in so much of the heart of the world that I [Oliver] am all together misprized.” Oliver is jealous of how much everyone loves Orlando. And we see that clearly Rosalind is no exception. That’s why Oliver doesn’t allow Orlando to be educated. He is too smart for his own good. Oliver is the type of guy who buys his friends and can’t make them on his own. He always wins and gets what he wants but by “underhanded means”. And the day comes when his younger brother beats him up and shames him. There is no way Oliver could live with a younger brother like that. And so that’s how the play starts and hence the building blocks for the character of Oliver.

CSC: What's do you love about the play AS YOU LIKE IT?

WC: AS YOU LIKE IT for me is a play about love and finding one’s true home and peace. No one ever mentions the word Mother in the play. But I think the whole play is about returning to Mother Earth or Mother Nature. Two brother’s fight to the point of banishment and almost killing each other. And it isn’t until the pairs; Orlando and Oliver, Duke Senior and Duke Frederick, return to Mother Nature, the Forest of Arden, do they find peace and love. The irony of the play is that “all things were savage” in the court. But as Orlando realizes Mother Nature, the Forest of Arden, brings out the best in people.

The characters are returning to their roots as human beings having a nurtured environment to without walls or ceilings or constrictions of choice. In terms of my character, Oliver, he finds that the forest is so wonderful and Alena (Celia in disguise) so lovely that he is willing to “live and die” in the forest as a shepherd. Jaques admires touchstone wishing “he were a fool”. The is play confirms how we forget the beauty of Nature and the love we find in the simplicity of life.