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Reminders
Move or sit anywhere you would like.
Reserved accessible seating is on your right as you enter.
Actors, crew, or ushers (yellow lanyard) may guide you to a new location as needed.
If you need assistance, please ask us!
Do not touch the actors or props.
Silence your phone.
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Director's Note
When I’ve told people that I’m directing ROMEO AND JULIET, one of the first things they ask
me is “What are you going to do with it?”. Meaning, “What’s going to be your concept?” or
“Where/When are you going to set the play?”. And my immediate response is, “It’s hard enough
to just do the play!” But the play has been adapted and interpreted in so many ways and is one of
the most performed plays world-wide, so I understand the question.
At its core, ROMEO AND JULIET is about the passion of young people falling madly into a
forbidden love that ends tragically. But the world being what it is today, I wanted to investigate
how divisiveness within the socio-political structures, including politics, religion, gender, race,
etc., can lead young people to violence against each other and themselves. Then I wanted to
explore how we, as the community, are implicit in this violence by the ways we choose to engage
with the divisions. So, for this production, the audience will have autonomy on how they want to
experience the story by being free to move about the space and view it from any perspective they
want to, including through social media.
But the most challenging part was actually learning how to perform Shakespeare, which is the
pinnacle of classical actor training. How do we embody the poetry while riding Shakespeare’s
emotional roller coaster with clarity and passion? A tall task for any veteran actor, what more for
students in a liberal arts college, some doing their first play. What they do have to their
advantage is lived experience. The students are close in age to the majority of the characters in
the play…the oldest character in our version is only in their 30’s. They know first-hand what it’s
like to be a teenager with all the angst and anxiety that comes with it. I’m very proud of the work
they have put in to embody the text with emotion and intent.
The production is a mash-up of contemporary elements with an Elizabethan period silhouette,
creating our own unique world. There are swords and daggers mixed with headphones and
cellphones. There is iambic pentameter and prose mixed with punk and emo music. There are
wide-leg pants and mesh shirts mixed with scabbards and boots. This is meant to make the world
accessible to contemporary audiences while still paying homage to the period it was written in.
The set is inspired by an Italian piazza with the signature tiles, arches, shutters, and a fountain.
The different platforms represent acting spaces inspired by pageant wagons and the stations of
the cross. There are structures that purposefully obscure the audience view to promote movement
around the space.
You are the final piece of this theatrical puzzle. Your individual experience of the production will
be unique (as will be the actors' experience with every performance) and will hopefully inspire
you to want to see it again to get a different perspective of the story. Thank you so much for
supporting the arts and the Macalester College Theater and Dance Department and I hope you enjoy
A ROMEO AND JULIET EXPERIENCE.
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