MTA TO PRODUCE EXPLORATION OF "ROMEO AND JULIET"
Muhlenberg Theatre Association and Our Shoes Are Red, a professional theatre laboratory in residence at Muhlenberg College, will present "Juliet and Her Romeo," a new exploration of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," beginning February 15. Performances are February 15-16 at 8 p.m.Monday, February 4, 2002 10:43 AM
Muhlenberg Theatre Association and Our Shoes Are Red, a professional theatre laboratory in residence at Muhlenberg College, will present "Juliet and Her Romeo," a new exploration of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," beginning February 15. Performances are February 15-16 at 8 p.m.; February 16-17 at 2 p.m. and February 21, 22, 23 at 8 p.m.; February 24 at 2 p.m. in the Studio Theatre. The theatre box office is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Trexler Pavilion for Theatre & Dance on the Muhlenberg College campus. Tickets are $12 general admission. There is strong language, violence and brief nudity in the performance. For more information, call the box office at 484-664-3333 or e-mail [email protected].
Conceived by director Devon Allen, "Juliet and Her Romeo: The Sixth Quarto" integrates music and experimental techniques as well as liberal shifts in text to interpret one of the world's most famous love stories. At Muhlenberg, Our Shoes Are Red has revisited Shakespeare in "Ophelia's Tattoo" with playwright Erik Ehn, created a music-theatre piece of the Franz Kafka stories in "The Kafka Project," and invented a solo performance piece drawn from the experience of Hiroshima in "Cave Theory" with actor Keiko Yamamoto.
Director Devon Allen explains of this project, "In the same way that Shakespeare explored "Romeo and Juliet" with five quartos in his lifetime, we are exploring the play with a sixth quarto. We decided to work on this play because it forces us to look at a society caught in a brutal cycle of hatred and revenge, and this play allows us to witness the power of true and profound love to change the course of events." The classic scenes and speeches are being edited, arranged, and interpreted to explore the ideas and behaviors that continue "to taint our innate capacity to love," even in the 21st century.
In Shakespeare's world view, the tragic events of Romeo's and Juliet's lives have much to do with their fate in being born into feuding families, and the twist of circumstance that leads to death has most to do with their innocence and optimism. In this contemporary remaking of the story, Romeo and Juliet consciously choose to love each other in spite of the vengeful patriarchy that rules their lives. Romeo is offered an enlightened view of life in his love for Juliet, and he makes a profound choice to choose love and loyalty to her in spite of the rejection of his family and friends.
This highly original work has been produced by the Department of Theatre & Dance at Muhlenberg College with the support of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.
