Aquila Theater Concert Report

On October 20th in the Young Auditorium, I attend the performance of Romeo and Juliet put on by the Aquila Theater. The cast consisted of 5 people, Kirsten Foster (Juliet), Peter Groom (Paris, Nurse, and Tybalt), Loren O’ Dair (Lady Capulet), Michael Rivers (Romeo), and Hemi Yeroham (Mercutio and Friar Lawrence). It was directed by Desiree Sanchez, but the original play writer was William Shakespeare. As an overall this was a production put on by the Aquila Theater for their “Shakespeare in American Communities” event across the United States. The plot was the classic story of Romeo and Juliet originally told by Shakespeare. The Capulets and Montagues, two noble families in Verona, continue their hated towards each other in a street fight.

All the cast members wore skin tight spandex clothing that was the color of flesh. When they were portraying different characters they would put on something simple like a vest to distinguish they were someone else. Other than that, the only other article of clothing was a huge white sheet type dress that both Lady Capulet and Juliet shared. It took up almost the whole stage and the other characters would gracefully hold it so they didn’t look connected. The set consisted of about 5 white beams that usually laid out in the form of a square with one opening. They would continue to use the beams to indicate that the characters were in separate rooms or when Juliet was lying in the tomb. I found this an unusual way to put on a play because it made the audience have to use their

Another element in this particular production, there was only two acts separated by an intermission. The dialogue of the play was still in its original form written by Shakespeare and by that I mean it used more poetic language and the dialect was how they would have talked back then. They were a couple times they used tone and volume to express their emotions. An example would be when Romeo find Juliet died he started screaming up to the sky. He projected his voice as if in real life, something horrible would be happening. Juliet also used monologues to express her thoughts in her room when nobody else was around yet, us as the audience needed to know what she was thinking. There was times when I really felt I was there through their dialogue and how intense their acting would be, but if I would take my eyes off the actors or actress briefly I was taken back with their being no background and completely lost my train of thought on what was going on. The use of visual elements such as a background or more noticeable costume changes would have made me as the audience been able to follow the plot a lot better. Especially with the type of language Shakespeare used, any helpful hints would have been nice. Finally the type of theater we were sitting in was a proscenium theater which was appropriate because no matter where the audience was sitting, we