July 7 – November 25, 2017
The King of Navarre and his three “schoolmates” are ripe for an education in love from the Princess of France and her three ladies. Joining the lovers is a gloriously goofy troupe of clowns, including the love-warrior Don Armando and the lust-sick rogue Costard, who ardently pursue the affections of a winsome country made – and who perform an unforgettable pageant for the royals. This giddy and extravagant romantic comedy is Shakespeare’s most exuberant wordfest – a joyful carnival of love, loss, and hope.
Christopher Seiler and Chris Johnston in LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST. Photo by LINDSEY WALTERS. 2017.
Shunté Lofton in LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST. Photo by LINDSEY WALTERS. 2017.
The cast of LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST. Photo by LINDSEY WALTERS. 2017.
The cast of LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST. Photo by LINDSEY WALTERS. 2017.
Josh Innerst, Allie Babich, and Tim Sailer in LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST. Photo by LINDSEY WALTERS. 2017.
Greg Brostrom in LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST. Photo by LINDSEY WALTERS. 2017.
Josh Innerst and Benjamin Reed in LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST. Photo by LINDSEY WALTERS. 2017.
Benjamin Reed, Greg Brostrom, René Thornton, Jr., and Josh Innerst in LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST. Photo by LINDSEY WALTERS. 2017.
David Anthony Lewis in LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST. Photo by LINDSEY WALTERS. 2017.
The cast of LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST. Photo by LINDSEY WALTERS. 2017.
Cast
THIS SEASON: Richard in RICHARD III
PREVIOUSLY WITH ASC: More than 137 roles in 113 productions, including the title roles in Coriolanus; King Lear; Edward II; Timon of Athens; The Merchant of Venice; Pericles; Doctor Faustus; …
Benjamin has been a resident company member with the American Shakespeare Center since 2014.
Hamlet in Hamlet; Mowbray, Percy, Groom in Richard II; Hamlet in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead; Petulant in The Way of the World; Castillo, Senator in Antonio’s Revenge.
THIS SEASON: Anne Page, John Rugby in The Merry Wives of Windsor; Sir Walter Blunt, Lady Mortimer, Francis in Henry IV, Part 1; Aaliyah Essam in…
Allie Babich is an innovative performer and director whose bold vision and creative energy inspire captivating storytelling at ASC and beyond.
Lauren has been an actor at the American Shakespeare Center in 32 productions and is currently the Properties Master and Choreographer for the Summer/Fall Season. She has a BA from …
More than 186 roles in 101 productions, including Volumnia in Coriolanus, Olivia in Twelfth Night; Regan in King Lear; Margaret in both Henry VI, Part 1 and Part 2; Isabella in Measure for Measure;…
Polonius, Fortinbras in Hamlet; Northumberland in Richard II; Polonius, Fortinbras in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead; Mirabell in The Way of the World; Alberto, Page in Antonio’s Revenge.
David holds a B.A. in Theatre Studies from the University of Wisconsin, an M.F.A. in Acting from Florida Atlantic University, and is currently pursuing an M.Litt degree in Mary Baldwin’s …
Chris Johnston has over 20 years of theatre experience and more than 120 productions at the American Shakespeare Center.
Christopher Seiler is a seasoned actor and musician whose performances embody transformation and connection, captivating audiences at ASC and beyond.
David Anthony Lewis is an accomplished Actor with over 70 professional theatre credits A Christmas Carol 2024 is his 36th production with ASC.
More than 186 roles in 101 productions, including Volumnia in Coriolanus, Olivia in Twelfth Night; Regan in King Lear; Margaret in both Henry VI, Part 1 and Part 2; Isabella in Measure for Measure;…
Hamlet in Hamlet; Mowbray, Percy, Groom in Richard II; Hamlet in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead; Petulant in The Way of the World; Castillo, Senator in Antonio’s Revenge.
Allie Babich is an innovative performer and director whose bold vision and creative energy inspire captivating storytelling at ASC and beyond.
Polonius, Fortinbras in Hamlet; Northumberland in Richard II; Polonius, Fortinbras in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead; Mirabell in The Way of the World; Alberto, Page in Antonio’s Revenge.
David holds a B.A. in Theatre Studies from the University of Wisconsin, an M.F.A. in Acting from Florida Atlantic University, and is currently pursuing an M.Litt degree in Mary Baldwin’s …
Artistic Team
THIS SEASON: Director of DRACULA: A COMEDY OF TERRORS
Asst. Stage Manager/Understudy
Favorite credits include Cressida/Hector (Troilus and Cressida) and Puck (Midsummer Night’s Dream) with Compass Shakespeare Ensemble. She has previously worked with Great River Shakespeare Festival as an Education Artist (and graphic designer). She holds an MFA and MLitt in Shakespeare and Performance from Mary Baldwin University.
Tweet Me: @CatieOsaurus
Costume Designer
Victoria is excited to return to American Shakespeare Center. Recent ASC credits include Richard III for the…
Assistant Costume Designer
Emily is a senior undergraduate studying Theatrical Design and Production at University of Northern Iowa.
Properties Master
Chris has been designing and building props for the ASC since 2012. In that time, he’s provided props for over 60 productions, including (from Shakespeare): The Merchant of Venice; The Two Gentlemen of Verona; Cymbeline; King John; Love’s Labour’s Lost; Twelfth Night; Julius Caesar; Henry VIII; The Two Noble Kinsmen; Romeo and Juliet; All’s Well That Ends Well; Troilus and Cressida; Othello; The Merry Wives of Windsor; Henry IV, Part 1; As You Like It; Timon of Athens; Macbeth; The Comedy of Errors; Pericles; Hamlet; Much Ado about Nothing; The Taming of the Shrew; Antony and Cleopatra; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; The Winter’s Tale; Henry VI, Parts 1, 2, and 3; Henry V; The Tempest; Measure for Measure; and King Lear.
Stephanie Holladay Earl is an accomplished actor, director, choreographer, & educator with over 15 years of experience, known for her impactful work.
Mercutio and Montague in Romeo and Juliet and Dromio of Ephesus in The Comedy of Errors; Fight Captain
David holds a B.A. in Theatre Studies from the University of Wisconsin, an M.F.A. in Acting from Florida Atlantic University, and is currently pursuing an M.Litt degree in Mary Baldwin’s …
Stuff that Happens in the Play
- The King of Navarre and the lords Longaville, Dumaine, and Berowne vow to study for three years, swearing off women for that period. The King even bans women from within a mile of the court.
- The impending diplomatic visit of the Princess of France threatens the King’s “no girls allowed” proclamation.
- Costard, a country swain, has been found with Jaquenetta and arrested for breaking the new statute. For his offense, the King puts Costard in the custody of Don Armado, who is in love with Jaquenetta.
- The Princess of France arrives accompanied by her ladies, Maria, Katherine, and Rosaline. The King courteously denies them entrance to the court, permitting them stay in his park instead.
- Seeing the Princess, however, the King falls instantly in love with her.
- Berowne and Rosaline renew their acquaintance; Longaville and Dumaine admire Maria and Katherine, respectively.
- Don Armado releases Costard so that he can bear Armado’s love letter to Jaquenetta. Before Costard can accomplish this task, however, Berowne meets Costard and gives him a letter for Rosaline.
- Costard delivers the letter intended for Jaquenetta to the Princess, though he announces that the letter is from Berowne to Rosaline.
- Holofernes, the local schoolmaster, and Sir Nathaniel, the parson, discover that Costard has mixed up the letters.
- Alone, Berowne reads some verses he has written in praise of Rosaline. The King, Longaville, and Dumaine, each thinking himself alone, reveal their own passions.
- Jaquenetta and Costard deliver Berowne’s letter to Rosaline.
- The King and his lords decide to forget their vows and pursue their beloveds.
- Don Armado reveals to Holofernes, Sir Nathaniel, Dull, Moth, and Costard that, at the King’s request, he is preparing an entertainment for the ladies of France.
- Disguises, tricks, pageantry and the course of true love ensue.
A World Where Words Matter
Following a performance for Queen Anne in 1605, Shakespeare’s labor of love was lost to the world of theater for more than two centuries. Rediscovered by the Victorians, it remained an elegant curiosity, a site of courtly intrigues, and a knot garden of linguistic sophistication, its frivolous affairs far removed from contemporary concerns. “Here is a fashionable play,” wrote Harley Granville- Barker in 1930, “now three hundred years out of fashion.”
Since the Second World War, however, Love’s Labour’s production history has been one of “discovery and triumph,” as contemporary theatre makers mine the text both for its wit and its slipperiness and the pastoral love plot for its generational crises and gender conflicts. Unique among Shakespeare’s comedies, the uncertain ending, which sublimely ravels up the play’s melancholic undercurrents, also appeals to our postmodern distrust of generic simplicity. A bonbon stuffed with bon mots, the play’s sweet center is encased within deeper anxieties about fame, time, and mortality.
Of course, the heart of this “wittie and pleasant comedie” beats – iambically, for the most part – with Shakespeare’s linguistic brilliance and comic genius. In a play full of words, his characters live for wordplay. They measure themselves and engage each other through quips, quibbles, and put-downs, employing the kind of verbal pyrotechnics for which the skilled ASC actors and the acoustically-resonant Blackfriars Playhouse are ideally suited.
Yet more than just glorifying language, Love’s Labour’s makes us think about the way it is taught and learned, performed and parodied, used and abused in the pursuit of love, lust, status, and security. That Navarre’s edict initiates the play’s presiding issue of oath-taking is an irony that would not have been lost on Elizabethan audiences, for whom Henri (rather than Ferdinand) of Navarre, the glamorous Protestant prince who gave up his faith for the Catholic throne because “Paris is well worth the mass,” was the archetypal oath-breaker. As the lords and their rustic counterparts wrestle with the implications of swearing and foreswearing, the play opens up a debate about what happens when words are treated as open-ended.
In an age when news is fake and facts have alternatives, Shakespeare’s agile comedy offers a timely reminder that words matter and that our word is our bond.
MATT RADFORD DAVIES
Guest Director