Gregory Ruffer and Peter Stark at Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s opening night

Saheem Ali and Daniel Kelly at Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s opening night

Founding artistic director Steve Maler addresses the crowd at Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s opening night

Co-founder and trustee Joan Moynagh welcomes the crowd at Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s opening night

Commonwealth Shakespeare Company kicked off its run of free performances on the Common with a cocktail reception at the Parkman House, where people pregamed and hobnobbed in the drawing room of the mayor’s official residence.

Present and accounted for: the exquisite Priscilla Douglas, company co-founder Joan Moynagh, bright young things Ashley Wisneski and Will Heward, wild thing Sydney Marshall Turner, porcelain beauty Trevania Henderson and her handsome husband, John, smoking-hot director Saheem Ali, board member Dave Friedman (sporting his World Series ring), dashing theater impresario Tivon Marcus, Boston Ballet head honcha Max Hodges, the ubiquitous Ricardo Rodriguez with his adorable sidekick, Casey Cochran, A.R.T. exec Kati Mitchell and one person who said, “Both my husband and I travel a lot on business, but I go to places like St. Barth and he goes to Stamford, Connecticut.”

Once everyone was well-lubricated, they meandered across the street for the outstanding performance of Love’s Labour’s Lost.

The evening’s choicest remark, made by a woman whose daughter got married recently: “The second anyone—the florists, the venues, whatever—find out it’s for a wedding, they double the price. I call it the Wedding Industrial Complex.”