A Cinematic Guide to Romeo and Juliet

Be it Charles Gounod’s opera, Serge Prokoviev’s ballet score or the Leonard Bernstein musical, nobody seems to be able to get enough of Shakespeare’s story of star-crossed lovers. An ImDb search on the title yields no fewer than 85 entries ranging from a 1916 version with Silent-Era ‘Vamp’ Theda Bara playing Juliet to the possibly despicable, at the very least notorious, “The Secret Sex Lives of Romeo and Juliet” made in (natch) 1969. Many an argument can be formed in compiling a list of highlights, so the following selection should be taken with a grain of salted popcorn.


To the modern viewer 1961’s West Side Story could seem dated, but in its day the on-location shooting in New York City and subtle altering of the story to reflect the state of race relations earned the movie kudos for gritty realism. Realism is of course, relative – Natalie Wood’s singing was really done by behind-the-scenes workhorse Marni Nixon and Richard Beymer’s singing was really done by Jimmy Bryant. No matter. The electric Jerome Robbins dance numbers were 100 percent legit. Seeing Russ Tamblyn, George Chakiris and Eliot Feld charging through the streets of The Big Apple almost makes one want to join the Jets or the Sharks, but wannabes might want to wait till the final reel before deciding to make their gangsta dreams come true.


A year before the salacious “Secret Sex Lives” hit the screen, Franco Zefferelli directed the then-unknown Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting in his Romeo and Juliet. The film gained notoriety for the director’s choice in actors who were close in age to the teens as Shakespeare wrote them and achieved immortality for its attention to detail, sumptuous costumes and timeless Nino Rota score. In addition to Hussey and Whiting, notables included Michael York as Tybalt and Milo O’Shea as Friar Laurence.


Anglophiles of a certain age will remember The BBC’s Shakespeare Plays series of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s with a quickening of the heart. Production values were disputably bargain basement, but the series boasted unforgettable performances from the likes of Derek Jacobi as Hamlet, a pre-Chariots of Fire Ian Charleson as Bertram in All’s Well that Ends Well and John Cleese as Petruchio in The Taming of the Shew. 1978’s Romeo and Juliet was the very first play filmed for the series. While Patrick Ryecart as Romeo and the then fourteen-year-old Rebecca Saire as Juliet would probably pass unnoticed by audiences of today, Alan Rickman’s somewhat snarly turn as Tybalt most certainly would not. Severus Snape indeed.


Leonardo DiCaprio was the tragic teen of the nineties. Prior to professing, “I’m King of the World!” with Kate Winslet at his side on the soon-to-be-decked Titanic, he was gazing at angelic Claire Danes through a fish tank in Romeo + Juliet. Baz Luhrmann opts to bring the tale into Los Angeles circa 1996 – a world replete with gangs, guns and drag queens all throbbing to the beat of an iPod-ready soundtrack. Thrilling visuals and clever re-imagining of characters and plot often threaten to submarine the text, but it’s still garnering boatloads of fans after more than a decade.

There you have it – an extremely subjective romp through the most well-known film adaptations of one of the most well-known plays of all time. That being said, let’s take a moment for the also-rans. While not exactly teens at the time, Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer made a respectable showing in the 1937 entry. The story is very effectively told using the language of dance in the 1966 Margot Fonteyn/Rudolph Nureyev pairing as well as Alessandra Ferri and Wayne Eagling in The Royal Ballet’s 1984 undertaking. All of these and more are yours for the viewing with the help of a library card or Netflix membership. But nothing quite compares to seeing it live. For that privilege, be sure to stop by Jersey City’s West Side Theater where Romeo and Juliet will be performed from November 5-21 by Actors Shakespeare Company at NJCU. Tickets are available through http://www.theatermania.com/.

Introducing JC Vasquez!

In Actors Shakespeare Company's ten-year history, Romeo has been played by Zach Calhoon, Colin Ryan and, in a recent ASC Lab, by Jonathan Hopkins. ASC’s Blogger sat down for a chat with JC Vasquez to get to know the company’s newest Montague a bit better.

ASC: What does the JC stand for?
JC: Juan Carlos. I’m Colombian by way of Miami. I was born in Miami. The reason I usually go by JC is because my name in Spanish typically sounds very beautiful but in English sometimes sounds ugly. Also in loud spaces people sometimes think my name is Warren or One, which I do think is funny because there was a Paul Rodriguez movie called ‘Juan in a Million’ (note: that 1994 film is actually called A Million to Juan, but it’s still funny JC!). It’s actually the second most common name next to Mohammed.

How did you get from Miami to New York?
I came to New York for graduate school. I got accepted into the Actors Studio at the New School for Drama. That was a three year program and I’ve been here ever since.

How did you end up finding ASC at NJCU?
That was through Playbill or Backstage. I auditioned and was invited back for a Company callback, but the callback never happened. Lo and behold I ended up seeing another audition notice for the Company, so I sent an email saying “I’d like my callback please!” And so I was invited to a callback and then I got invited to do [The Scottish Play]. And then I auditioned again and got Romeo.

Shakespeare is not where you’ve done most of your work previously. What sort of work had you done before this?
I’m contemporary. I was trained in a more contemporary style. In the past I’ve done a lot of downtown theater and experimental, avant-garde type of stuff. I’ve gotten to do many types of theater but I’ve never gotten to do Shakespeare before now.


This production has a more contemporary look and feel. Do the character and language feel contemporary to you?
Thinking of him as contemporary definitely gives me more license to ask “what would I do as a 16-year-old now?” It creates more freedom for me because I don’t have to feel constricted by the period or be unsure of what the social constructs were back then. If there were any, since it doesn’t feel as though these characters are very limited. Obviously you can’t change the language – the language is of the period. But what you can bring to it is your behavior and I think that’s what will make it seem more contemporary. I can tell you for example in the scene with Romeo and Mercutio’s vulgar wordplay [Act II, scene IV], I keep on having the image of playing around with guy friends where they’ll play the ‘smell-my-fingers’ game. You know what I mean? That sort of behavior is something contemporary audiences get and that’s what I like to watch, as somebody who doesn’t have so much Shakespeare experience. What I like to watch onstage is when the acting is clear in the physicality. I might not be listening for whatever reason, but if I see somebody play around with gestures suddenly I know what they’re talking about. We’re talking about sex? I’m back in!

How has the experience of working on one role in Romeo and Juliet differed from the many roles you played in The Scottish Play?
It’s not really that different. With Romeo, each scene he’s in shows me a different side of him. If I was looking at the beginning of the play and I fast-forward to the end of the play, these could be characters in different plays because they’re so different. It’s simpler [than The Scottish Play] because I don’t have to come up with a different physicality for each character, but I do have to discover how Romeo is different. And to make it even more nuanced, to find out how he is different from me.

What have you found? How is he different from you?
He speaks his mind. Romeo is somebody who, in a way, doesn’t have a censor. It’s either his sense of beauty or love, but everything is so much that he can’t contain it and his heart is going to explode. Or the flipside, when his despair is so great that his heart’s going to implode. But he can’t ever just say ‘nothing’ about it. That’s a big thing, because I don’t find myself ever having very much to say. And even if I do, I’m hard pressed to talk about it. I think that’s the main thing. What I have that’s similar to Romeo is that I am such a romantic. When I was younger, I had three big books that I used to write in all day. A few lines of poetry would come into my head about my day and I would have to write them down! I relate to his feelings of yearning for love or the beauty in life. His need for love, I guess is what it is. I can relate to that, but everybody can.

Are there any roles you’d like to play in the future?
I would love to play Valentine (Two Gentlemen of Verona) – that’s my audition monologue and I’ve never seen a production. And I would love to play Edgar in King Lear. I love him.

Do you have any thoughts on what you’re doing after Romeo and Juliet?
I don’t really know. I’ve really been focusing on this production. Actually, I kind of vowed not to do any more theater after this project and only do film, but I always make a vow like that at some point and I always come back. This last time I made this vow was in July of last year. I decided I was going to quit acting. But I only lasted six months before I ended up coming back. And I ended up getting this!

So I guess theater is your Rosaline…or maybe your Juliet?
It can be both! I like Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quote, “art is a jealous mistress”. I think that’s very true.

JC Vasquez will be playing Romeo in Actors Shakespeare Company at NJCU’s production of Romeo and Juliet from November 5–21, 2010 at the West Side Theater. Tickets are available through http://www.theatermania.com/.

Meet Our Sweets!

By Natalie Lebert

For the Shakespeare fan, Halloween, the season of sugar and spirits, inevitably evokes the character of Mercutio who rhapsodizes in Romeo and Juliet about the nightly comings and goings of Queen Mab, our favorite faeries’ midwife.

…She gallops night by night
O'er ladies' lips, who straight on kisses dream,
Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues,
Because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are…

Plaguing ladies with blisters because their breath is scented with the odor of candy? Ouch. Steady on Mercutio – many of us like candy. In fact, the ladies of ASC at NJCU would like to take this opportunity to speak on behalf of their favorite sweet…

Colette Rice, ASC at NJCU’s Artistic Director and Play Master for the upcoming productions of Logomaniacs and The Tempest, shared the following: It’s been said to me that you can take the girl out of California, but you can’t take the California out of the girl. This is certainly true as far as candy is concerned. My sweet tooth comes from my mother, as does my favorite candy. Every Christmas I visit family in northern CA, where Mother and I make an assortment of candies that friends and family drool over. Fudge, English toffee, divinity, peanut brittle… everyone has their favorites. But when the confections are complete, Mother and I package up our homemade delicacies and open her box of See’s chocolates – Nuts & Chews. She almost always has a box of See’s because everyone knows it is her favorite. Last Christmas she had four pounds in the freezer by January 2. Scotch Mallows are her chief weakness, though anything with caramel elicits moans of bliss from both of us. Personally, I have a penchant for the cashew brittle – a salty, sweet delight of crunchy caramel and cashews dipped in velvety white chocolate. See’s is only available in the Western U.S., so it’s a pleasure associated largely with home and family. Maybe that’s why it is such a sentimental favorite. Still, having eaten a lot of chocolate in my time, I can also say it’s some of the finest candy one can buy. Eating it with your mum? Well, that’s just an extra layer of sweetness.

Bethany Reeves, Voice Master for ASC at NJCU and soon to appear as Ariel in ASC at NJCU’s production of The Tempest, was almost unable to choose, but finally settled on “a luscious, rich, dark chocolate filled with creamy caramel. High class. Godiva at the least.”

Denise Hurd has choreographed many a thrilling swordfight during her years with ASC at NJCU. She helmed last season’s reading of Madness in Valencia and will be in charge of Shakespeare’s Queens, an ASC Lab coming your way in February, 2011. Denise’s favorites showcase her artistic bent: “Although I am very [fond of] walnut fudge, especially from Lilac chocolates, I really love Marzipan. I love the taste of almonds and the cool shapes you can twist it into.”

Jessica Myhr will be appearing in ASC’s upcoming Logomaniacs and gets her fix from… “The cupcake - What's not to love about an individual cake with frosting in a cozy little wrapper? The word alone conveys cuteness! My favorite is the red velvet cupcake...much like the yummy roles I play - it is colorful, in a deep red color, and has a rich cream cheese frosting (if done correctly) that is indulgence at its finest. Cake is after all a sweet for queens!”

Jessica Weiss has appeared in several ASC at NJCU main stage productions including last season’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and will be playing Miranda in this season’s production of The Tempest. Jessica broke with our resident chocolate fans, but like Colette, her sweets elicit memories. “Some of my favorites are apple and cherry jolly ranchers, because my grandfather used to carry them in his pockets – we called him the candy man. He passed away when I was eight, that's about all I remember about him.”

Susannah Baddiel, a longtime Company member and part time UK resident, played Titiania in last season’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Her preference in sweets carries a distinct across-the-pond bias –go figure. “Favorite candy: Fudge - the English variety, which is confectionary. US fudge is often a hot chocolatey sauce, or chocolate syrup? English fudge is very sweet. Cornish or Devonshire fudge (from the counties of Cornwall and Devon) is the best. Maybe because their milk is so good, which has something to do with the cows, which'll have something to do with the grass...”

Elizabeth Belonzi played Puck in ASC at NJCU’s recent production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and serves as the company’s Director of Education. Liz provided what might have been our most unorthodox sweet: Cheese! She explains “since my 30's I have all but lost my taste for sweets. I would much rather order an extra appetizer or, even better, glass of wine then a desert when I go out to dinner. Whenever I tell people that fact, [they think] my lack of sweet tooth is some super power. I think a love of cheese, specifically ‘night cheese’, has replaced sweets as my comfort food.”

There you have it. Sweets (and cheese) vindicated. If you’re sweet on Shakespeare, you can catch Actors Shakespeare Company at New Jersey City University’s production of Romeo and Juliet from November 5–21, 2010 at the West Side Theater. Tickets are available through http://www.theatermania.com/.

Natalie (Nate) Lebert has been an ASC member since 2004, happily crossing the gender divide with roles as Celia (As You Like It) and Banquo/Porter/Lady MacDuff (Macbeth). She has also played Feste (Twelfth Night) and Grumio (Taming of the Shrew) for The Queens Company (www.queenscompany.org).

I Enjoy Being a Guy

A few thoughts on the nature and craft of cross-gender acting

By Natalie Lebert

As an actress who finds herself for better or worse often playing men in theater, I am frequently questioned on the “how” of it. How do I manage to play male roles so convincingly? Do I do endless research? Do I spend my days and nights observing and obsessing over the physical characteristics of the male of the species? A hushed pause generally follows while the inquiring mind waits for me to spill my well-honed secrets.

Are you ready? Hang on to your hats. The answer is…no. To all of it. There is no endless research; there is no feverish examination of men (at least not for a job). As it happens, I am one of those women who are ‘blessed’ with a speaking voice that settles in the lower registers. I also tend to be overweight and my largeness apparently gives me a certain brute presence onstage that can read as male. Sorry to disappoint, dear reader, but that’s the extent of my mystery. But do not fear...years of masquerading as the not-so-fair-sex have taught me a thing or two. Allow me to share what I like to call:

A Drive-By Guide to Playing Men Onstage.

Shake What Yo’ Mama Gave You: This is to say, examine your day-to-day behavior for untapped maleness. Check out your physical bearing when you get really angry. Do you try to make yourself bigger and taller? Do you stand with your legs farther apart to give yourself a wider base of support? Guess what? You are being guy-ish! Listen to yourself when you are explaining a subject you know really well. See how your voice lowers? Ok, you don’t sound like James Earl Jones or anything, but truth to tell, most guys don’t either. Rather than beginning by observing men, begin by observing yourself for signs that Mars is far closer to Venus than previously thought.

Pick a Guy, Any Guy: Now that you’ve mined your own behavior for “the man inside”, let’s take a look at some men outside. Watch what body part they lead with when walking (take a guess). Watch how they walk and give it a descriptor. Would you call it purposeful? Striding? Describe it and see if you can embody it. How do their arms hang at their sides? How do they sit? Describe it. Wide? Loose? Describe and then embody it. A director I greatly respect, Rebecca Patterson of The Queens Company, says that gender is based in role playing. You are an actor and it’s a role, play it!

Take It To The Text: What we learn as actors is that what characters say indicates who they are. This holds as true for gender as any other trait. Examine what you have to say as a male and see if there is muscle in it. If you find it, relish it when you have to speak those words. Look for strong sounds, consonants and imagery. See if you find yourself thinking “a girl would never
say that!” You are probably right.

There you have it. My three steps to being a man onstage. Look inside, look outside, look at your words. Be willing to play and give yourself over to being the guy YOU can be. Nobody swaggers like you. Flaunt it!

Natalie (Nate) Lebert has been an ASC member since 2004, happily crossing the gender divide with roles as Celia (As You Like It) and Banquo/Porter/Lady MacDuff (Macbeth). She has also played Feste (Twelfth Night) and Grumio (Taming of the Shrew) for The Queens Company (www.queenscompany.org).

The Jewish King Lear

This Sunday, February 8, at 2:30PM Actors Shakespeare will present a rare reading of a neglected classic of the Yiddish theater: דער יידישער קעניג ליר (Der Yiddisher Kenig Lir) or, The Jewish King Lear by Jacob Gordin. The play, written in 1892, tells the story of a Jewish patriarch whose life and family fall apart, in much the same way as Shakespeare's King Lear.

A poster for the original 1898 production of The Jewish King Lear

The reading, the latest in ASC's The Play's the Thing series, will be at Congregation B'Nai Jacob in Jersey City, and represents an exciting new partnership between ASC and this community organization. The reading will be co-directed by B'nai Jacob Cantor Dr. Marsha Dubrow and ASC Artistic Director Colette Rice. Dr. Dubrow will give a short talk on the Yiddish Theater in America at 2:30PM, and the reading will begin at 3:00PM; a free reception with the cast will follow the reading.

The Cast for the reading:

Reb Dovidl Moysheles, A rich Jewish scholar – Gerald Kline*
Khane Leah, his wife – Cindy Boyle*
Etele, his eldest daughter – Elizabeth Belonzi
Avrom Harif, her husband – Colin Ryan*
Gitele, his second daughter – Liza Skinner*
Moyshe Hasid, her husband – Craig Colfelt
Taybele, his third daughter – Jessica Weiss
Trytel, his servant – Paul Sugarman
Herr Yaffe, a student at the Rabbinical Academy – Jonathan Hopkins

Stage Directions – Daniella Rabbani
Purim Players & Musicians – Marsha Dubrow, Craig Eichner
Aidan Koehler, Daniella Rabbani, David Rosenberg

* denotes member Actors Equity Association

The Three Musketeers

When The Actors Shakespeare Company formed about eight years ago, the founding members were excited to be taking the performance of Shakespeare to "new heights."  Of course this is what we imagined we were about, having gleaned from various sources and our own conjecture, a notion of Elizabethan theatrical performance.  This much was certain: public performances took place in daylight and the audience were free to eat and drink during the show.  It was apparent that strict observation of the "fourth wall" barrier between the audience and an imagined world on the stage had, though it brought a new degree of realism to the theater in the early 20th century, was not useful to us because it served to isolate actors and audience.  This isolation made any interaction between the lit stage and the dark house only incidental, representing a break in the world of the performance.  Further it weakens, in my opinion, such essential elements of Shakespeare's work as the soliloquy, forcing it into an overly broad spectrum of cerebral introspection, rather than an active argument with the audience, cast as something like the jury of a character's conscience.

We were eager to reexamine staging principles, delivery of text , voice and movement in the Renaissance model, which I am happy  to say has caught on.  All over the US and Europe the example set by the reconstructed Globe Theater in London is redefining performance techniques.  The RSC has even redesigned its main stage to reflect this new sensibility.   In regional theaters all over America actors are looking their audience in the eye and asking "Who calls me villain?"  The feedback ASC has received since we started has as few common themes, among them: humor (even tragedies have light moments) and accessibility.  Which brings me to Panto.

Shortly after drama school I was working as an actor in London when an actress with whom I shared an agent got a job in a Christmas Panto near my apartment.  Now, the term "panto" was rarely uttered by any of my British colleagues, I observed, with out a roll of the eyes or at least an ironic tone, much as many New York actors react to the idea of soap operas.  Well, I had seen my great-grandmother's favorite soap before I was old enough to object and knew such a popular genre was not popular for nothing.  I therefore took the opportunity to see Dick Whittington, my first panto, and broaden my horizons a bit.   What a treat!  The production was a flood of stimulation  - none of it accidental: Sarah the Cook (played by a man) threw candy to the kids, led a sing-along and shot sexual innuendoes and double entendres in every direction.  The audience had a shouting match with King Rat (during his soliloquy) and was encouraged to shout advice to Dick Whittington's (sexy) cat, played by my actress friend.  There were dresses, fights, jokes and romance in abundance and, having enjoyed a cup or two of wine during the performance, I left in a real "holiday" mood.  

A little research into the origin of the modern Christmas Panto suggested its roots were in commedia dell'arte and had traveled to Britain from Italy in the 16th century.  Another Renaissance form of entertainment, which worked wonderfully well today.

Panto is now considered family theater, but very different in my view from theater merely intended for consumption by young people.  It was after seeing a particularly thin "young people's" dramatization of The Three Musketeers that I decided to pick up the book.  My reading confirmed that the book didn't belong just in the juvenile section of the library, but as many great works of fiction, it had appeal across the generations.  I had seen a few film versions and it was clear from the variety of popular interpretations, that the novel was a rich vein from which many different elements could be mined.   There was of course action - lots of sword fighting, which I always loved - so it had appeal for boys.  There was sex - which everybody likes... pretty much.  Period dresses were, I had observed, very popular with girls.  Throw in a bare chest or two, some of Dumas' clever repartee and as well as some of the book's tasty romance and you've got a family show.   I therefore set about writing a new stage adaptation of the novel.

As I waded though French and English versions of the text, I began to see more than just a series of pleasant sensations for the reader.  Without attempting to adapt Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty, I will simply suggest that we all to the theater or the movies for stimulation - of all kinds.  This stimulation: emotional, intellectual or sensual can include revulsion, embarrassment and anger.   Thus the uncooked fish I got to be brought out by the fishmonger in the London scene.  We like pleasing images, noble actions and words and happy or funny outcomes of course, but we do like to be reviled a little as well I think.  The fish, though far from a graphic image of gore or depiction of extreme emotional cruelty was meant to add a touch of bitter to an otherwise rich dish.  On balance, I believe now my script could use a few more pinches of that kind of seasoning, especially if the Parisian baker and London apple seller had been able to distribute their wares to the audience as was intended.  No eating or drinking allowed in the theater seats, alas.  The actor who plays the fishmonger opted for a stuffed catfish toy rather than my frozen dorade in the end as well.  Put off by the smell, alas.  Alas.

Timur Kocak

And now, a word from our Playwright...

One of the best things about ASC's The Play's the Thing New Work series is working with a playwright who isn't dead. As much as we all love Shakespeare, we do often wish we could sit down and pick his brain on the motivations, detail and origins of his works.

So, we did just that with Sean Michael Welch, author of the latest new play in the series, Pompey :

My final performance at the University of Michigan-Flint was in the role of Pompey in Measure for Measure. Pompey is designated as the clown character in the work, but I took a different approach with him, portraying him as a more manipulative and seductive person. Now, in the final act, I had no speaking lines, but was on the stage as an observer. As I sat there, night after night, watching the action unfold, I found the whole end to be deeply unsatisfying. As an actor I understood the metaphor of God's justice, but as a character living in this world, my concern was with the reality before me.And that became the inspiration for the piece.

I has started writing Pompey in 2000, before I moved to New York. I turned out three pages, and then realized I didn't know what I was going for. The concepts were not solidified in my mind, so I left it alone. In 2005, having lived in New York for four years, and seeing more and more ridiculousness in politics, I found that I finally had an angle to work with and a solid concept to work from.

So, Pompey is my voice against the manipulations of powerful people and the use of wealth and influence to escape justice. Not God's justice, but a justice that was meant to incorporate everyone on a level playing field, which is what the American legal system promises to do. And who better to lead us through this exploration than a criminal?

The reading of Pompey is May 14th at 7:30PM at the West Side Theater, 285 West Side Avenue, Jersey City, NJ.

You can read more about ASC here, and more about Sean Michael Welch here.