Midsummer night's show: Shakespeare in Libby

Shakespeare’s romantic comedy “As You Like It” will be performed at 6 p.m. Sunday at the amphitheatre outside Asa Wood Elementary.

The play will be put on by Montana Shakespeare in the Parks, now in its 42nd season. The performance is sponsored by the Rotary Club of the Kootenai Valley.

Eileen Carney, a member of the Rotary Club, helps with the fundraising, outreach and coordination of the event. Some years there are two Shakespeare performances in Libby, but this year, only enough money was raised for one, which she said is approximately $1,350. The money comes from private and local business donations, and the Rotary Club covers any extra costs.

But there is also a cost seen on the actors’ side. The life of a Shakespeare actor is relentless. Actors have only three days off between June 30 and Sept. 7. They travel endlessly. Setting up the stage and tearing it down soon after, they are constantly uprooted.

But it’s worth it, Montana Shakespeare in the Parks managing director Susan Dickerson said, because the organization can bring a theatrical light to communities all across the state. She said the actors work hard to bring the best show to all 61 towns they visit. In 1973, when Montana Shakespeare in the Parks began, they served just eight towns.

Dickerson used to be one of those actors. In 1999, she was came to work for Montana Shakespeare in the Parks. Years later, she became the managing director, and still finds the organization’s values strong. A PBS documentary on Shakespeare in the Park revitalized the value to Dickerson of what they do for communities: bringing art and engagement to small communities.

Dickerson works with Carney and other community members across the state to make these performances happen. Dickerson said the Shakespeare performances offer communities an old-time entertainment that draws the likes of all generations.

“It think it gives towns the chance to have something that you can bring to everyone,” Dickerson said. “It’s free, so there’s no barrier. You will see generations coming to these events.”

Kevin Asselin also used to be an actor that was pulled into the allure of Montana Shakespeare in the Parks. He’s worked for the organization for 12 years, and is now the artistic director. He’s garnered a list of skills from choreographing theatrical fights and violence — “people don’t think about it, but theatre fights do in fact need to be safe” — to teaching in educational programs about Shakespeare.

This year, he’s brought “As You Like It” out of a dusty English textbook and into the frontier lands of Montana as the artistic director.

“My goal is to find as much relevancy between Shakespeare and the communities we visit,” Asselin said. “I look at the scenes in the play and try to look for that sense of nature, that sense of peace and that feeling of the more rural areas.”

The play, which has two settings, is mainly set in 1917 Butte, when capitalism rose and placed the industrial weight on the workers. The Forest of Arden, the other setting in the play, is set in a place like Libby, tucked into forested areas where timber men rule. Asselin said this capitalism-versus-worker dilemma is a vital part of the language Shakespeare uses in “As You Like It.”

“It’s important for us to make these plays relevant to the people who watch them,” Asselin said. “We do it because we are owned by the communities. There are no communities like Montana communities, and I’ve lived everywhere. We’re here for them.”