The Kennebunk High School Theater Department will collaborate with the Public Theater in New York and the Kennebunk-based MaineStage Shakespeare troupe on the high school production of the new musical “As You Like It.”

The Public Theater premiered the musical adaptation of the Shakespeare play in September at the Delacorte Theater in New York. The Kennebunk production will be the musical’s first outside of New York. It was created by Shaina Taub and Laurie Woolery.

It will be presented at the newly opened high school theater March 1-11 and will give high school performers the opportunity to work alongside professionals from New York who will mentor, rehearse and perform with the students and community members.

In a press release, MaineStage Shakespeare Artistic Director Chiara Klein called the collaboration “unprecedented” and said it reflects an arts resurgence in town that includes the new high school theater, which opened this fall with a production of Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible.”

“This led us to think, wouldn’t it be amazing to represent the coming together of the school, professionals and community though a piece of art? And shouldn’t that piece of art be a celebration of not just the community, but of the community we wish to be,” Klein asked in the press release. “That is what ‘As You Like It’ will strive to do.”

Michael Herman, the high school theater manager and co-director of “As You Like It,” said the collaboration and the opening of the theater raises the school’s mission “to the next level, and offers both students and community members a chance to join together and celebrate the rebirth of theater and the arts in the Kennebunks.”


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