29 Jun Sunshine Coast Community Shakespeare Project blends great theatre with community impact

“Hath not old custom made this life more sweet than that of painted pomp?”

The forests of Arden are coming to the Sunshine Coast this summer as Coast Shakespeare returns with As You Like It, a Driftwood Players presentation running July 3, 4, 10, and 11.

Now in its third year, the Sunshine Coast Community Shakespeare Project, led by directors and producers Lise Kreps and Michael Gurney, continues a tradition that blends great theatre with community impact. All proceeds from this year’s production will support the Bev Shaw Literacy Fund at the Sunshine Coast Foundation, which helps foster a love of reading and writing across the Coast through literacy initiatives.

Together, the 2024 and 2025 productions — A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Twelfth Night —raised $22,500 for the fund.

This year’s production features a multigenerational cast of 22 volunteer performers and musicians ranging in age from 13 to 91, bringing together a remarkable mix of experience, talent, and perspectives. Gurney describes working with such a diverse ensemble as “enriching,” allowing the creative team to build a truly collaborative production that celebrates performers at every stage of life.

One of the show’s most distinctive elements is its live Elizabethan music. As Music Director, Kreps has long dreamed of presenting a Shakespeare production accompanied by instruments from the period. Audiences can expect recorders, Renaissance flute, bass viola da gamba, and traditional vocal arrangements that help bring the world of the play to life.

The music itself reflects one of the play’s central themes: humanity’s relationship with the natural world.

That theme resonates strongly with local audiences. Throughout As You Like It, characters move between the formality and pressures of court life and the freedom of the Forest of Arden. Kreps notes that Shakespeare’s descriptions of Arden may feel familiar to Sunshine Coast residents.

“Every time characters enter the forest, we have them react to it,” she said. “I told the cast that it’s the feeling you get when you walk off the ferry: ‘Oh, I’m home.'”

Beyond its pastoral setting, As You Like It explores themes of transformation, identity, love, and belonging, ideas that remain as relevant today as they were more than 400 years ago.

Tickets are available online and at the door. Audiences are invited to pay what they can, ensuring the performances remain accessible to everyone while supporting literacy initiatives in our community.

To learn more about the production or purchase tickets, visit: www.coastshakespeare.ca

To learn more about the Bev Shaw Literacy Fund and its impact on the Sunshine Coast, visit: www.sunshinecoastfoundation.org/bev-shaw-literacy-fund