Renaissance Rep Co. presents Rome and Juliet at Renaissance Center Oct. 3-4

Release Date: 9/15/2003. Expired: 10/4/2003

The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is perhaps William Shakespeare’s most recognizable play, as its theme of two “star-crossed” lovers has been repeated in countless movies, books, plays and television shows over the four centuries since it was written.

The story of love between members of two feuding families is the second most performed of Shakespeare’s plays and has been turned into everything from a Broadway musical (West Side Story) to modern-day gangsta movie (1996’s William Shakespeare’s Romeo+Juliet starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes).

The Renaissance Repertory Theatre Company presents The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet for two special performances Oct. 3 and 4 in a production adapted and directed by Hal Partlow that returns the emphasis to the language, as Shakespeare intended it.

Performances are 7 p.m. each night and tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and students and $7 for children under 13.

“It’s important to me to make this production faithful to Shakespeare but different from what you’d expect to see,” said Partlow, managing director of the Repertory Theatre Company at The Renaissance Center in Dickson. “Because we are making the language the focus of the play, it is important to be true to the text in finding the humor and the tragedy of the story.”

Partlow has adapted the play, which Shakespeare wrote in 1594 based on an Italian story titled Romeus and Juliet, to place less emphasis on the time period and more on the dialogue.

“It’s a cliché in theatre to say that Romeo and Juliet is timeless,” Partlow said. “In our production, the costumes and sets are void of any period references, thereby putting the focus on the language.”

Partlow said this made the production “more difficult” on scenic designer Robert Cooper and costumer Amy Arrington, but allows the Rep Co. to present the play “in a manner Shakespeare and his contemporaries would have done it, with plain, contemporary clothing and with one clothing item signifying each character.”

He stressed that the production remains visually stimulating through the staging, lighting from Technical Director Michael Knight and with the addition of professional fight choreography by Cliff Jenkins.

Another challenge faced in Partlow’s production is presenting the play’s 22 characters with only eight actors. The five members of the Rep Co., Arrington, Christina Byron, Ryan Hunt, Jeff Clarke and Matt Greenbaum, are joined by two interns, Katherine Jett and Kim Cantu, and Knight, who steps out of the lighting booth and onto the stage.

Jett, who plays Juliet in this production, recently played in the Nashville Shakespeare Festival’s production of Romeo and Juliet. Cantu has appeared in past community theatre productions at The Renaissance Center and directed Arsenic and Old Lace as well as the upcoming Renaissance Players production of The Mousetrap.

The Renaissance Repertory Theatre Company’s production of The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet will be presented in only two performances for the general public at 7 p.m. Oct. 3 and 4. It will be presented at 1 p.m. Oct. 13 as part of The Renaissance Center’s Senior Days in a special performance for patrons 55 and older with tickets $5 each.

The production is offered as one of The Renaissance Center’s live theatre field trip selections for grades 7-12 on Tuesdays through Dec. 9. For the spring semester, it will be replaced by Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.

For more information on the Rep Co.’s production of Romeo and Juliet, call (615)740-5600. To purchase tickets for a public performance or the special Senior Day show, call (615)740-5570. For more information on booking a field trip performance, call (615)740-5566.

The Renaissance Center is an arts and technology education and performing arts center at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 miles west of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172.

Visit the Theatre page for more about community and professional theatre.

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