They call it Will's Coffee House.

You pay 10 bucks (15 if you want a table, with the extra five going to an AIDS charity). You order your drink and dessert from the high school actors/waiters. You smile as the costumed servers joke with you one-on-one, perform bad card tricks, sing snippets of songs. Then you witness a fast, irreverent adaptation of Shakespeare's "As You Like It" that takes place on a small playing area, in the aisles and at the tables.

You're to be forgiven if you think the evening, sponsored by the Las Vegas Academy of International Studies, Performing and Visual Arts, is going to be all about gimmicks. But the obscenely young and skilled actors waste no time in creating genuine performances. The atmosphere is tongue-in-cheek, but there's nothing about the talent that feels imitative or second-rate.

In this interpretation, the plot hardly matters. It's another case of misunderstandings, disguises and dalliances in the forest. Rosalind (Victoria Valenzua) dresses in boy's clothing to be near Orlando (Matt Takahashi), and half-a-dozen other couples are involved in various kinds of intrigue to get the one they love.

The script by Curt Tofteland and the direction by Glenn Edwards encourage a broad playing style. The feeling is more "Borat" than Bard. But what makes this more than an extended sketch is the ability of the actors to communicate thought.

When, for example, Drew Lynch, as the young shepherd Silvius, pines and whines for his seemingly unattainable Phebe (Samantha Schecter), we laugh at his clown makeup, his exaggerated mannerisms, his goofy vocal inflections. Yet, we really believe that the kid is hung up on this girl. We feel his pain. How Lynch at 14 can be capable of playing both broad comedy and the realistic sorrow of unrequited love is beyond my knowledge. But since so many of the performers demonstrate an ability to communicate character thoughts -- almost in spite of the in-your-face comedy -- there can be little doubt there's something very right going on in the Academy's training.

Most of the cast members also exhibit a veteran awareness of the power of stillness. They know how to command a stage.

Some may find the script monotonous and patronizing. You could argue it insults high school students by talking down to them. Or you may feel the low comedy is an effective tool in getting young people interested. But I can't imagine any debate about the quality of the acting. These students understand what the souls of these characters are all about.

Anthony Del Valle can be reached at DelValle@aol.com. You can write him c/o Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.