If you thought you were seeing double or even triple when you attended three different plays at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, not to worry.

You were seeing Ally Borgstrom in three different roles at PSF: Pearl, the title character in “The Little Mermaid,” through Aug. 6, Schubert Theatre, and Bianca, the younger sister in “The Taming of the Shrew.” and Edith the maid in “Blithe Spirit,” with the two latter plays in repertory through Aug. 7, Main Stage, Labuda Center for the Performing Arts, DeSales University, Center.

Borgstrom, a rising DeSales University senior, has been in as many as three performances of three different plays on the same day at PSF.

“Starting Friday, we do two ‘Little Mermaid’ performances, and the ‘Taming of the Shrew.’ And on Saturday, it’s ‘Little Mermaid,’ and ‘Blithe Spirit’ and ‘Taming of the Shrew,’ Borgstrom says during a July 28 interview.

It’s not the first time that Borgstrom, nor many actors, have been in multiple shows at the same time at PSF, whether Actors Equity Association professional actors or members of the Young Company, i.e., DeSales theater-major students.

“Last summer [2015], in the children’s show, and ‘Les Miz’ and then ‘Pericles,’ I was only doing two shows at the same time,” Borgstrom recalls.

For Young Company members, their participation in PSF doesn’t begin and end with the public stage performances. Says Borgstrom:

“Being part of the Young Company, we also do a Shakespeare Workshop. Dan Hodge [Tranio, ‘The Taming of the Shrew,’ PSF 2016] directed. We pull costumes and get together props. It’s presented for friends and family and other actors.”

For summer 2016, the workshop production was “Twelfth Night” in Schubert Theater. This presented an even more daunting schedule for Borgstrom:

“Our night performance this year we had Thursday evening for ‘Twelfth Night.’ At 10 a.m., I had ‘The Little Mermaid.’ Then I did tech rehearsal for ‘Blithe Spirit.’ And after ‘Twelfth Night,’ we had our preview of ‘Blithe Spirit.’

“When we were rehearsing ‘Twelfth Night,’ other days I was performing ‘Shrew,’ rehearsing ‘Blithe’ and performing ‘Mermaid.’ Lots of craziness. Lots of fun, too. You really get to exercise your actor muscles.”

Jacob Dresch [BA, DeSales, BA; MFA, University of California, Irvine; “Julius Caesar,” PSF 2016] presented a master class for the Young Company. Says Borgstrom:

“There are so many different ways to approach acting. And there’s going to be a unique way for each person.

“It’s such a wonderful opportunity for the students at DeSales. We get to act with these professionals, who are so nice and such great role models, too.

“During the school year, I’ve been in some of the Act 1 productions. And it’s usually a shorter run. In the summer, we have longer runs and shorter rehearsal periods. So, it really gets you ready for professional acting when we graduate from DeSales.”

Borgstrom’s Act 1 credits include “Little Women” (Jo), “Me and My Girl” (Jacqueline) and “Bus Stop” (Cherie). She doesn’t know what, if any, Act 1 shows she’ll be cast in for the 2016-17 season which includes “Charley’s Aunt,” “Showtune: Celebrating the Words and Music of Jerry Herman,” “The Homecoming: A Christmas Story,” “The Crucible” and “Young Frankenstein.”

She does know she’ll be involved in the annual Act 3 children’s show, which in spring 2017 is “Peter Pan,” for which she’s marketing manager. Borgstrom is a DeSales music theater track and marketing dual major.

“We get to pick our own show, as a senior class. Everything about the production is done by the students. Director, costume designer, lighting designer ... We all sat around and read children’s stories and voted on it.”

Credit the annual Freddy Awards at the State Theatre for the Arts, Easton, for Borgstrom’s choice of DeSales University. The Hackettstown, N.J., High School graduate was nominated for a Freddy as actress in a leading role and won for “Annie Get Your Gun.”

“My high school participated in the Freddy Awards. I got to be really familiar with the schools in the area.

“It’s really a wonderful program,” she says of the Freddys. “The whole reason I ended up at DeSales is through a scholarship through that program [the Freddys].

“I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do. I thought maybe I should pursue theater. I always loved it.”

Borgstrom auditioned for the DeSales theater program with a monologue and a song rendition.

“It’s a very intensive program,” she says of the DeSales theater program.

On the challenges of playing three different characters, Borgstrom says, “Bianca came more naturally to me. Edith was a little more difficult to discover who that character is. But I had a great director, Anne Lewis [DeSales theater faculty member, who directed ‘Blithe Spirit’], who worked with me during the year.

“Each one of these shows is a very different style. ‘Blithe Spirit’ is a high comedy. ‘Mermaid’ is a children’s show. And ‘Shrew’ is Shakespeare,” she laughs.

“It helps a lot when you have great actors and directors around you,” mentioning Matt Pfeiffer, who directed “The Taming of the Shrew,” and Taibi Magar, who directed “The Little Mermaid.”

“When you have these great people directing you it’s hard to fail. I owe it all to them.”

Borgstrom adds, “The audience is so vital. There’s times when we’re working on a show and all we need is the audience. It reassures you that you’re making the right choices.”

Borgstrom says the predominantly children’s audiences for “The Little Mermaid” are especially fun:

“The kids are screaming because they’re so excited. I love how unpredictable they are. They’re so passionate. There was a little girl, who said, ‘Do you want me to tell the prince you saved him.?’ For a lot of them, it’s real for them. They come up afterwards for autographs and ask, ‘Are you really married?’

“The first show I saw was a children’s show.” The show was “Winnie the Pooh.” “I remember meeting the characters. You might inspire them.”

It certainly inspired Borgstrom, as did the first Broadway show she saw, “Wicked,” starring Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth.

“I stood up on my chair and said, ‘I want them to do it again.’ And then there was act two. And I thought they were doing it again,” she laughs.

Borgstrom’s post-graduate plans include pursuing acting. She’ll do the DeSales “Senior Showcase” in New York City in front of agents, casting directors and managers. New York City and Los Angeles are “on my radar,” she says.

Of her acting experiences so far, she says, “PSF is awesome. Patrick Mulcahy [PSF Producing Artistic Director] really cares about the students and he really trusts us a lot. Bianca is a really big role. I’m not an Equity Actor yet.

“The actors take the bow. But the people who build the sets and do the daily call ... the guys who do the changeover [change the sets from ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ to ‘Blithe Spirit’ and vice versa] ... I really wish they could come out and take a bow. They’re all so vital.”