Sometimes the test of creativity in theatre is not what goes according to plan \u2013 but what happens when plans go awry.<\/p>\n
The ever-ambitious Southridge Senior School Theatre Company \u2013 which years ago outgrew the school\u2019s multi-purpose assembly space in the school\u2019s Grand Hall \u2013 was planning to rent White Rock Players Club\u2019s Oceana PARC Playhouse again for its spring production of Romeo and Juliet.<\/p>\n
The theatre had worked well for the company\u2019s first foray into devised theatre, The Yellow Suitcase, last March. It seemed like it would be a good fit for the new production, a free adaptation of Shakespeare\u2019s play by drama teacher Sara MacGregor (utilizing Canadian actor Rodger Barton\u2019s edited version from his Shakespeare Outloud Series), and set in a generic Canadian high school in 1994.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then we found out the Oceana PARC Playhouse wasn\u2019t available for when we wanted \u2013 so we had to pivot,\u201d MacGregor said, interviewed a day before the Feb. 26 \u2018soft\u2019 opening of the play (which concluded its short run on Sunday, March 1).<\/p>\n
The conventional thought would have been to try to find some way to fit the production into Southridge School.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wouldn\u2019t have worked,\u201d MacGregor said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere just would have been no room for us there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead her thoughts turned to the spacious grounds and retro ambience of Alexandra Neighbourhood House (or Alex House, as it is more commonly known) in Crescent Beach \u2013 where her daughter used to attend daycare \u2013 as a potential venue.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought, let\u2019s do something immersive,\u201d said MacGregor \u2013 referring to a school of theatre that utilizes an existing location, setting scenes in appropriate areas, and moving audiences from place to place following the action of the play.<\/p>\n
MacGregor and fellow drama teacher Jen Sneller (also co-director and design lead) had often discussed trying an immersive production, Sneller relating to Peace Arch News that she had been fascinated by Sleep No More, an immersive theatre experience she saw at New York\u2019s McKittrick Hotel.<\/p>\n
Fortunately Alex House staff were open to the idea of providing a venue and willing to make it work \u2013 the first time, as far as anyone can recall, that anything like this has been attempted there.<\/p>\n
And thus the former Camp Alexandra was home to a magical theatrical experience last week, helped by a large and impressively conscientious production crew, starting from the instant greeters ushered playgoers into the world of the Capulets and Montagues with a friendly \u201cwelcome to 1994.\u201d<\/p>\n
From there, audience members (maximum capacity 65, according to Grade 12 student Akshay Mohan, acting the role of Juliet\u2019s suitor, Paris, while also capably serving as assistant director and mentor of a junior stage management team) were directed to the dining hall, transformed for the play into a high school cafeteria decorated for Halloween.<\/p>\n
Forget the fourth wall. Attendees \u2013 on the night I saw it, they were largely school students and staff \u2013 were allowed to choose their level of interaction with the play, those willing to be part of the action equipped with glow-sticks, masks or costume pieces to match the Halloween theme. <\/p>\n
In the \u201ccafeteria,\u201d the logic of MacGregor\u2019s adaptation came into focus.<\/p>\n
As McGregor had noted, she was inspired by a number of things that happened in 1994 \u2013 including the overdose death of Kurt Cobain, a rise in youth violence and the clash of subcultures in fashion and music (grunge vs. house), and the pressure-cooker atmosphere of high school society in general, to bring a new and vivid volatility to the classic tale of star-crossed lovers.<\/p>\n
The banal familiarity of the cafeteria, the AIDS information posters and school public address system announcements, lulled the audience into feelings of nostalgia that soon gave way to the emergence of palpable tensions between two rival \u201cfamily\u201d factions and inevitably a fight involving knives and lunch trays.<\/p>\n
It all seemed disturbingly realistic and relatable for both students and older cast and audience members who recalled the \u201890s ambience well, while another level of realism was reached when real-life Southridge Senior principal Laura Holland intervened (in an impressive dramatic turn) as the principal of Verona High.<\/p>\n
Holland was one of several Southridge staff encouraged by MacGregor into adult roles in the play, including Sneller, clearly relishing her role as Juliet\u2019s mother, the villainous, domineering Lady Capulet, and Suzy Baranszky-Job as Lady Montague, confused by her lovesick son Romeo\u2019s evident withdrawal from his peers after a failed romance \u2013 another instantly relatable situation.<\/p>\n
MacGregor said she was adamant about wanting to cast adults in several parts to underline the youth and lack of life-experience of the main characters.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s cool that we can have adults playing adults \u2013 it wouldn\u2019t work nearly as well with teenagers playing the adult roles, which is what usually happens in school productions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Introduced to Romeo (Izzy Rayan) and his cousin Benvolio (Jillian Hodson), the audience was efficiently moved on to the next setting (great scene-bridging work in narration and crowd control throughout the play by \u2018student council reps\u2019 Serena Parsons and Darla Liu) as Romeo was encouraged to crash the masked ball at the Capulet mansion (staged in Alexandra Hall) by his friends \u2013 particularly the wry and fanciful Malvolio (Finley Gray).<\/p>\n
Then it was into the disco-lit mansion itself, dominated by Grade 12 art student Derek Yuan\u2019s huge and arresting portrait of Juliet (Aleksandra Dolecki) and her mother, Lady Capulet (in MacGregor\u2019s version, both Romeo and Juliet\u2019s parents were divorced single mothers and clan matriarchs), while a large screen showed Much Music videos and the sound system blasted songs like The Sign by Ace of Base.<\/p>\n
After audience members got into dancing the Macarena with actors portraying Capulet partygoers, the show segued back into the narrative smoothly as Lady Capulet bade all to enjoy themselves, while unsubtly engineering proximity of Juliet and Paris, a socially advantageous potential mate for somewhere down the line.<\/p>\n
They also viewed, in close proximity, Romeo\u2019s first sight of Juliet \u2013 and the instant attraction between them on the dance floor.<\/p>\n
Following the action outside they saw the famous balcony scene \u2013 played for once from a real balcony, on the second floor of Alexandra House\u2019s administrative building \u2013 essentially eavesdropping as the tragic romance developed in real time.<\/p>\n
As the plot turned deadly serious leading to Romeo\u2019s banishment to Mantua \u2013 represented in the play by a collection of colourfully graffitied oil barrels and wooden pallets around Alex House\u2019s fire-pit, with flickering flames presenting a focal point against the deepening darkness of the evening \u2013 the audience continued to follow each tragic twist of the plot with a heightened immediacy.<\/p>\n
It was around the fire pit, too, that Romeo reprised Nirvana\u2019s Something In The Way to his own guitar accompaniment, following up the lovers\u2019 romantic theme first heard on Juliet\u2019s era-accurate cassette player \u2013 part of the important role that both live and recorded music played in MacGregor\u2019s concept.<\/p>\n
All of the Southridge players (including Rachel Yang\u2019s as Juliet\u2019s best friend, Natalie, a more modern version of Juliet\u2019s \u2018Nurse\u2019 in the original) clearly acquitted themselves well as actors, dealing with changing locations and challenges of projecting in different environments like seasoned veterans.<\/p>\n
But this Romeo and Juliet was fortunate indeed to have Rayan and Dolecki as the leads. Their considerable acting talents also had the benefit of their own youthful freshness and sincerity, bringing a singularly affecting quality to the often-played roles.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a preconcenception of Romeo that he is someone who\u2019s shallow to an extent,\u201d Rayan told Peace Arch News in a pre-show interview. \u201cThat\u2019s a lot to do with him going straight from mourning his love for Rosalind to declaring his love for Juliet.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Rayan suggested it is also a part of Shakespeare\u2019s depiction of Romeo\u2019s youth and lack of life experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cRomeo has depths that people often fail to see in him. I also shared the same preconceptions, but, through playing the character, it\u2019s given me a new perspective on him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having the show set in a \u201990s high school ambience brought new dimension to Romeo and Juliet, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really plays into the childlike naivete of their love for each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJuliet wasn\u2019t ever a role I pictured myself in,\u201d said Dolecki.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve often been cast in shows at Southridge as characters who are a little more powerful \u2013 Miss Prism in The Importance of Being Earnest and Regina George in Mean Girls. Compared with them, Juliet is more soft-spoken, but I\u2019ve learned through playing her that she is powerful, too, but in a delicate way. It\u2019s been fun going past what society has accepted Juliet is.\u201d<\/p>\n
As lead costume designer for the show, Dolecki agreed that theatre costuming is a function of character, not simply a matter of finding clothes that fit or are in the right era. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think I fully connected with Juliet until I found the right dress for her \u2013 you have to be as comfortable and confident in what you\u2019re wearing as in what the character says and does.\u201d <\/p>\n
While the cast of Romeo and Juliet was quite small compared with some other Southridge productions, many of the actors also had similar off-stage responsibilities, and a large crew of students and teachers all played an important part in ensuring that people and props were in the right place and that everyone could be seen and heard.<\/p>\n
But MacGregor gave special credit to teacher Alex Self as technical director.<\/p>\n
Self, whose has an extensive background is in technical work for theatre in London, England, was of \u201cimmeasurable support\u201d in making the prodction work, MacGregor said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn London, I tended to play a very small part in productions,\u201d Self said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I can say that working with these students is the most rewarding thing I\u2019ve ever done.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sometimes the test of creativity in theatre is not what goes according to plan \u2013 but what happens…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517623,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":{"0":"post-517622","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-surrey","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-surrey"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}