ROMEO AND JULIET

by William Shakespeare
directed by Ike Schambelan

March 5 - April 6, 2008
The Kirk at Theatre Row
410 West 42nd Street
(between 9th & 10th Avenues)
New York, NY 10036

Emily Young and Gregg Mozgala in Romeo and Juliet,
photo by Carol Rosegg

The timeless, tragic tale of two young lovers whose untimely deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. The production is traditional, rigidly faithful to Shakespeare’s rules and form, yet wonderfully fresh and modern. The story takes place on NYC’s Upper East Side; the Capulets are the nouveau riche, the Montagues, old money. Shakespeare is incredibly precise about real time in Romeo and Juliet, tracing five days – Sunday dawn to Friday dawn in mid-July. In TBTB’s production, the time progression will be perfectly clear, taking the audience through each day’s dawn, bright noon, sunset, and night. And the “two hours traffic of our stage” will actually take two hours.

Gregg Mozgala and Emily Young
in Romeo and Juliet, photo by Carol Rosegg

TBTB has achieved great success with Shakespearean plays presented during the past two seasons – A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Hamlet. The New York Times said that A Midsummer Night’s Dream was “an inspired choice for Theater By The Blind… fascinating… ingenious,” and “the most intriguing thing is how the company stages the play with just six actors.” The Times called Hamlet: “Playful, punchy, contemporary… An admirable, often intriguing production… with actors who show signs of having actually analyzed Shakespeare’s language… the audience can understand the meaning of every word.” Nytheatre.com said, “A well acted marvel of economy and energy… Fresh and accessible… As involving and engaging a production as I think it’s possible to have.”

Nicholas Viselli and George Ashiotis in Romeo and Juliet,
photo by Carol Rosegg

Emboldened by these successes, TBTB tackles Romeo and Juliet with four actors playing all of the roles, without cutting a single scene, character or entrance. As Shakespeare’s company made more money, the playwright wrote for larger casts, but Romeo and Juliet is an early play, created when he likely worked with a smaller company. It’s designed as a quartet; key doubles are Juliet/Mercutio, Romeo/Lady Capulet, Nurse/Friar and Capulet/Benvolio. The doubling brings out the sense of fun in the play, joining its sad and joyous elements into an exuberant life-affirming whole.

Cast
George Ashiotis, Gregg Mozgala, Nicholas Viselli, Emily Young

Director – Ike Schambelan
Set and Lighting Designer – Bert Scott
Costume Designer – Chloe Chapin
Sound Designer – Nicholas Viselli
Fight Director – J. David Brimmer
Stage Manager – Kimothy Cruse
Assistant Stage Manager – Nathan K. Claus

New York State Council on the Arts

The Kirk at Theatre Row
410 West 42nd Street (between 9th & 10th Avenues)
New York, NY 10036