Photos by Ralph Freso / Slideshow
"O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo?"
He'll be at Grand Canyon University's Ethington Theatre, where love is in the air as the theatre department opens its doors for the spring semester's first production, “Romeo and Juliet,” debuting at 7:30 tonight.
With Valentine’s Day around the corner, it is the perfect time to stage one of William Shakespeare's most retold romantic tragedies.
“There is a reason this play has been around for 431 years,” director Michael Kary said. “The language is gorgeous, the feelings are real, and the students are finding out for themselves it’s not this higher-than-me thing.
“It is important that our students have these good words in their mouths. I really believe in what it is saying. It's really kind of unique in that it deals with what they (the students) are dealing with right now."
The tale follows star-crossed lovers who fall for each other at first sight during a masquerade ball. But their families, the Montagues and Capulets, are in a multigenerational feud that ultimately leads to tragedy for the young couple.
“People keep coming back to this story because it is pretty timeless,” said sophomore Gavin Pierce, who plays Romeo. “A group of teenage guys crash a party, one of them sees a girl, he hangs back while his buddies go off, and they are immature, but they just want to do the right thing in the situation.
“Teenagers relate a lot more because they have conflicts they never really asked to be in but are still having that emotional pull to it. That conflict is why it’s so well retold.”
A major part of the preparation process for the cast was studying the intricate language style, dissecting its meaning and structure. Before hitting the stage to rehearse scenes, the cast dedicated long hours to analyzing the script and understanding the human emotions Shakespeare wanted to communicate.
“With Shakespeare, if you don’t know what you are saying, nobody else is going to,” said senior Sophie Ford, who plays Juliet. “My biggest hope is that when people come and see this, especially those who have never seen Shakespeare, leave it being like, ‘I understood what was happening, and I connected to the story.’”
Simplistic stage scenery with castle gates and Elizabethan costumes, including capes, knee-high leather boots and long puffy dresses, paint the picture of how a universal conflict, still experienced today, looked in Shakespeare's time.
“Everything has meaning in Shakespeare’s writing,” said junior Natalie Earley, who plays Juliet's nurse. “The characters are very human. I think sometimes we forget that. We relate to the characters, regardless of the time period.
“The thing that Romeo and Juliet have is based on desire, and they have a world that opposes that. That is very timeless.”
GCU staff writer Izabela Fogarasi can be reached at [email protected]
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IF YOU GO:
What: "Romeo and Juliet"
Where: Ethington Theatre
When: 7:30 p.m. today and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, with more shows coming up at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 30-31 and 2 p.m. Feb. 1
Tickets: Click here
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