Romeo and Juliet - Dallas Theater Center

Trimming the Family Tree
When a director has a small cast to play a large number of characters, he has to make a choice: will he have his actors play multiple
characters, or will he eliminate some characters altogether? In DTC’s production of Romeo and Juliet, director Joel Ferrell decided
to eliminate characters. A lot of characters. With only ten actors playing only ten roles, let’s take a look at who made it into the
show and who didn’t make the cut.
HOUSE OF MONTAGUE
HOUSE OF CAPULET
HOUSE OF ESCALUS
Prince Escalus
MONTAGUE
(SAM HENDERSON)
CAPULET
(CHRIS HURY)
Lady Montague
Lady Capulet
Petruchio Capulet
ROMEO
(JAKE HOROWITZ)
BENVOLIO
(CLINTON GREENSPAN)
JULIET
(KERRY WARREN)
servants:
TYBALT
(ROBERT GEORGE)
Abraham
Balthasar
servants:
From Joel Ferrell, the director behind DTC’s 2014 blockbuster
hit The Rocky Horror Show, Romeo and Juliet bursts
breathlessly to life as the Bard’s immortal tale of impetuous
young lovers and the senseless hatred that poisons their hope
asks the question: can any generation escape the sins of the
fathers? This sleek, sexy new production immerses you in the
emotional chaos of two innocent teens fighting desperately to
choose their own destiny.
OTHER CITIZENS
OF VERONA
PARIS
(JUSTIN LEMIEUX)
FRIAR LAWRENCE
(CHRISTIE VELA)
MERCUTIO
(DREW FOSTER)
Friar John
Apothecary
Officer
Constable
Watchmen
servants:
Paris' Page
Mercutio's Page
William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
is regarded as his greatest love story;
in the same breath, it is also one of his
greatest tragedies. The play’s young
protagonists, Romeo Montague and
Juliet Capulet, discover love for each
other amidst their family’s long standing
feud—a feud that plagues the streets of
Verona, Italy. Juliet’s family wishes for
her to marry a young suitor named Paris.
Despite her family’s efforts, she meets
Romeo, who at first glance of Juliet, cures
himself of the longing for the fair Rosaline.
JULIET'S NURSE
(LIZ MIKEL)
Peter
Sampson
Romeo and Juliet By the Numb#rs
Songs sung in the play: 4
Instruments played throughout the play:
3 live and 3 pre-recorded
Times Romeo and Juliet kiss: 12
Fight scenes: 8
Weapons used: 5
Dresses Juliet tries on before her party: 3
Scenes: 23
People who die: 5 (that's half the cast!)
Times the word "love" is said: 185
Pictures taken by the nurse: 2 per show,
82 over the course of the run
Flowers used on stage: 2 per show,
82 over the course of the run
Times people dance: 3
Dallas Theater Center's
production is part of
Shakespeare in
American Communities,
a program of the
National Endowment for
the Arts in partnership
with Arts Midwest.
Throughout the play, Romeo and Juliet
remain at odds with their family as they
find ways to be together and ultimately
marry. In the end—due to the arrogant
sins of their fathers—the two star-crossed
lovers take the situation into their own
hands and their world crashes to a halt in
unforeseen tragedy.
Shakespeare's
JAKE HOROWITZ
and KERRY WARREN
Photos: Sergio Garcia
directed by
Joel Ferrell
JAN 27 - FEB 28
kalita humphreys theater
PIER 1 IMPORTS NEIMAN MARCUS Ernst & Young LLP ExxonMobil National Corporate
Theatre Fund t. howard + associates Theodore & Beulah Beasley Foundation
Dallas Theater Center
2015
the StudyGuide 2016
Season
IS VERSE REALLY THAT WORSE?
William Shakespeare
Looking at Shakespearean Verse
and Scansion
The other part of the iamb is the stress pattern—unstressed, stressed. We can
illustrate that by putting the stressed syllables in all caps:
But SOFT // what LIGHT // through YON // der WIN // dow BREAKS?
At first glance, Shakespearean text can look a little intimidating. How is an actor Read this out loud to yourself, and really emphasize the stressed syllables. Often,
supposed to know what to do with all of his strange words and peculiar rhythms? iambic pentameter is compared to the rhythm of a heartbeat:
Where can you even start making sense of all this?
bah B♥M bah B♥M bah B♥M bah B♥M bah B♥M.
First, we need to look no further than the shape of the words on the page. Is it one
big block of text, similar to a paragraph in a book that you might pick up today? See? No wonder Shakespeare uses it for all of his love poetry!
If so, you’re probably looking at prose. Prose is usually spoken by lower class
or less educated characters in Shakespearean plays, or in situations that are not So that’s what iambic means—each foot is two syllables, the first of which is
unstressed, and the second of which is stressed. But what does pentameter
particularly exciting.
mean? Meter refers to the number of feet in each line of poetry. And as we talked
Verse, on the other hand, will look more like poetry—because, well, it is. The about before, the prefix penta means five, so pentameter means that each line
lines are separated according to specific rules of rhythm, and sometimes also of poetry will have five feet!
rules of rhyme—though Shakespeare’s verse definitely does not always rhyme,
An actor will scan his or her script once they receive it. Scansion refers to
as you can see in Romeo’s speech pictured below.
notating a piece of verse like this:
The man behind the plays
William Shakespeare’s name and works are known throughout history and
the world. Revered as one of the greatest writers of all time, we certainly
are aware of his late and great works of literature. However, how much do
we know about the man–the myth–who is William Shakespeare? Many
scholars believe that Shakespeare did not author his original plays and
sonnets. Perhaps we will never really know the truth about Shakespeare’s
true authorship. What we do know is that Shakespeare was one of the
greatest playwrights to ever put pen to paper. Here are a few more facts
that you may or may not have known about the bard (poet).
• No one knows the actual birthday of Shakespeare!
• We do not really know what Shakespeare looked like!
Not one portrait was painted of Shakespeare whilst he was still alive!
• The majority of his plays were published seven years after his death!
• Shakespeare introduced about 3,000 words into the English language.
• One of literature’s greatest figures, he never attended university.
• Two of Shakespeare’s colleagues collected his plays in a text known
as the First Folio after his death.
• His first published play is thought to be 1594’s Henry VI, Part Two.
• More than 80 spelling variations are recorded for Shakespeare’s
name, from “Shappere” to “Shaxberd."
• His shortest play is The Comedy of Errors at 1,770 lines; Hamlet, with
4,042 lines, is his longest.
• Shakespeare’s works contain first-ever recordings of English words,
including critical, frugal, excellent, barefaced, assassination, and
countless.
• The following commonly used phrases are thought to be originally
coined by William Shakespeare:
WAIT, WAS THAT AN
INSULT?
Shakespeare will forever be known as an amazing wordsmith.
The most entertaining part of Shakespeare’s plays, other than
his approach to storytelling, is his creative approach to insult.
Check out some of his best insults below.
“Thou art like a toad; ugly and venemous.”
“Thou art a flesh-monger, a fool and a coward.”
“Thou art a boil, a plague sore, an embossed
carbuncle in my corrupted blood.”
Using the words below, mix and match the words below
to construct your own Shakespearean insult to use on
your closest friends… and loathsome enemies.
beslubbering
fly-bitten
boar-pig
spongy
clay-brained
foot-licker
puny
beetle-headed
hugger-mugger
rank
onion-eyed
pignut
ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD
Fancy-free
Heart of gold
Star-crossed lovers Too much of a good thing
Wear my heart upon my sleeve
The slashes separate the feet, while the dots mark unstressed syllables and
dashes mark stressed syllables. Many actors will come up with their own
symbols, but this is one of the most common styles of scansion.
Go back to the excerpt from the balcony scene
and see if you can scan the rest of it!
Can you tell the difference? Which is prose and which is verse?
Let’s take a look at some of the most famous verse in Romeo and Juliet and Look at how DTC Brierley Resident Acting Company member Christie Vela
perhaps some of the most famous verse in Shakespeare’s entire canon: the marked her script to prepare for her role as Friar Lawrence. You can see where
she marked her operative words, as well as where she translated some of text
balcony scene.
into modern English!
But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the East, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief
That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she.
(Romeo and Juliet, Act 2 Scene 1)
This verse is written in Shakespeare’s most frequently-used and well-known
style—iambic pentameter. But what does that mean? Let’s break it down:
Iambic is describing the foot. No, not a physical foot that wears socks and shoes.
When we talk about verse, a foot is a group of two or three syllables that are
stressed (emphasized) in a very particular way. An iamb, is a foot that is only two
syllables. The first syllable in an iamb is unstressed, and the second is stressed.
So if we just split up the line into its feet, it will look like this:
But soft, // what light // through yon // der win // dow breaks?
weedy
swag-bellied
flap-dragon
Romeo, Romeo...
Oh Juliet, Juliet...
Romeo and Juliet is a story of two young
people who fight for the right to love against
all odds. We asked the stars of Romeo and
Juliet what they relate to and admire most
about their character in the play.
JAKE HOROWITZ (ROMEO MONTAGUE) I can relate to Romeo’s impulsiveness and his desire to love Juliet completely
and immediately! I admire that when Romeo finds out Juliet has died he does not even consider living without her;
He simply makes his mind up to be with her even if that costs him his own life. How much more could you love
someone?
KERRY WARREN (JULIET CAPULET) Juliet is both young and very mature, as [most] girls
are. I admire her flexibility in tough situations and her incredible wit. She’s very crafty in her
language as you can see clearly in the scene with Paris in the Friar’s cell. "Paris: Thy face is
mine, and thou hast slandered it. Juliet: it may be so, for it is not mine own." Of course here she means it’s
Romeo’s.
I relate to how she solves problems by thinking aloud and weighing the pros and cons of her situation.
As well as how unabashed her love is to Romeo. She describes it "as boundless as the sea" and I think
we all hope to find a love like that.