DIRECTORS NOTES
To be honest, Romeo & Juliet hadn’t really crossed my mind since freshman year English class. I had some PTSD remembering the painful attempts by my classmates at reading Shakespeare’s language, coupled with extreme apathy for the storyline, and being stuck reading Romeo because no one else would relieve me of that duty. When I revisited the play last spring, however, I was struck with how brilliant the play is – the language is full of gorgeous poetry, but it’s also undercut with potent dramatic stakes. It’s far too easy for us to reduce this play to “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo” and the other excised quotes that have become earworms in our collective consciousness; I feel like I have overlooked this play for too long. There’s a reason this was the most popular play Shakespeare wrote during his lifetime. When conceiving our production, I knew early on that I needed to find a way to make the restrictions of our current world part of the storytelling of the play, rather than detriments to the production. How could we incorporate masks, distancing, and other safety precautions into a play where people need to dance, fight, and kiss, a play that hinges on intimacy? I thought, set it during a time of pandemic. But setting it here and now, during COVID-19 felt just a little too close; we’re living through it, we don’t need to be reminded by a Romeo slathering himself in hand sanitizer, a Juliet donning a plastic face shield. And a modern-day R&J felt wrong; the drama of the near-miss of the ending would be foiled if he could have just sent her a text. So, the Black Plague of the Middle Ages immediately felt like the right place to put this play. Throughout rehearsals, I have been so impressed by this cast’s creativity, adaptability, and dedication. While nothing feels normal right now, there has been something so comforting about being back in a theater, making a play, telling a story. The play ends (spoiler alert) with a number of our main characters dead, and the rest of the characters left to question the events that have led them all to this place. For me, this play is about cycles: of hatred, of anger, of violence, and how they perpetuate themselves generation to generation. Consequently, it’s a play about how we end those cycles, how we create change, how we build a better future. It literally ends with an implication to the audience: “Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things.” And the song that we use to end the play echoes this sentiment: “When will we ever learn, when will we ever learn?” The world feels uncertain these days, the times we are living in unprecedented. All we can do is connect. All we can do is continue to reach out to each other, to hold out a hand (from a safe social distance) to the people around you. Romeo says it best: “Here’s much to do with hate, but more with love.” Yes, this is a play about hate, but even more so, it’s a play about love. I hope you feel the love that went into bringing this show to life.
Thank you for being here with us (virtually),
Grant Sorenson
