Well, maybe not the last one, but in the upcoming spring production of As You Like It, it's kind of a given. In the play, a tyrannical Duke and Duchess (Miles Butler and Anna Lathrop) banish their daughter’s best friend Rosalind (Martha-Grace Burkey) to the Forest of Arden. She has fallen in love with Orlando (Tim Koning), but he has his own despotic brother (Adam Frost) to deal with, so he also runs away to the Forest. Rosalind, now banished, disguises herself as a young man, with Celia (Juliana Hardesty) as her sister, and follows Orlando. Phebe (K-K Bracken), a shepherdess loved by Silvius (Joseph Kendra), finds herself smitten with the disguised Rosalind. In the wasteland of Arden, commoners and courtiers alike couple off, and in the vein of Shakespeare’s comedies, there are multiple weddings at the end of the play.

Eighth-grader Julie Farbestein poses as a mutated beast next to a garbage-inspired tree.

The idea of setting one of the Bard's "cross-dressing" comedies in the bleak future is courtesy of director Pamela Spicer. "It's an idea I'd been toying with for years," says Spicer. Her inspiration came from the constant references to the Forest of Arden, where the majority of the play takes place, as a desert. With a multitude of quirky, forest-dwelling cameos, As You Like It seemed perfect for the adaptation. Cast members and students of Spicer’s classes have been working diligently on giant, mutated bug costumes. Addison Blakemore, the student head of set design, conceived the trees of the forest as junkyard-like piping with trashy accoutrements hanging from the branches.

Thematic unity is essential for the concept's success. Ms. Ruth Burkey, working on her sixth Mason production, will be reprising her role as costume mistress, a job that entails a fair bit of creativity in the manner of design. Much of the costuming is reminiscent of Renaissance, such as Shakespeare would have worn at the time the play was written, but all with a subtle flair of the future. For example, "no zippers," says Burkey, who assumes that the factories for producing such things would have been destroyed in the war.

John Ballou's stage crew will once again be in charge of set and lighting design. "The set from last year's spring play was phenomenal," says Junior Nathan Ward, playing the role of Touchstone, talking about the balcony he had to climb up and down multiple times in 2006’s Fools. "This year we're thinking about tackling a more ambitious set and adding a second story." This, Spicer explains, would be ideal for the many scenes in which people are overheard, and is confident in Ballou's team's ability to achieve it. After all, the stage crew was just named Lasso Online’s Unsung Heroes for this week.

Augmenting the futuristic feel of the play will be various Mason students in their own creative projects. Junior Peter Davis has been asked to compose techno beats to be used in the play and sophomore Elyse Krachman has written accompaniments for the songs included in the text.

When asked if her concept would be perceived as too bleak, Spicer explains that As You Like It is a comedy, and that will shine through no matter what the theme is. As You Like It will be performed March 22, 23, and 24 at 7:30 in the George Mason High School Auditorium. Admission is $5.