For the past two weeks, student playwrights Aaron Zemach, Leah Barsanti and Selena Lane have cycled through rehearsals, re-writings and complete re-workings of their scripts, some of which were first drafted more than a year ago. All of this was done in preparation for this Friday and Saturday, when their work will be performed for the first time for the A. E.

“All the world’s a stage / And all the men and women merely players.” That famous, ubiquitous line is from William Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy “As You Like It,” the final show in the Performing Art Department’s (PAD) series of performances this year.

When most people think of a play, they also think of a theater with a stage. In its latest production, Thyrsus, Washington University’s oldest student theater group, does not accept this traditional view. This weekend, Thyrsus will put on an original play, “Somebody Important,” at the Eliot Hall Loading Dock on Snow Way.