When the Colorado Shakespeare Festival began its 44th season on July 27, three Columbia School of the Arts theatre students participated in the performances. Kyle Haden, Chip Persons and Annie Yim traveled out to the University of Colorado to perform one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays, the Two Gentlemen of Verona.

Director, Jane Page, put an interesting twist on the Renaissance-era comedy by setting the events in a post World War II American carnival, complete with a roller coaster and Ferris wheel. Two Gentlemen of Verona sets best friends, Valentine, played by Haden, and Proteus against one another in pursuit of a woman. Persons played Speed, Valentine’s servant, and Yim portrayed Lucetta, the beautician.

In the Colorado Daily (7/6/01), Brad Weismann described the cast as enthusiastic and nimble. "It’s entertainment, pure and simple…and this interpretation lets in fresh breezes that blow away all pretension and care," he writes.

Chip Person did double duty this summer, also performing in the festival’s rendition of Queen Margaret, an adaptation of the Henry VI trilogy, which combined the highlights of these works. The story follows the 50-year conflict between England and France, and the resulting civil strife in England.

Jim Lillie of Westword (7/26/01) wrote "Persons gives the show’s most intriguing performance as Richard, the twitching tyrant-in-the-making who eventually became Richard III."

These performances, held outdoors at the Mary Rippon Outdoor Theatre at the University of Colorado, Boulder, posed some additional challenges for the actors. They had to deal with the sounds of distant traffic, occasional airplanes and even a few raindrops that fell during the opening of The Two Gentlemen of Verona. As if on cue, the Rocky Mountain News reported that the showers began during the verse

"O, how this spring of love resembleth
The uncertain glory of an April day,
Which now shows all the beauty of the sun,
And by and by a cloud takes all away!"