Scenes from Romeo & Juliet (Sort of...Almost)
A drama class is bringing a cutting of “Romeo and Juliet,” the famous play about star-crossed lovers, to competition. But the truck with their set pieces and props has broken down on the highway, Romeo’s throwing up backstage, and Juliet is adamantly not using a tall stepladder to replace the missing balcony. But the show must go on! This funny, fast-paced ensemble comedy mixes legitimate Shakespeare scenes with controlled chaos, theater inside jokes, and absolutely no respect for the fourth wall. About 30 minutes.
Productions
Behind The Scenes
With John Shanahan
What inspired you to write this play?
This time around, I decided to challenge myself. My wife runs the theater program at her middle school and each year takes part in the Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild competition. The gauntlet I threw down was, could I write a play that would work—and work well—in that framework? Normally I don’t think about length when writing. I just want the story to come out. Now I needed to be sure it didn’t run over 40 minutes, but preferably be over 30. I also got it in my head that I wanted something where the set was built during the play.
What’s your favorite part of the play? Why?
The part with the Cousin. On the surface, this might look like kind of a throwaway role, but first it gets laughs for its awkwardness, and then when Cousin comes back to nail a Shakespeare monologue, it gets a huge audience pop. It’s a great chance to prove the adage that “there are no small parts...”
Where did the characters come from? Are they based on people you know?
I said to my buddy Bill Shakespeare, “Do you have any characters you wouldn’t mind me messing with?” And he said he had these two kids whose lives don’t turn out so great, so I might as well have a go at that.
While there’s no one in the show based on someone from my life, there IS one line that’s a tribute (if you will) to my wife. She knew it the moment she read it, and so did her co-director!
What did you try to achieve with this play?
When I landed on the idea of messing with a Shakespeare play, I realized I had an opportunity to make this show work on two levels for the actors and the adjudicators watching it. The obvious one is that the group can do big, broad comedy, bring the chaos and the funny; the other is that they can also handle the Bard respectfully and in a way that shows they understand the text. I think the chemistry of that makes it compelling—and in our competition run, the judges agreed!
Do you have anything else you’d like to add?
This was the fastest I’ve ever written a play—idea to full script in less than two months. Part of that, of course, is that Will wrote most of the scenes and I just wrote the goofy stuff in between. I worked directly with my wife and her cast to smooth out bits that didn’t work, which was a first for me.
It was interesting to see the difference between how the show goes over with non-theater people (we did a couple preview shows) versus a room full of wonderful theater geeks. The inside jokes land beautifully with that smart crowd!
And for anyone who’s checked out the “Behind the Scenes” section of any of my other youth plays here at Eldridge, the answer is yes: I did give this one to Mrs. Shanahan as a Christmas gift!