Class reunion

Fred Weller takes a TV break to join his college pal in Shakespeare on the Common

Fred Weller (above) is appearing on the Boston Common in free performances of "As You Like It," directed by Steven Maler. (Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff)

Broadway and television actor Fred Weller is anxiously waiting to hear if his USA Network crime drama, "In Plain Sight," will get picked up for a second season.

But instead of cooling his heels at home in New York with his wife, actress Ali Marsh, and 8-month-old daughter Azalea, the couple decided to join his old college buddy Steven Maler for a little romance in Boston.

Weller and Marsh are both appearing in Maler's production of "As You Like It," starting today through Aug. 3 at the Parkman Bandstand on Boston Common. From Aug. 8 to 10 it plays in Springfield in Forest Park.

The two-city run marks a return to a fuller schedule of free summer Shakespeare. And it provides a long-delayed chance for Weller to work with Maler, the founding artistic director of Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, which first made Shakespeare on the Common a summer tradition. (Now called Free Shakespeare, it is sponsored by the Citi Performing Arts Center.)

"He's been trying to get me to come up for a number of years now," said the New Orleans native, wearing a green plaid shirt and tan slacks cut off at the knees, as he took a break from rehearsal to talk.

While he tried to fit Maler's productions of "Julius Caesar" (1999) and "Henry V" (2002) into his schedule, it didn't work out. That means "As You Like It" is the actor's first professional Shakespeare performance and first time on a Boston stage.

Sentimental over his old pal, Weller said Maler directed him in his very first college production, "The Zoo Story," at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This was back "before Bill Clinton was president," he said, smiling while cautiously avoiding the trap of dating himself.

(Note: Do Not Ask Him His Age. "If you ask, I'm gonna hem and haw," he warned.)

"He's got good taste, which is the most important thing in a director," Weller said of his friend. "He also has a variety of ideas so he continues to experiment and he communicates those ideas very well."

This makes a difference when taking on a complex character like Orlando in "As You Like It," Weller pointed out, because there are so many ways to portray him.

In the play, the lovesick Orlando falls helplessly for Rosalind (Marin Ireland) at first sight. Complications arise when Rosalind, an eternal optimist on a quest for true love, disguises herself as a boy and tries to coach Orlando in the ways of romance. Weller's wife plays Celia, Rosalind's closest friend.

"It's interesting since I am playing a character who is in love with another woman and my wife's on stage the whole time," Weller said with a cool laugh. "It's kind of strange. But it's wonderful since I get to see her work, and I think she's fantastic."

At moments in the play, Orlando is attracted to the person he thinks is a boy. "Because he is heterosexual he should be freaked out by the attraction," Weller explained. "But the extent to which he is able to commit to this game of pretending that this boy is his mistress, it is very open to interpretation and it's going to be different every time you see it. That's what makes the material difficult, because the right choice and the best choice is not straightforward."

Which means there has been a lot of time spent rehearsing certain scenes over and over again, with a different style and rhythm.

It's different than TV, where Weller has worked in between stage appearances. After roles in the ABC police drama "Missing Persons" and a lead part in "The Beach Boys" miniseries, Weller recently landed a gig as Marshall Mann, a US marshal, in "In Plain Sight." Introduced this summer, the series has done well in the ratings for a cable drama.

Weller's stage roles include Neil LaBute's "The Shape of Things," the Tony Award-winning Broadway revival of David Mamet's "Glengarry Glen Ross," and, most notably, playing the racist and homophobic pitcher Shane Mungitt in Richard Greenberg's 2003 Tony Award-winningbaseball drama "Take Me Out."

It's the actor's favorite role to date; he gave 400 performances, from Broadway to London, and loved every single one, he said.

"When I first read for it, the character was described as this hulking man. And my heart just sank because I thought it was just the greatest character I ever read and I am too ectomorphic to play it," the lanky actor said. "And then [the playwright] had me do a second reading and he took that description out and my heart just leapt."

Though he prefers the stage, Weller is also enjoying the steady paycheck that comes from working on a television series.

"I like money," he quipped.

Maler is happy for his friend's success.

"What Fred has been able to accomplish is extraordinary because he's never not worked," Maler said. "And he is always distinguishing himself. He has the ability to play such a wide range of characters."

He is also a perfect Orlando, Maler said.

"Orlando is often a role that pales in comparison to Rosalind," the director said. "He brings such magnetism and energy and intensity to the role it is so clear why she is in love with him."