Welcome to our unique 2021 Firebird Theatre mainstage production of Romeo & Juliet! We are thrilled to welcome you back to the theatre for this filmed event. This was a first for us on many levels – first Shakespeare, first site-specific performance, first movie?!
When faced with the challenges of planning a mainstage production mid-COVID, we wanted to choose a show and a concept that would allow us to adapt to the situation as it changed. Non-time specific Shakespeare productions are nothing new, but adding the dystopian element allowed us to film outside and on-location at Pennhurst State School, to either be masked or unmasked as constantly changing mandates allowed, and to keep cast and crew to a smaller number of participants. Turning this into a film was, of course, an incredible learning experience. New acting and directing approaches were needed. Changes in thinking, scheduling, and staffing were crucial. We learned a lot during this process and, now that we know where the technological pitfalls are, hope to hone our filmmaking skills further in the future.
The core conflict of Romeo & Juliet lends itself to Pennhurst’s architecture and aesthetics perfectly and we are deeply in debt to Pennhurst State School and their staff, particularly Julie and our new friend Nate the Great. Warring families in our Verona have, over many generations, destroyed their fair city, dividing its citizens, stymying the government, and destroying the future for their children, and Pennhurst’s amazing history and visual components captured this perfectly.
Romeo & Juliet isn’t just about over-emotional teenagers falling in love and acting rashly, as its often criticized as being. It’s a tale of a generation that has been failed by those before it. Romeo, Juliet, Tybalt, Mercutio, and their friends are all victims of their parents’ and grandparents’ selfishness, stubbornness, and self-righteousness. Shakespeare doesn’t even need to tell the audience why the Capulets and Montagues hate one another. It’s not important. What is important are the ramifications that such inane hatred reign down upon an entire culture.
The cast and I discussed many of the more subtle recurring themes in the piece, including generational trauma, searching for oneself/others/connection, grief/mourning/de-sensitivity to violence, and, our perennial favorite, found family. These themes have been incredibly prevalent in our world recently and are important issues that many in the cast and crew have been wrestling with this year regarding COVID and other events in our local and global communities.
Theatre at its best is about cultivating empathy and understanding for those who are different than us, so diving back into mainstage with a piece that is a bit darker, a bit scarier, and a bit more relatable than a shiny fantasy was particularly healing after the past year. In the end, Shakespeare tells us that all it takes to end decades of violence and learned hatred is one case of determined, deeply felt, innocent love. An over-simplification, surely, but one that carries an important lesson – we are more like our enemy than we are different, that connection and patience are crucial, and that together we can do impossible things. (Like make a movie).
-Courtney
