And after more than a year of rewriting scripts, holding auditions, and building sets, the Shakespeare-Off-The-Fringe Repertory Group has produced its 5th Annual Shakespeare in the Park production.

The romantic comedy "As You Like It" opened Thursday at Morrison Park in Moreno Valley, as the group continued its mission to share Shakespeare with the community.

"He wrote to the common man," said Jim Chambless, the Shakespeare-Off-The-Fringe board president. "Not just to the elitists and noble."

The Shakespeare group has been bringing its modernized versions of the bard's plays to Inland area residents as a means of sharing a love of Shakespeare.

For Chambless, 49, the romance with the words of Shakespeare has been going on for more than 20 years. He said he was intrigued by the characters, language and action of Shakespearean figures that he saw at a Renaissance Faire. Since then, he has immersed himself in the Elizabethan-Shakespearean period.

"I started reading more, talking to more people and doing more things that had to do with that era," Chambless said.

He joined a theater group to help develop his people skills and joined the Shakespeare troupe after auditioning for its first show, "The Women of Shakespeare."

Chambless, a management information systems coordinator, took on the role of Malvolio, a steward in Olivia's household from "Twelfth Night," during the 1995 production.

It was the first staged production for the group, which had previously only done group readings.

Chambless has been board secretary and a fund-raiser, asking local businesses and organizations for donations for the group.

In addition to acting, Chambless has helped test lighting and sound equipment, built and painted set pieces and even dug post holes to support scenery.

In "As You Like It," he is the co-director, as well being an actor and all-around handyman. He fell into the directing position after the original director backed out.

The board got Roberta Pipitone, the artistic director for the board, to step in as director, even though she was out of state finishing her masters degree. She said she had no problem with the cast starting rehearsals before she returned to Southern California because of Chambless' ability to take control.

"He gave me a secure feeling," said Pipitone, a theater teacher at Moreno Valley High School. "I know he's a perfectionist and he cares a lot for the production."

When an actor quit a few weeks before the play opened, it left a hole in the cast. Roberta Pipitone was ready to take on the vacated role, but the part could not be played by a woman, said Leonard Pipitone, Roberta Pipitone's husband and a volunteer with the group. Chambless, who had already prepared his own character, agreed to switch roles, taking on the part and giving his original role to Pipitone.

The play was presented through Saturday and will be back for another three-day run starting Thursday.

The next act for Chambless, who is a 20-year resident of Moreno Valley, is to help the board find a president to take over for the next season and to continue promoting Shakespeare to the community any way he can.

"I want the people to listen to Shakespeare," Chambless said. "If they do, they may find that the strife and follies they are going through today were the same things people went through back then. It might help them make light of their situation and give them a sense that they are not alone."

Published 8/15/1999