Theatre: As You Like It at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival (August 2017)

As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 and first published in the First Folio in 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has been suggested as a possibility. 

As You Like It follows its heroine Rosalind as she flees persecution in her uncle's court, accompanied by her cousin Celia to find safety and, eventually, love, in the Forest of Arden. In the forest, they encounter a variety of memorable characters, notably the melancholy traveller Jaques who speaks many of Shakespeare's most famous speeches (such as "All the world's a stage", "too much of a good thing" and "A fool! A fool! I met a fool in the forest"). Jaques provides a sharp contrast to the other characters in the play, always observing and disputing the hardships of life in the country. 

Synopsis

The play is set in a duchy in France, but most of the action takes place in a location called the Forest of Arden. This may be intended as the Ardennes, a forested region covering an area located in southeast Belgium, western Luxembourg and northeastern France, or Arden, Warwickshire, near Shakespeare's home town, which was the ancestral origin of his mother's family—who incidentally were called Arden. 

Frederick has usurped the duchy and exiled his older brother, Duke Senior. Duke Senior's daughter, Rosalind, has been permitted to remain at court because she is the closest friend and cousin of Frederick's only child, Celia. Orlando, a young gentleman of the kingdom who at first sight has fallen in love with Rosalind, is forced to flee his home after being persecuted by his older brother, Oliver. Frederick becomes angry and banishes Rosalind from court. Celia and Rosalind decide to flee together accompanied by the court fool, Touchstone, with Rosalind disguised as a young man and Celia disguised as a poor lady. 

Rosalind, now disguised as Ganymede ("Jove's own page"), and Celia, now disguised as Aliena (Latin for "stranger"), arrive in the Arcadian Forest of Arden, where the exiled Duke now lives with some supporters, including "the melancholy Jaques", a malcontent figure, who is introduced weeping over the slaughter of a deer. "Ganymede" and "Aliena" do not immediately encounter the Duke and his companions. Instead, they meet Corin, an impoverished tenant, and offer to buy his master's crude cottage. 

Orlando and his servant Adam, meanwhile, find the Duke and his men and are soon living with them and posting simplistic love poems for Rosalind on the trees. (The role of Adam may have been played by Shakespeare, though this story is said to be apocryphal.)^[1] Rosalind, also in love with Orlando, meets him as Ganymede and pretends to counsel him to cure him of being in love. Ganymede says that "he" will take Rosalind's place and that "he" and Orlando can act out their relationship. 

The shepherdess, Phebe, with whom Silvius is in love, has fallen in love with Ganymede (Rosalind in disguise), though "Ganymede" continually shows that "he" is not interested in Phebe. Touchstone, meanwhile, has fallen in love with the dull-witted shepherdess, Audrey, and tries to woo her, but eventually is forced to be married first. William, another shepherd, attempts to marry Audrey as well, but is stopped by Touchstone, who threatens to kill him "a hundred and fifty ways." 

Finally, Silvius, Phebe, Ganymede, and Orlando are brought together in an argument with each other over who will get whom. Ganymede says he will solve the problem, having Orlando promise to marry Rosalind, and Phebe promise to marry Silvius if she cannot marry Ganymede. 

Orlando sees Oliver in the forest and rescues him from a lioness, causing Oliver to repent for mistreating Orlando. Oliver meets Aliena (Celia's false identity) and falls in love with her, and they agree to marry. Orlando and Rosalind, Oliver and Celia, Silvius and Phebe, and Touchstone and Audrey all are married in the final scene, after which they discover that Frederick also has repented his faults, deciding to restore his legitimate brother to the dukedom and adopt a religious life. Jaques, ever melancholic, declines their invitation to return to the court, preferring to stay in the forest and to adopt a religious life as well. Rosalind speaks an epilogue to the audience, commending the play to both men and women in the audience.

Theatre: The Hound of the Baskervilles at Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival (July 2017)

The Hound of the Baskervilles is the third of the four crime novels written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. Originally serialised in The Strand Magazine from August 1901 to April 1902, it is set largely on Dartmoor in Devon in England's West Country and tells the story of an attempted murder inspired by the legend of a fearsome, diabolical hound of supernatural origin. Sherlock Holmes and his companion Dr. Watson investigate the case. This was the first appearance of Holmes since his apparent death in "The Final Problem", and the success of The Hound of the Baskervilles led to the character's eventual revival. 

One of the most famous stories ever writte^[2] in 2003, the book was listed as number 128 of 200 on the BBC's The Big Read poll of the UK's "best-loved novel." In 1999, it was listed as the top Holmes novel, with a perfect rating from Sherlockian scholars of 100. 

Plot

Dr. James Mortimer asks Sherlock Holmes for advice after his friend Sir Charles Baskerville was found dead in the park surrounding his manor, in the moors of Devonshire. The death was attributed to a heart attack but, according to Mortimer, Sir Charles's face retained an expression of horror and not far from the corpse the footprints of a gigantic hound were clearly visible. According to an old legend, a curse runs in the Baskerville family since the time of the English Civil War, when a Sir Hugo Baskerville abducted and murdered a woman in the mires of Dartmoor, only to be killed in turn by a huge demonic hound. Allegedly the same creature has been haunting the place ever since, causing the premature death of many Baskerville heirs. Sir Charles believed in the plague of the hound and so does Mr. Mortimer, who now fears for the next in line Sir Henry Baskerville. 

Even though he dismisses the whole curse story as nonsense, Holmes agrees to meet Sir Henry in London as soon as the latter arrives from Canada, where his branch of the family had moved in the past. The man is a young and jovial good-looking fellow, skeptical toward the grim legend and eager to take possession of Baskerville Hall, even if he's just found an anonymous note in the mail, warning him to stay away from the moor. When someone tries to shoot Sir Henry while he's walking down a street, however, Holmes asks Watson to go with the young man and Mortimer to Dartmooor, in order to protect Sir Henry and search for any clue about who's menacing his life. 

The trio arrives to Baskerville Hall, an old and imposing manor in the middle of a vast park, managed by a butler and his wife the housekeeper. The estate is surrounded by the moor and borders the Grimpen Mire, where animals and humans can sink to death in quicksand. The news that a convict has escaped from the local penitentiary and is hiding on the nearby hills, add up to the barren landscape and the gloomy atmosphere. 

Inexplicable events happen during the first night, keeping the guests awake and only in the daylight Watson and Sir Henry can relax while exploring the neighborhood and meet the scarce but peculiar residents of Dartmoor. Watson keeps on searching for any lead to the identity of whoever's attempting to Sir Henry's life and faithfully wires the details of his investigation to Holmes. Among the others stand out the Stapletons, brother and sister; the man is overfriendly and a bit too curious toward the newly arrived, while the woman, a rare beauty, seems all too weary of the place. 

Distant howls and strange sightings trouble Watson during his long walks on the hills, and his mood gets no better even inside Baskerville Hall. The doctor grows suspicious of the butler, who at night acts like he was signaling to someone in the moor with a candle from a window of the house. In the meantime Sir Henry is drawn to Ms. Stapleton, who seems to be afraid of her brother's opinion on the matter. To make the puzzle more complex there are Mr. Mortimer, maybe too eager to convince Sir Henry that the curse is real, an old and grumpy neighbour, who likes to pry with his telescope into other people's houses, a beautiful woman with unclear ties to Sir Charles and even a bearded man roaming free in the hills and apparently hiding on a tor where ancient tombs have been excavated by Mr. Stapleton for unclear purpose. 

For all the good Watson's efforts, it will be Sherlock Holmes in person to connect all the clues and solve the mystery, but not before the spectral hound kills again. In the end, Detective Holmes reveals Mr. Stapleton to actually be Rodger Baskerville, a relative of Sir Henry's who wanted to inherit the fortune. The hound is proved to be real, but simply a regular dog with a phosphorus-lined mouth. Unfortunately, Holmes has to kill it to save Sir Henry.