Romeo and Juliet
by William Shakespeare

Directed by Russell McGee
Performed at Third Street Park Stage, Septembe 2007

Photos
Photographs by Sara Johnson

Poster
Poster by Russell McGee

Production Notes

The concept of this production of Romeo and Juliet was to set the play in a modern setting so that the production may be more accessible to today's audience. This was accomplished by setting the play in Bloomington and focusing on the rivalry between the football teams at Bloomington North and South. The concept, in this way, is still being centered on the primary theme of rivalry within the world of the play. This concept was also chosen to try and market the play to a larger audience, as sporting events are generally better attended than events dealing with the arts so it seemed to make sense to try and meld the two together to try and gain more interest from an audience base that normally may not attend a theatrical event.

The script has been edited down to keep the show less than two hours in length. These edits were made so that we would not lose the light of day as the production is being staged in the 'round on the field of Third Street Park and not on the stage. However, the language in the production is still in its original Elizabethan format with only some slight alterations like substituting Bloomington for Verona and Ellettsville for Mantua, which does not change the meter as these changes are the same amount of syllables in length. Another point of interest with this production, in regard to the language, is that the original spellings and punctuations from Shakespeare's First Folio were incorporated back into the script as these notations were notes that Shakespeare had written into the text to help the actors convey the language and emotions within the limited time that they had to rehearse a production in Elizabethan times. Shakespeare is generally not approached from an acting perspective and most modern editions of Shakespeare's work have had the spelling and punctuations standardized not realizing that by doing this the acting notes that Shakespeare wrote into the text are being obliterated from his work. What this means to a modern audience is that more time was taken with the actors so that even if the audience doesn't understand every spoken word, the intent behind the words will be clear through the actions of the actors.

The staging of this production would not have been made possible without the support of the community as producing the show in the 'round meant that MCCT had to borrow cordless microphones and a bit thanks goes out to Catherine Rademacher, the Drama teacher at Bloomington South, for the use of the microphones in this production. The production also owes a big thanks to both Bloomington High Schools for allowing the use of their practice jerseys during the run of the show.

A primary focus of this production has been the community and we hope that they enjoy the fruits of their support.

Special Thanks To: