The Northwestern College theatre department will present a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare on the Orange City Windmill Park stage.

“Love’s Labour’s Lost” will begin at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3, and Friday and Saturday, Oct. 9 and 10. All three performances are free. The public is encouraged to bring lawn chairs and blankets for seating. The Town Square Coffeehouse will sell walking tacos, coffee, hot apple cider and hot chocolate each evening.

The Bard’s comedy follows the King of Navarre and his three companions as they swear off women for three years to devote themselves to the study of theology, morality and ethics. Their vows are put to the test with the arrival of a princess from France and her three ladies.

“What audiences see in the park will be much closer to what performances were like at the Globe Theatre in Elizabethan times,” Dr. Robert Hubbard,the play’s director and a professor of theatre at NWC says, referring to the outdoor playhouse where many of Shakespeare’s plays took place.

Hubbard, however, chose the outdoor setting mainly for safety reasons due to the challenges of staging a show during a pandemic. The student actors will wear masks and be miked for sound. “We’ve designed the masks as part of the costumes,” he says. “The costumes are Renaissance-inspired, but there are modern components in the costuming to make them look like contemporary college students.”