The Bard had wide-ranging tastes too

Lisa Wolpe, artistic director of the respected Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Company, is in her 12th season of staging plays by the Bard with all-female casts. Gender-bending isn’t a gimmick for the company. It has earned kudos for its gutsy, true-to-the-source productions. Wolpe, who has drawn critical praise for her portrayals of such iconic male roles as Romeo and Richard III, will play the melancholy Jacques in the company’s latest Shakespearean venture: “As You Like It” set in the 1880s Wild West. It opened Saturday at the Matrix Theatre in Hollywood. She gave Lynne Heffley this sampling of her cultural tastes.

TV PICKS: I love to watch my old movies in the morning on AMC and music videos. And if I feel stressed I watch “Clean Sweep” -- it relaxes me to watch everyone getting rid of their foolishness.

IN HEAVY ROTATION ON iPOD: Lately I’m loving the Blind Boys of Alabama, the Dixie Chicks, Alicia Keys. New artists Amanda Dumas, Dreya Weber, Jessie Payo. Also [financial guru] Robert Kiyosaki and [spiritual channeler] Esther Hicks.

SOUNDTRACK FOR COMMUTE: Mostly old-time fiddle music -- I’m directing an all-girl cowboy production of Shakespeare’s “As You Like It,” with original music performed by our saloon band and singers, so we’ve been writing songs and wrapping ourselves in a country sound.

IN THE NETFLIX QUEUE: “Tombstone,” “Unforgiven,” “The Triplets of Belleville.”

BED STAND LIBRARY: “The Gift,” poems by Hafiz, the great Sufi master; bodhichitta teachings in Pema Chodron’s “The Places That Scare You”; Peter Dawkins’ “Wisdom of Shakespeare” series highlighting Zoence, Christian mysteries and Hermetic wisdom; Gaston Bachelard’s poetical, philosophical essays on “The Imagination of Matter”; Malidoma Patrice Some’s transformational work bridging African indigenous culture and ritual with Western thought in “Of Water and the Spirit.”

TOP INTERNET DESTINATIONS: I just got an MFA from Goddard College in interdisciplinary art, and almost all my friends have created fabulous websites. In Newfoundland, Pam Hall, a working artist, a feminist, a political activist: www.pamhall.ca. In Portland, Christine Toth, painter, photographer, poet: www.christinetoth-artstudio.com.

YOUTUBE PICKS: “Orphans of AIDS, Children of Nyaka,” a documentary trailer that underscores the importance of keeping a global citizenry working together as one community with a deep sense of humanity and love.

CULTURAL ADDICTION: [Swiss video artist] Pipilotti Rist -- I love her installation work -- also [Canadian photographer] Jeff Wall; I love pizza and theater nights and the collection at MOMA in NYC; Michelangelo and Rodin’s sculptures; I love rehearsing in a big room with a wooden floor with good theater friends.

GUILTY PLEASURE: Layers of chocolate sauce and whipped cream on top of Cherry Garcia. Barbecued potato chips at a bonfire on the beach at night ... and steaming for hours in a Korean spa.

SECRET WEAPON FOR NAVIGATING THE CULTURE: Meditations with the Rev. Michael at Agape International Spiritual Center; hiking Temescal Canyon and catching the ocean view; singing with my dog, Fluffy Little Bear; and making time to kick it with my friends around NYC.