Pages

Thursday, October 28, 2010

“ROMEO & JULIET”: WHEREFORE ART THOU? IN JERSEY CITY @ THE ACTORS’ SHAKESPEARE COMPANY!

Is your teenager reading Romeo and Juliet in English class this year? Why not take him/her to see a performance of the Shakespearean play in Jersey City at the Actors’ Shakespeare Company? You can’t beat an in-the-flesh performance for grabbing the teenage imagination and interest!

The Actors Shakespeare Company at New Jersey City University presents Romeo and Juliet as the first Shakespeare Main Stage production of its 2010-2011.


R&J '10 Press 012WHEN: Friday, November 5 through Sunday, November 21; 7:30 PM on Fridays and 3 PM on Saturdays and Sundays.
WHERE: New Jersey City University at the campus’ West Side Theater, 285 West Side Avenue near Culver Street (on the NJCU campus), just minutes from routes 440, 1-9 and the N.J. Turnpike extension I-78. There is ample parking in the school’s lots on West Side Avenue.
TICKETS: $30 general admission, $15 for students and seniors, and children under 15 pay their age. Official Opening Day is Sunday, November 7, when a reception with the actors will follow the performance. All tickets for November 7 are $30. For information, or to make reservations, call the box office at 201.200.2390 or visit www.ascnj.org.

This November marks the third Romeo and Juliet that ASC has offered in its 10-year existence, and its small cast of six actors is decidedly different from the first two. A few years ago, a lab project formed by a handful of ASC ensemble actors explored an R&J with a doubling and tripling of parts. It led to the current main stage showing. This production will also depart from ASC’s traditional costuming of its actors in authentic Elizabethan dress, featuring a blend of Renaissance and contemporary costumes, music and style.

R&J '10 Press 007 “The contrast of contemporary and classic will serve to illustrate the gap between the parents of the two warring families and their offspring and dramatize the conventions and control that a traditional, wealthy family of Verona in the Italian Renaissance would have placed on their children,” says ASC Play Master Craig Colfelt.

“This is a Romeo & Juliet for everyone: music, comedy, romance, drama and swordplay combine to make it the ideal Shakespeare production for the whole family,” says ASC Producing Artistic Director Colette Rice.

The production will be bolstered by the full engagement of ASC’s award-winning music and design team, recently honored at the New Jersey Theatre Alliance Applause Awards ceremony. Paul Hudson provides the Lighting Design, Eva Lachur Omeljaniuk creates the Costumes, Timur Kocak does the Set, Michael Hajek provides Props and Anthony Bez composes and performs the music in this ASC production.

Actors Shakespeare Company was formed as a company of actors exploring the authentic techniques used by the Elizabethan actors in Shakespeare’s company more than 400 years previously. ASC found a professional home at New Jersey City University in Jersey City 5 years ago and has produced main stage, fully costumed Shakespeare productions each and every year since, including Hamlet, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Henry V, King John, Merchant of Venice and Midsummer Night’s Dream.