In the fall of 2011, Allie Rightmeyer and Cody Dericks, two good friends of mine, approached me with a thought. She wanted to play Romeo to his Juliet. For me, it was too good an idea to pass up so I let them know that, should it come to fruition, I’d like to direct. In the moment, I’ll admit, I wasn’t sure how or when we would make it happen. But with my excitement over the concept, I spent that holiday season adapting the script. Since the production was originally intended as a vehicle solely for two actors, a decided to feature only the title characters. As it turned out, that left very little of the story behind. With no more than 20 minutes of text, I approached Allie and Cody with the script and we thought we could use an upcoming evening of experimental works as our forum. Our only guidelines were to keep the piece under a half hour, a feat I was sure we could achieve.  We were determined, however, to tell the whole story.

The three of us sat down and together we built a new concept; we would leave text as it stood, with only Romeo and Juliet featured, but we would tell the rest of the story through movement. After assembling our troupe the whole piece seemed to build itself. Through an exploratory rehearsal process, I watched the actors find gestures and tableaus that shaped our retelling of Shakespeare’s famous tale. The original incarnation of the show premiered to a very supportive group of our peers in the spring of 2012, and many of us were determined not to leave it behind.

The idea of the exercises utilized in our rehearsals was to give us a framework within which the actors could play. In this way, the show is always evolving. Each performance is allowed to live and breathe; each performer is allowed to make new choices in the moment. The loose structure has given us, as well as the project itself, room to grow. As an open collaboration, we have brought in a number of artists since the original performance who are lending their talents and enthusiasm to our vision. With their help and the ambitious networking of a number of our cast members, I am thrilled to say we are well on our way to applying for a space in the 2013 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

 

With gratitude and delight, I offer you a newly imagined take on Shakespeare’s classic love story, Romeo/Juliet.

-Stefanie Harris

(director and adaptation)