06/14/2026
With one last performance to go, we want to highlight the fearless leader of Shakespeare in Love - Director Marc Ruffino!
AP: Tell us about your role.
Marc: As director, it’s been a fun challenge to work with a very large cast. The cast and crews are fantastic, and I feel my role is simply a manager. There are so many talented people in this production: the performers, costumers, set builders and designers, musicians, fight and dance coordinators, stage and tech crews, marketing and media specialists and many others.
AP: Do you have a favorite Shakespeare play and/or adaptation of a Shakespeare play? What is it and why?
Marc: I’ve taught Julius Caesar for over 25 years, so it’s my favorite since I know it so well. Antony’s “Friends, Romans, countrymen” speech is an interesting one to teach language devices to students. But, I also love Hamlet because it’s Hamlet, Midsummer Night’s Dream because of the Mechanicals who want to be actors (so fun and silly), Much Ado About Nothing because it’s one of the first rom-coms, and Twelfth Night because all the secondary characters are hysterical.
AP: What's your favorite fictional romance?
Marc: My favorite genre is farce, so it’s very gratifying to make an audience laugh out loud at the silliness. I know that doesn’t exactly answer the question, but if we can make an audience laugh and smile, we have done our jobs.
AP: What’s one thing you’d bring back from the Elizabethan era?
Marc: I love how music and theater were the main sources of entertainment.
AP: What is your favorite thing about working on this production?
Marc: The cast, our stage manager Alli and our producers, Mark and Sofia, have all been very supportive. Alli has been at my side every step of the way.
AP: Why should someone come and see Shakespeare in Love at AP?
Marc: It’s a fun show that will make you laugh, smile, tap your feet, and learn something about Shakespeare’s world of theater.
🎭 Shakespeare in Love
📆 Now Playing through June 14, 2026
📸 Dori Shear-McGowan
🎟 AuroraPlayers.org
