Shakespeare's 'As You Like It' opens at Grand Forks' Town Square

Jun. 13—GRAND FORKS — Curt Tofteland has always been quite comfortable with the renowned works of William Shakespeare, because he became familiar with the Bard's style of writing at a young age.
The 16th Century playwright, poet and actor is widely considered the greatest writer in the English language.
"I was raised on the King James Bible, which was written in the time period that Shakespeare was writing," said Tofteland, who grew up in Martin, North Dakota, a tiny Sheridan County town 10 miles west of Harvey.
"When you're raised on the King James Bible, you don't think it's odd that they say 'thee' and 'thou.' So I didn't have the same kind of aversion to the language that perhaps some of my other classmates had."
Tofteland, of Holland, Michigan, is directing the North Dakota Shakespeare Festival production of "As You Like It," which opened Thursday, June 12, at Town Square, DeMers Avenue and Third Street. This is the first production he's directed for the festival. Rehearsals have been taking place at UND's Burtness Theater.
Performances are scheduled for 7 p.m. on Thursdays through Saturdays, June 12-14 and 19-21. A matinee is also planned for 2 p.m. Sunday, June 15.
Admission is free; donations are welcome. Reservations are requested at
www.northdakotashakespeare.com/reservations
, but walk-ins are welcome. Attendees are encouraged to bring lawn chairs and blankets.
"As You Like It" is presented by the North Dakota Shakespeare Festival, now in its ninth season. A performance will be staged at 2 p.m. Wednesday, June 18, on the lawn of Grand Forks Public Library, 2110 Library Circle; attendees should bring their own lawn chairs and blankets.
It will also be performed June 26-30 and July 3-7 in Medora, North Dakota, and July 1 in Lemmon, South Dakota.
The play, performed by professionals from throughout the country, is "a delightful pastoral comedy," said Stephanie Faatz Murry, producing artistic director, North Dakota Shakespeare Festival. It is "a joyful tale of love, wit and transformation under the forest canopy."
Tofteland said, "'As You Like It' is considered by many folks that are Shakespeare experts, as the female 'Hamlet' in length and breadth. ... In a number of Shakespeare's plays, the female character disguises herself as a male — and that's true of (this play).
"The great thing about (this play) — as in many of Shakespeare's comedies — is no one gets killed," he said. "And it's about love and people fall in love and usually the play ends with a marriage. In this instance, the play ends with multiple marriages."
The story starts out in the urban world, "then it transposes to the pastoral world, which is the forest, so most of the play happens out in the country," he said. "We thought it was a great play to do in North Dakota, being primarily an agrarian culture and society."
The local production promises to delight audiences because "it is one of Shakespeare's plays that has the most amount of music in it," Tofteland said, noting the talent of Erin O'Neil, an East Grand Forks fiddler.
The play boasts "a lot of singing and dancing," including a square dance, which he expects will resonate with North Dakota audiences, he said. Also it features musicians who play the ukulele, accordion and percussion.
Cast and crew members include Abby Anderson, as Rosalind; Andrew Bates, scenic designer; Murray, as Celia, Audrey and Lord; Tyler Folkedahl, as Duke Senior, Corwin and Sir Oliver Martext; Veronica Lee Folkedahl, as Phoebe, Duke Frederick and Oliver; Michael Matthys, as Touchstone, Adam, Silvius, Hymen and Jaques de Boys; O'Neil, as lead musician, Amiens, William and Lord; Alexandra Rice, stage manager; Tyler Smith, sound engineer; Mark Swift, Jaques and Charles; Emily Taylor, costume designer; and Christopher Zou, as Orlando.
Along with Tofteland, the UND alumni are Taylor, Smooth, the Folkedahls, Rice and O'Neil.
A North Dakota native, Tofteland attended his first eight grades in school at Martin and completed his high school education in Harvey, North Dakota, where an English teacher ignited his interest in Shakespeare's plays by introducing him, as a junior, to the tragedy "Romeo and Juliet." In 1968, as a senior, he watched Franco Zeffirelli's newly-released film, of the same name, in a Harvey, North Dakota, theater.
Tofteland earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from UND — one of the first BFA degrees conferred — with an emphasis on vocal performance, in 1974, he said. He also had concentrations in theater and creative writing with a focus on poetry.
Tofteland has built a career celebrating the Bard's work. During his 20-year tenure as the producing artistic director Kentucky Shakespeare Festival, he has produced about 50 Shakespeare productions, directed 25, and acted in eight. The Kentucky Shakespeare Festival, the oldest free Shakespeare festival in North America, he said.
A professional director and an Equity actor, Tofteland has more than 200 professional productions to his credit. He has presented more than 400 performances of his one-man show "Shakespeare's Clownes: A Foole's Guide to Shakespeare".
Tofteland has earned international acclaim for his work with "Shakespeare Behind Bars," a program he created 34 years ago to influence the lives of people in prisons and juvenile detention centers.
Tofteland is "a bit of a legend in the Shakespeare Community" for the program "that brings Shakespeare performance opportunities to incarcerated men and women," Murry said.
As founder of "Shakespeare Behind Bars," Tofteland has produced and directed 14 all-male Shakespeare plays. The work is "transformational," he said.
Under this program, "we have about 500 prisoners who've been released. Our recidivism rate is less than 6% over 30 years, whereas the national average is 67% come back within five years."
To learn more about the SBB program, go to
shakespearebehindbars.org
and watch the award-winning documentary by Philomath Films, which premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and traveled to more than 40 film festivals, winning 11 awards.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Los Angeles Times

4 hours ago

• Los Angeles Times

Why this author wrote about creative women as they aged: ‘They made much of less'

In this week's newsletter, we have a chat with Susan Gubar, whose new book, 'Grand Finales: The Creative Longevity of Women Artists,' profiles seven creators who found a second wind in their advancing years. We also look at recent releases reviewed in The Times. And a local bookseller tells us what's selling right now. Seventeen years ago, Susan Gubar was handed a death sentence. A distinguished professor emerita of English and women's studies at Indiana University and the co-author (with Sandra M. Gilbert) of 1979's 'The Madwoman in the Attic,' a groundbreaking work of feminist literary theory, Gubar in 2008 was staring down a terminal cancer diagnosis. A clinical trial involving an experimental drug prolonged her life and gave her the impetus to tackle a new project about seven artists — George Eliot, Colette, Georgia O'Keeffe, Isak Dinesen, Marianne Moore, Louise Bourgeois, Mary Lou Williams, Gwendolyn Brooks and Katherine Dunham — who entered a new phase of creative ferment and productivity as they grew older. I talked to Gubar about her new book, the myth of old age and the persistent stereotypes attached to female artists who may be perceived as having outlived their usefulness as creators. (Please note: The Times may earn a commission through links to whose fees support independent bookstores.) Can you talk about how the book came about? In 2008, I was told that I had 3-5 years to live with late-stage ovarian cancer. The standard treatment was ineffectual. But then in 2012, my oncologist encouraged me to enroll in a clinical trial that was experimenting with a new drug. After nine years in the trial, she then urged me to take 'a drug holiday' since long-term use of the medication could cause leukemia. I am still on that holiday. An unanticipated old age made me appreciate the wonderful gifts longevity can bestow. In researching your subjects, what do they all share in common? All of my subjects are artists who experienced the losses of aging. They needed canes and wheelchairs and helpers while they suffered the pains of various diseases and regimens. One coped with blindness, another with deafness and still others with the loss of intimates. Yet in the face of such deficits, they used their art to exhibit their audacity, mojo, chutzpah, bravado. They're exemplars of Geezer Machismo. All of your subjects are women, who have a much tougher time in terms of earning respect and attention as they age. Can you speak to the obstacles they had to overcome as they reinvented themselves as artists in their advanced years? The stereotypical old lady is invisible or risible, but we know that many elderly women thrive. My old ladies did not approach their life stories as prime-and-decline narratives. Instead they reinvented themselves. In part, they managed to do this by changing their objectives as artists. They moved from the stage to the page or from elite to popular forms. Some of them underwent religious or political conversions that energized their last years. They fully understood the losses of old age, but they did not settle for less. Instead, they made much of less. What's interesting about these artists is that — contrary, I must admit, to what I thought would have been the case — these women were supported by men who became their benefactors, and helped them to negotiate their careers. Quite a few of the women that I write about were helped by much younger men in their lives, who became facilitators. This is true for George Eliot, Colette, Georgia O'Keeffe, Louise Bourgeoise, Mary Lou Williams and others. Williams, the great jazz pianist, was helped by a Jesuit named Father O'Brien, who helped her get control of her copyrights. Georgia O'Keeffe, in contrast, has been championed by photographer Alfred Stieglitz, but she had to leave him in her midlife to establish her autonomy late in life. He was very controlling, even though he definitely established her reputation. She was aided in her later years by a man young enough to be her grandson. You are an octogenarian, and writing a book isn't easy, as you know. Where do you find the inspiration and the strength to keep going as a creator? What keeps me going is what kept my subjects flourishing in their seventies, eighties or nineties. Any sort of creative activity involves expression, which is a great antidote to depression. It may take the form of sculpting, painting, playing an instrument, teaching a dance routine, making a quilt or a garden, establishing a park or a prize, you name it. Without my two current writing projects, I'd be lost. Even (or maybe especially) in our dismal political climate, ongoing creative projects make each day an adventure. Heather Scott Partington reviews 'Fox,' Joyce Carol Oates' mystery novel about a murdered pedophile. 'Fox has the bones of a potboiler but is supported by the sinew of the author's elegant structure and syntax,' writes Partington . Leigh Haber weighs in on Jess Walter's book 'So Far Gone,' calling the author a 'slyly adept social critic [who has] clearly invested his protagonist with all of the outrage and heartbreak he himself feels about the dark course our world has taken.' Daniel Felsenthal thinks Geoff Dyer's memoir 'Homework' is somewhat meandering, yet 'bursts with working-class pride, a fond and mournful belief in the possibility of the British welfare state.' And Paula L. Woods talked to five mystery writers about the inspirations for their new books. This week, we're talking about hot books with Nat Eastman, the manager of Chevalier's Books on Larchmont Boulevard in Hollywood, the oldest independent bookstore in Los Angeles. What books are selling in the store right now? We've been moving Percival Everett's 'James' and Ocean Vuong's 'The Emperor of Gladness' hand over fist. Thanks to BookTok, Asako Yuzuki's 'Butter' has become a mainstay on our bestseller list. We also had the honor of hosting Bryan Byrdlong for a reading from his debut poetry collection 'Strange Flowers,' and we've been handselling it right and left ever since. What are your perennial sellers? Kaya Doi's series of picture books, 'Chirri and Chirra,' is a smash hit around here. Joan Didion and bell hooks are reliable customer favorites as well. As an indie shop, though, we love the deeper cuts too — whether that's 'Água Viva,' literally any Yoko Ogawa work or something from our zine collection. Are you seeing more young people buying books? Despite all the reports about declining literacy rates among young folk, our children's section makes up a quarter of our sales. We really try to carve out a space for the next generation of readers with programs like storytime, a middle-grade book club and summer-reading punch cards. To us, messy shelves are annoying everywhere except the kids' section!

USA Today

8 hours ago

• USA Today

What is a 'Chanticleer'? Coastal Carolina's mascot and nickname, explained

Coastal Carolina is back in the men's College World Series, with the Chanticleers facing the LSU Tigers and hoping to win their first national title in baseball since 2016 (and maybe they're getting some support from an Outer Banks actress). But if you're here, you might be wondering about something in the paragraph above: just what the heck is a Chanticleer? If you've never heard of that, you'd understandably be confused. Luckily, we've got you covered. A Chanticleer is a rooster, and the name came from Geoffrey Chaucer's classic Canterbury Tales. But there's a story about how Coastal Carolina ended up with a name like that: How did Coastal Carolina get the name Chanticleers? From CCU's site: In the early 1960s, Coastal's athletic teams were known as the Trojans. A group of Coastal students and their English professor-basketball coach Cal Maddox brought up the idea of a new mascot. At the time, with Coastal serving as a two-year branch campus of the University of South Carolina, many people began to push for a nickname that was more closely related to USC's Gamecock. Thus, Chanticleer was born, giving Coastal its own identity and one of the most unique mascots in college athletics. What's the pronunciation of Chanticleer? It's not CHANT-IH-CLEAR. It's SHON-TI-CLEAR. What's Coastal Carolina's mascot? That would be Chauncey.

Business Insider

16 hours ago

• Business Insider

'White Lotus' star Jason Isaacs reflected on managing money 'immaturely.' A financial planner breaks down how to avoid doing the same.

For a movie star, Jason Isaacs says his financial situation isn't what you'd expect. "People will think I have huge stockpiles of money," the "White Lotus" star told Vulture in an interview published on June 16. "But sadly, what I've done rather immaturely is expand my outgoings to match my incomings and pretty much spent everything I've earned over the years." The English actor has more than 168 credits on IMDB dating back to 1988, including iconic roles such as Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter film adaptations and Col. William Tavington in the 2000 hit "The Patriot." But while Isaacs has long enjoyed a high-powered and lucrative career — Business Insider previously reported he, and every other top-billed actor on the show, earned $40,000 per episode of "White Lotus" — his admission is indicative of a common financial misstep that plagues high-earners: lifestyle creep. "It's really common to have lifestyle creep, and it's basically this phenomenon: When you earn more money, you spend more money," Robert Persichitte, a certified financial planner, told Business Insider. "People will see extra money in their bank account, and then they'll spend it, and then they get used to it, and it gets kind of locked into your lifestyle — and it becomes really, really difficult to get out of it." Representatives for Isaacs did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. 'Do you want to be rich, or do you want to be wealthy?' Lifestyle creep is most insidious when you begin spending your extra income on big-ticket items like expensive cars, fancy homes, or recurring subscription expenses like gym memberships, Persichitte said. That's not to say more modest luxuries like spa services or a trendy wardrobe can't add up, but he said those types of transactions are easier to stop splurging on if your financial situation changes. "It's a very common scenario: You get somebody who has their first high-paying job, and they get excited, they go out and spend it, and then about six months later, they realize they hate that high-paying job," Persichitte said. "If you bought a new car or bought a new house, that is a very, very difficult decision to walk back." Isaacs is far from the only celebrity to experience a problem with lifestyle creep. Al Pacino, in his 2024 autobiography, said he went from a $50 million fortune to "broke" because he didn't control his spending. Other stars — from Michael Jackson to Mike Tyson — have also racked up tremendous amounts of debt despite having multimillion-dollar incomes. While it may be tempting to adopt a more lavish lifestyle or emulate your favorite celebrity's spending habits if you receive a promotion or financial windfall, Persichitte cautions against it. Persichitte recalled a 2008 Time interview with Flo Rida, in which the rapper said mogul Rick Ross advised that, in order to make more money, Flo Rida should spend "with the confidence of someone who knows he's going to make a lot more." "I wouldn't recommend that," Persichitte said. "And the logic to me is: Do you want to be rich, or do you want to be wealthy?" The difference is that a rich person's financial situation hinges on their next paycheck, which means a job loss or emergency or an impending prison sentence — which was likely in the future for Isaacs' character in "White Lotus" — could make it all crumble. In comparison, Persichitte said, a wealthy person has long-term stability because they've prioritized sound investments that allow them more control over their finances. The easiest way to avoid lifestyle creep is to have a plan for your money so it's not just sitting in your bank account, Persichitte said. Whether that be a 401(k) or locking some portion of your funds away in a CD account, nearly anything is better than having your liquid cash available in your checking account — but "the more invisible, the better," he added. "The further away you can keep that money from the checking account, the less likely you are going to have that lifestyle creep," Persichitte said. "If your net pay doesn't go up, you don't feel rich, and you don't feel the need to spend." Speaking to Vulture, Isaacs said that he has turned down multiple roles over the years that would have offered him a more substantial nest egg to lean back on. While he said he doesn't regret the moves "careerwise or artistically," he acknowledged it is a financial sore spot for him. "There's a number of things I could have done over the years that would've made me rich," Isaacs said. "And now that I'm toward the autumn of my career, I think maybe I'm an idiot and I should have done some of those things and just banked it, because other people do."