At the Theatre Company: Debut. Other Theatres: The Scene (Dorset Theatre Festival); Philadelphia Story, As You Like It, Mine, Dracula (Chautauqua Theater Company); Long Division (Portland Center Stage JAW Festival); The Flies, A View from the Bridge, Twelfth Night, Metamorphoses, The Three Lives of Lucie Cabrol, You Never Can Tell (Harvard/A.R.T); Macbeth, Restoration, The Cherry Orchard, Arms and the Man, All’s Well That Ends Well, All My Sons, Freedom House, The Humans Are in Trouble (NYU). TV/Film: “High Maintenance.” Training: MFA, NYU.

READ MORE: ROSALIND IS LARGEST FEMALE ROLE IN SHAKESPEARE

MEET CAROLYN HOLDING
Rosalind, As You Like It
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• Hometown: New York
• Training: Harvard (AB), NYU/Tisch Graduate Acting (MFA)
• What was the role that changed your life? In third grade, my class did a play based on The Tortoise and the Hare. Everyone was a turtle or a rabbit with papier mâché shells or ears, respectively, and dutifully recited their lines. Except me. I had the privilege of being cast as “The Turkey in the Straw” (which, as far as I know, has no place in the original narrative). Because of my outsider status, I had free reign – instead of ears, I made a grocery-bag butt complete with Kleenex and toilet-roll plumes. Instead of reciting, I rapped. And while everyone else crawled or scurried around the stage, I sat on a big, black box and meditated. It was then that I discovered the massive and absurd range of creative freedom theater affords. I was a total weirdo, and I was in love.
• Why are you an actor? As has been advised by countless mentors over the decades, if I could do anything else, I would do that instead. So far, nothing makes me half as happy as acting.
• What would you be doing for a career if you weren’t an actor? I honestly don’t know. Something with a steady income and regular hours.
• Ideal scene partners: Cate Blanchett, Julianne Moore and Fiona Shaw. Any one of the fearless lady beasts who offer nothing short of the truth and demand the same from their scene partners. Or Katherine Hepburn, but only because I want to be Katherine Hepburn.
• Why does this play matter? Any story worth its salt captures an element of human experience, and I think this one does. It’s a celebration of human folly – how ridiculously and deeply we love and stumble and recover, how far we are from perfection and how glorious that is. The writing’s also so-so.
• What do you hope the audience gets out of As You Like It? A renewed sense of joy and a kiss for the one they love.
• Finish this sentence: “All I want is … ”  Good books, good food, good wine, good work. 

Carolyn Holding, middle, with her family on opening night of ‘As You Like It.’ Photo by John Moore. 

As You Like It: Ticket information

Please be advised that the Denver Center for the Performing Arts – denvercenter.org – is the only authorized online ticket provider for ‘As You Like It.’

​‘Meet the Cast’ profiles (to date):
J. Paul Boehmer, the Dukes
Drew Horwitz, William and others
Maurice Jones, Orlando
Geoffrey Kent, Actor, Assistant Director and Fight Director
Emily Kron, Phoebe
Nick LaMedica, Sylvius
Matt Zambrano, Touchstone

Previous NewsCenter coverage of As You Like It:
Photos: Opening Night coverage
ShakesCheer video: The Bard meets the Broncos’ cheerleaders
Perspectives: 5 things we learned about As You Like It
Kent Thompson and the Four Loves of As You Like It
As You Like It opens: A woman’s woman in a man’s world
As You Like It begins rehearsals: ‘Literally, watch it bloom’
Costume corner: Letting it all go in the Arden Forest
Shakespeare’s largest female role might surprise you: It’s Rosalind
Casting announced for Theatre Company’s fall shows
DCPA Theatre Company giddily going down rabbit hole in 2015-16
Official show page