"It's like an episode of 'Three's Company,' " joked Tony Pisculli, president of the board of trustees at Honolulu Theatre for Youth.

Only the plot comes from a real Shakespeare play called "Love's Labors Lost."

The courtly comedy, directed by Pisculli and opening tonight, is the first of three tales featured in the 2004 Hawaii Shakespeare Festival today through Aug. 1 at Windward Community College's Paliku Theatre.

The festival also features "King Lear" and "All's Well That Ends Well." Each of the plays — all about love lost and won — lasts roughly two hours and runs for two weeks.

While the thought of Shakespeare's works may evoke excruciating memories of required high school reading for many, Pisculli assures that watching the scribe's works in action is a totally different experience.

Watching the plays, unlike reading them, doesn't have to be a confusing ordeal, said Pisculli, who is also the festival producer.

"Of all of Shakespeare's plays, this is the one that's most like a sitcom," Pisculli said of "Love's Labors Lost." ... "There are a lot of ludicrous things that happen."

Cast member and Kaimuki resident Jennifer Vo, 28, agrees.

"It's fun, light-hearted and very playful," said Vo, a real estate appraiser who majored in theater in college. "And the women are not meek by any means, which is really refreshing for Shakespeare."

Speaking of women, the play is an all-female production.

"As an actor, I love working with all the women," said Vo, who plays Berowne, one of the king's three companions. "As women who play men, we get to harp on a lot of things that we accuse men of doing."

Timeless plot

Dann Seki is King Lear and Annie Lipscomb is daughter Cordelia in a tale of deceit, madness and grief. The play is about believing pretty lies rather than hard truths, said director Harry Wong III. Brad Goda

"My take on Lear is that he is an old man who has made some bad decisions and I guess he's coming to grips with it a little too late," said Seki, who lives in the Pearlridge area. "He's also probably ... been in office for so long that he's kind of lost touch with things."

The play is basically about "believing pretty lies, rather than hard truths," said director Harry Wong III.

The plot is timeless, said Seki, who at a recent rehearsal delivered his lines with explosive power.

Although the story was written hundreds of years ago, audience members will still be able to relate to the characters, Seki said.

"Things haven't really changed a whole lot," he said. "What people will see in it is people they'll recognize today — people who are self-centered, greedy and are out for things for themselves. And you'll also see the other side of that — honest people with integrity who stand up for what they believe in."

"King Lear" may be a tragedy, but the message is a positive one: "No matter how bad things get or when situations take a turn for the worse, ultimately it will turn out for the best," Seki said.

Helping the audience connect with the characters is just one of the goals of a theater director, said Wong, who is also artistic director at Kumu Kahua Theater.

"It's true that one of the obstacles you have to overcome when you talk about Shakespeare is a lot of people who were forced to read it when they were in school just hate it," Wong said.

"So one of the things that makes it enjoyable is all the different kinds of things that make any other theater enjoyable," which are the action, comedy and drama of a play, Wong said. "And we're not traditionalists, meaning that our actors don't stand in one place and deliver a monologue in half an hour."

Delivers same impact

Cast members rehearse "All's Well That Ends Well." Left to right, Christy Hauptman, Danel Verdugo, Sammie Choy and Alissa Joy Lee. Andrew Shimabuku • The Honolulu Advertiser

"This is a knight's tale, except that the roles are reversed," said director R. Kevin Doyle. "The lady is the one who's going off on quests to win the man."

Makakilo resident Danel Verdugo, 25, plays Helena, a physician's daughter in love with the noble Bertram.

"But she knows she can't marry him because of her class," said Verdugo, who graduated in May with a master's degree in western performance. "It's kind of like a fairy tale: Within it there's a magical quality and an unrequited love that's found in the end."

Verdugo praised Doyle for his fresh rendering of the play.

"He really has a great eye in making it accessible to a modern audience," she said.

Doyle, president of the board of directors at Kumu Kahua Theater and a founding member of the improvisational group Loose Screws, has his own way of looking at Shakespeare's works.

"I try to imagine what the impact of the play was intended to be (originally)," he said. Rather than transform it, Doyle tried to figure out how to make the play have the same kind of impact on today's audience, he said.

As part of Doyle's modern take on the tale, the stage will be flanked by two screens on which comic footnotes and images will be projected throughout the play.

"For example, when Helena is expressing her love for Bertram, the screens are going to have hearts, so a lot of times the screens are going to be reflecting what's happening emotionally," Doyle said.

Unlike Shakespeare's more complex works, like "Hamlet" or "Macbeth," viewers will likely open up to the smart, light-hearted tone of "All's Well That Ends Well," Verdugo said.

"I want them to walk away saying that they enjoyed it and that it was definitely fun," she said. "What I want is them thinking, 'Was that Shakespeare?' because they understood it so well."

Reach Zenaida Serrano at zserrano@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-8174.