The romance at the heart of Orlando Shakes’ production of “Romeo and Juliet” doesn’t come from the saga of the star-crossed lovers you see on stage.
No, it’s the real-life love of Jim Helsinger and Suzanne O’Donnell, who perform together for the first time ever on the Lowndes Shakespeare Center’s biggest stage in the production.
Both frequently appear in the Orlando Sentinel’s annual Best Theater honors lists, and both are winning accolades for their “Romeo and Juliet” performances.
Helsinger makes a complex, caring Friar Laurence, and O’Donnell brings beautiful warmth to the role of Juliet’s Nurse, along with the requisite humor. It’s only appropriate that “Romeo and Juliet” is the play that sees them take the stage together — for theirs is a love that bloomed from Shakespeare.
More than 30 years ago, O’Donnell and Helsinger came together for the first time when cast to play young lovers Rosalind and Orlando in “As You Like It,” an Orlando Shakespeare Theater production, when the company performed a limited season in the amphitheater at Lake Eola Park downtown.
Their next onstage collaboration, the following year, didn’t end so happily: Helsinger starred as the melancholy Danish prince in “Hamlet,” with O’Donnell again playing his love interest — the doomed Ophelia.
But offstage, the partnership was on a much more blissful path: Marriage and two children. Perhaps they thought “Orlando” too on the nose for a boy born here, so their son is named James. Their daughter, though, has a Shakespearean moniker. She’s named Rosalind — in honor of how her parents met.
In 1995, Helsinger became artistic director of what’s now called Orlando Shakes. Throughout her career, O’Donnell has worked at the theater multiple times — often with other directors, including a star turn in 2021’s “Every Brilliant Thing” for director Anne Hering. But occasionally the acclaimed actor pops up in a production helmed by her husband, such as 2007’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor.”
Jim Helsinger feels grateful for 30 years as Orlando Shakes artistic director
Sharing a stage, though, is something extra magical.
“Shakespeare has been a constant thread through my life — professionally, personally, and now in this very special moment,” O’Donnell says. “To return to the stage with Jim in ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ after so many years and so many shared experiences, feels both grounding and deeply meaningful.”
Helsinger sees the parallels between what makes a great play and what makes a great relationship: Love, hope, connection.
“Playing Friar Laurence while standing beside Suzanne in this production reminds me why this story endures,” he says. “It’s about love, hope and the belief that connection can change the world.”
No longer playing Shakespearean young lovers, O’Donnell is content with moving up a generation.
Jim Helsinger played Arnolphe opposite Suzanne O’Donnell as Agnes in a 1996 production of “School for Wives” for the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival (Courtesy Lee Butz/Orlando Sentinel file)
“The Nurse is a role full of love, humor and heart, and stepping into her shoes at this point in my life feels like a beautiful reflection of where we are now,” she says.
So here’s to a love story that doesn’t end in double death: Congratulations, Jim and Suzanne, and thank you for the decades of entertainment you’ve given Central Florida.
“Sharing the stage with Suzanne again is a profound full-circle moment for both of us,” Helsinger says. “Shakespeare brought us together more than 30 years ago, and it continues to shape our lives and our work.”
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‘Romeo and Juliet’
Length: 2:30, including intermission
Where: Margeson Theater at the Lowndes Shakespeare Center, 812 E. Rollins St. in Orlando
When: Through Feb. 8
Cost: $38 and up
Info: orlandoshakes.org