By Mia Shea
Correspondent
All College Theatre’s unique approach to the classic “Romeo & Juliet” Shakespearean story takes place in a hospital waiting room. The show was performed in the Don Evans Black Box Theater from Sept. 25 to Sept. 27.
ACT is the College’s student-run theatre organization for straight plays. They put on several plays and other performances throughout the year that feature students of all majors on stage and in production staff roles.
ACT’s Romeo & Juliet follows two star-crossed lovers as they fall in love in a hospital waiting room. Juliet was played by senior communication studies major Olivia Ayala and Romeo was played by junior psychology major and pre-law minor Andrew Parisi.
The play was produced by ACT’s publicist, junior art education major Katie Gallagher, and ACT’s vice president, junior elementary education major Angelina Grippaldi.
Grippaldi shared, “Producing this show was definitely challenging, but incredibly fulfilling to watch the cast and crew put on such a beautiful show.”
The show was narrated by the Old Nurse character, played by senior Psychology major, Rachel Patek. Some scenes were narrated at the same time by the Old Nurse and the Nurse, played by junior biology major Ana Generelli.
This creative choice was very well received by the audience. Junior elementary and special education and English major Megan Hurley shared, “Something that will stick with me was the use of two different characters to display the nurse.”
Director Scott Glading shared what he initially had envisioned for this show in the director’s note.
“A hospital waiting room. A wheel-chaired patient – an old woman – dressed all in white. Who is she? Who was she? Her story? No, more her tale. No, more a lesson she wanted – needed – to tell, one with a moral,” the note said. “The characters? Those one would find in a hospital waiting room, of course: medical personnel, staff, visitors, … they would become the Old Woman’s clay. They would act her story.”
The camaraderie between Tybalt, played by sophomore elementary and special education English major Lauren Manzie, and Benvolio, played by Matthew Sudnick, a senior English and secondary education major, highlighted the themes of love and hate that this story so clearly portrays.
Each of these characters was beautifully portrayed, leaving the audience in tears. In the final moments of the show, “Somewhere” from “West Side Story” played, another timeless take on the classic story.
Hurley also shared that “having the show take place in a hospital waiting room, that is a really emotionally vulnerable and tense setting, which added to the meaning of the show.”
The play ends with both Romeo and Juliet committing suicide on a hospital gurney together. The gurnee was the perfect way to end such a unique interpretation of the classic show while still continuing to remain authentic with the timeless story’s ending.
All College Theatre’s season continues this fall with Frankenstein and an interactive dinner theatre production.
