Plain old exhaustion—as well as exhilaration—is a repeated theme among four actors performing in the Bridge Project's second season. Each has at least two roles in director Sam Mendes' productions of "As You Like It" and "The Tempest." The venture brings together British and American actors to perform classical theater in repertory at New York's Brooklyn Academy of Music, followed by a six-month international tour. It's a collaborative effort of BAM, the Old Vic in London, and Neal Street Productions.

Even British actor Juliet Rylance, who grew up with Shakespeare and has played many of his roles—she is the stepdaughter of Tony Award–winning actor-director Mark Rylance ("Boeing-Boeing")—says the physical demands of playing Rosalind and Miranda are daunting. "I drink four liters of water a night and two bottles of molasses a week," she says. Her American husband, actor Christian Camargo, who plays Orlando and Ariel, talks about the challenges of coming down from a performance and then re-energizing for the next one. "Sam is a bold storyteller," he explains. "When he stages a fight, it's a fight."

All four actors—we also spoke with Tom Sadoski and Alvin Epstein—comment on Mendes' unusual method for creating an ensemble and establishing relationships among actors, and by extension the characters they play. One of his early icebreakers had actors performing their scenes lying on Persian carpets and overstuffed pillows, while their fellow actors sat in a circle around them and watched. If a character in the scene mentioned a character who was not in the scene, the actor playing that role would be brought into the pillowed space.

"By the time we had finished, we had established spatial and personal relationships," says Sadoski, who plays Touchstone and Stephano. Epstein remarks that Mendes' approach is unlike that of any other director he has worked with in his long career. Epstein plays Adam, a servant, and Sir Oliver Martext, a country vicar, in "As You Like It" and Gonzalo, an old counselor, in "The Tempest."

Back Stage: Exhaustion aside, are there special challenges in doing two Shakespeare plays in repertory?

Alvin Epstein: There are challenges in doing any two plays in repertory. Because they're both Shakespeare, it's easier. The language is fundamentally the same. In that way, the two plays support each other, unlike last year's Bridge Project productions, Shakespeare and Chekhov. That's far more challenging.

Christian Camargo: Repertory in general is challenging, and Shakespeare is more for me. The big question was deciding if there was a symbiosis between the two characters I play, Orlando and Ariel. I decided there is, and it's love and freedom. Orlando loves Rosalind without limit. He feels incredible freedom to love. Ariel gains his freedom through enabling Prospero to forgive and love. The connection simplifies and gives me an arc through both plays. But I distinguish the two characters physically. One is human, from the ground up, from the earth. The other is a spirit and not fully in his body.

Juliet Rylance: Miranda and Rosalind feel incredibly different. The challenge—and delight—is being able to cross between those two very different people. At the moment, I'm getting lost in Miranda, but in a nice way. It took me a while to get my head out of Rosalind. She is such a thinker and gets herself into trouble by overcomplicating everything. Miranda is heart-based, open, and much simpler. But it was interesting to play Rosalind before Miranda. Rosalind's journey is about the challenges and confines of being a woman, and how do we empower ourselves as women? Going into Miranda, I had a small revelation because of my experience with Rosalind. Everyone said, "Miranda is so obedient. Her father is always telling her to obey." That's one way of looking at it. But it's also possible she does not obey that much, which is why he's always telling her to obey.

Tom Sadoski: The challenge is that in "As You Like It," I didn't want to play Touchstone as the outsider—that's a danger—but on the flip side, Stephano and Trinculo in "The Tempest" have to stand outside the show. There's an entire shift in the energy between the two plays.

Back Stage: Do you change your acting method for Shakespeare?

Sadoski: No, I look at any character from the inside out and try to connect the thoughts. I think about what kind of person makes these decisions, and then I physicalize how the character holds himself—where the weight sits in the body. That also helps me keep separate the two characters I play.

Epstein: It is different for Shakespeare, but basically it's a mystery. What is acting? You try to work on things you can change, but it's all connected to instinct, and that no one knows anything about. But with Shakespeare, you take him at his word. He doesn't write subtext. The subtext is in the text. By speaking the words, you're speaking what the character is thinking and feeling. Generally, I try to obey what I tell other people when I direct, which is: Don't act; just say the words, understand them, and believe what you're doing. It's unlike Williams, where you ask, 'What is the character really feeling?' It's often buried underneath the surface of the play. With Shakespeare there's a certain amount of subtext, but it's buried very thinly.

Sadoski: With my natural predilections as an American actor, I struggle with what you're saying. I've spent so much time with new playwrights that I deal with subtext, and when you bring that into Shakespeare it can take you right off track. If you try to do too much, it won't support you, but if you do too little, it will crush you.

Camargo: There are rules and formulas when you work on Shakespeare that deal with breaking up rhythms, meter, and the last beat of the line. But acting is acting; the same rules apply. You mine the text and find out what your character is saying about himself, what he's saying about others, and what other characters are saying about him. After the technical side, I fold into the normal approach. I merge the two techniques.

Rylance: My method is the same for all roles. The big difference for Shakespeare is that I've grown up with it. I started reading Shakespeare when I was 7, and then being around the Globe for 10 years, it is a world I understand more than a lot of contemporary plays.

Epstein: Culturally, the language is embedded in the British from infancy on. Their exposure to Shakespeare is ingrained, and the iambic structure is so natural to British English. It's not to say they're all able to get up and spout iambics, but they have more-active lips, tongues, and jaws that you need in order to speak it. And we ain't got it.

Back Stage: Juliet and Christian, what are the issues in working with your spouse?

Camargo: Mostly it's the time we're with each other. It's every second of the day. It's a challenge and blessing, depending on what side of the bed I wake up on. But we've been good together. That was a concern. I never worked with an important other before. It's wonderful, in part because Juliet is used to working with important others, like her parents.

Rylance: You can't afford to row. You get to a point where you have spent a whole week together, and it's your day off and you're grumpy and fed up and you start a row and realize quickly to find another way. It's been extraordinary exploring our relationship through both plays, especially "As You Like It," and being newlyweds and all the conversations about what it means to be married and what happens when you're a wife.

Camargo: Also, it's revenge from the gods for not having had a proper wedding. We decided to go to City Hall and not tell anyone. And here we are getting married eight times a week. It's a wonderful wedding announcement.

Back Stage: What have you learned from this gig that you'll be able to take to your next?

Camargo: In working in a quick way on such a big production, I've developed an awareness that an actor needs to be part of a group and know what his part is in the whole, our style, and how are we moving together? It might be interesting to see how that thinking can be applied to a contemporary piece, even on TV or film.

Rylance: Working on Rosalind has stretched me and made me break some bad habits. Whenever I'm nervous on stage, I walk backwards. I don't do that anymore. Sam stopped that. This part has forced me to grow and change. It has also made me realize how important it is for English and American actors to work together. I used to feel Shakespeare should be performed in the received pronunciation. But it's amazing to see actors speaking English differently. Language was growing in the 1500s. It was the golden age of discovery, and new people were coming to London from all over. In some ways, we are close to what you would have seen at London's Globe Theatre during the Elizabethan era.


"As You Like It" and "The Tempest" run through March 13 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Harvey Theater, 651 Fulton St., NYC. Tickets: (718) 636-4100 or www.bam.org.