preview

"ROMEO AND JULIET" IS A TIMELESS TALE OF STAR-CROSSED LOVERS

Robert McDowell, Triangle Theatre Review

Bare Theatre will present a modern-dress production of ROMEO AND JULIET, William Shakespeare's classic tragedy of star-crossed lovers, Feb. 15-18 at Common Ground Theatre in Durham, NC. Triangle actor/director Jesse R. Gephart will stage the show.

"Who hasn't at least heard of ROMEO AND JULIET?" asks Gephart. "My freshman year of college at Appalachian State [University in Boone], I attempted to direct a production of the show comprised of my friends; but it fell through. So, this has been a little dream of mine since I was 17 years old. The only production I've ever seen of the show, actually, is Burning Coal's, around seven years ago; but I read [the play] for the first time when I was a freshman in high school. It was in one of those huge anthologies you get in English class, and my friends and I would read it out loud at lunch. True story!"

What he likes best about ROMEO AND JULIET, Gephart says, is "the idea of this passionate, consuming, penetrating love that drives you through life and through death. A constant, unending love. I'm a huge fan of dramas and tragedies" he adds. "The idea of tragic love is so enthralling to me. The story speaks for itself. It is, honestly, one the perfect examples of Shakespeare's timeliness, when the works are around 400 years old themselves, and the themes touched on, are relevant today."

First performed in 1595-96, ROMEO AND JULIET is a timeless tragedy about a pair of lovers from two feuding families. When the curtain rises, Jesse Gephart says, "The Capulets -- comprised of Lord Capulet (Matt Schedler), Lady Capulet (Nancy Rich), and [their daughter Juliet (Tara Pozo) -- and the house of Montague -- comprised of Lord Montague (Dean Rayburn), Lady Montague (Missy Dapper), and their son Romeo (Khoa Pham) -- are bogged deep in a feud, battling over a reason we never come to know.

"At a party held by the Capulets," Gephart continues, "Lord Capulet allows Paris (Matt Fields) to attempt to woo his Juliet. Mercutio (Scott Nagel), a friend to the Prince (Jeff Buckner), has brought along Romeo and Benvolio (Rebecca Blum) and Balthazar (Chuck Keith); and so begins the story. Romeo and Juliet meet, fall into deep love and are married the next day by Friar Laurence (Tony Hefner), with the help of Juliet's Nurse (Kacey Reynolds)."

Gephart notes, "Following [the secret wedding], a street fight occurs, wherein Tybalt (Seth Blum), a Capulet, slays [Romeo's friend] Mercutio [and] Romeo kills Tybalt and is immediately exiled from Verona by the Prince. An attempt to reunite the two parted lovers ends with tragic consequences."

In addition to director Jesse Gephart, the show's creative team includes assistant director/properties mistress Carmen-maria Mandley, fight director Heather J. Hackford, technical director Dean Rayburn, set designers Rayburn and Gephart, lighting designer Andy Parks, costume designer Jeremy Clos, sound designers G. Todd Buker and Gephart, and stage manager Beth Rayburn. Mandley is Bare Theatre's artistic director, Hackford is the troupe's managing director, and Buker the company's development director.

Director Jesse Gephart says the show's set consists of "four black platforms; two 4' x 4' (about two feet tall) and two 4' x 8' (about 16 inches tall) [that are c]onstantly on the go, creating the most basic, skeletal idea of a location"; its lighting is "fairly general[, with a] special, maybe two, but keeping everything really basic"; and its costumes are "Urban; street; baggy pants, boots."

"Being a very young director, both in experience and age," says Gephart, "I suppose, my vocabulary isn't all that large, and I was very nervous about beginning, afraid that I would be incapable of creating the piece of physical, theatrical, tragical theater that I had been envisioning in my head for years. Luckily, I have an amazing cast [and] a brilliant production team; and together we are creating an elegantly simple, beautiful telling of this moving story."

He cautions potential audience members: "Once the lights go down, try your best to stay seated until the intermission, or the end of the piece. Heavy foot traffic from the cast, and crazy flying platforms, are a danger to audience members who place themselves in the middle of the choreographed action. Just try your best to sit back and enjoy the experience."

Bare Theatre presents ROMEO AND JULIET Thursday-Friday, Feb. 15-16, at 8 p.m.; Saturday, Feb. 17, at 2 and 8 p.m.; and Sunday, Feb. 18, at 2 p.m.; at Common Ground Theatre, 4815B Hillsborough Rd., Durham, North Carolina. $15 ($7 students, seniors, and active-duty military personnel). 919/771-3281, carmen@baretheatre.org, or http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/8589. BARE THEATRE: http://www.baretheatre.org/next.html. COMMON GROUND THEATRE: http://www.cgtheatre.com/. SHAKESPEARE RESOURCES (courtesy the University of Virginia): http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/shakespeare/. ROMEO AND JULIET (e-text courtesy UVa): http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/ShaRJF.html (1623 First Folio) and http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/MobRome.html (1866 Globe Edition).