![]() "'Romeo and Juliet' is required reading for high schoolers in Alabama, so the intent of these performances is to enhance existing studies and make elevated art easy to comprehend," said the show's executive director, Emily Duncan. ![]() Along the same vein, this new production – adapted by New York theater professional Karl Hawkins and retired JSU English Professor Carmine DiBiase – is set in 1960s Anniston, Ala., in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement, and features an interracial Romeo and Juliet fighting to be together in the face of prejudice and suppression. The parents of today's high school and college students likely remember the 1996 blockbuster "Romeo + Juliet," featuring a young Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in a modernized retelling directed by Baz Luhrmann. The plot and setting of the classic play have also been reworked. This format not only allows the production to travel to multiple venues with ease, but is similar to how The Lord Chamberlain's Men originally staged the plays of William Shakespeare. The famous tale of star-crossed lovers has been abridged, with a run time of 60 to 90 minutes, and simplified to a "trunk tour," without stage lighting and with only a few actors playing multiple parts. ![]() Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" is coming to a stage near you, courtesy of The Shakespeare Project in JSU's College of Arts and Humanities. Artwork from the cover of the playbill, designed by McKenna Padgett. ![]()
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