On Directing Love's Labour's Lost — Five Times *

In the fall of 1992, I directed my fifth incarnation of Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost. Each production had a different cast, different settings and costumes, and each has pleased audiences and critics. My first had been for the New York Shakespeare Festival in 1965, my second for The Acting Company in 1974 (touring until 1976), my third for Great Lakes Theater Festival in 1988, my fourth for the Public Theatre in New York in 1989, and my fifth—when I could choose whatever I wanted to direct—was at North Carolina School of the Arts.