If you’ve read anything we’ve written about the show to date, you already know that we’re emphasizing gender roles in our upcoming production of ROMEO AND JULIET at this year’s Capital Fringe Festival. Below is the list of actors and their roles, including the ways that we’ve used creative double-, triple-, and even quadruple-casting.
Nathan James Bennett: Nurse & Tybalt
Raven Bonniwell: Juliet
Chris Dinolfo: Lady Capulet, Peter, Apothecary, & Gregory
Chris Genebach: Capulet, Friar John & Sampson
Sean Hudock: Romeo
Kiernan McGowan: Benvolio & Paris
Paul Reisman: Friar Lawrence, Montague, & Abraham
William Vaughan: Mercutio & Prince
Juliet is the only female character being played by a woman. We’re attempting to emphasize the male-dominated world by which Juliet is surrounded by having all of the other women characters, namely the Nurse and Lady Capulet, also played by men. That is to say, these other women have already become a part of the society dictated by the wills of men in the world of the play.
It is not our intention to make a parody of the women characters, which is the really the opposite of the point we’re trying to make. We definitely won’t be giving them fake boobs (as much as they might want them). We will, however, be attempting to show how Juliet and her Romeo begin to break out of the boundaries set by this masculine, patriarchal society as they break traditional Capulet and Montague rules. But of course, that forward motion comes to a screeching halt at the end of the play for obvious reasons. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, definitely go read the play.
We Happy Few DC 