A reimagination of William Shakespeare\u2019s tale has Juliet wanting to fall in love while fighting for her independence. She treads through deepening waters over romance and relationships, among and between families, but can she live with the consequential decisions she is making?<\/p>\n
Playwright Kimberly Patterson updates the classic tragedy of star-crossed lovers with \u201cRomeo and Juliet, Class of \u201897,\u201d presented as a staged reading at 7 p.m. June 11 at the Boscov Theater in GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, 201 Washington St., Reading. <\/p>\n
Set in what was a slightly more innocent age; before 9\/11 and Columbine, and in an era of youth having less reliance on cellphones and social media, playwright Kimberly Patterson, gives this classic tale, a more relevant and resonant treatment.<\/p>\n
Inspired by the playwright\u2019s rejection of the young couple\u2019s ill fate, Patterson sought to synthesize the Bard\u2019s traditional manuscript, the 1597 bad quarto, and Arthur Brooke\u2019s 1562 \u201cRomeus and Juliet\u201d, to create a protagonist with more dimension and agency to \u201cconvincingly be the catalyst of the action from the Capulets\u2019 party onward. Maybe finally Juliet could have a new ending, one that would empower young women instead of steeping them in tragedy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRomeo and Juliet, Class of \u201997\u201d is directed by Andrea Kennedy Hart. A talkback follows the performance, with audience members invited to share their feedback on the play.
Tickets are a suggested $10.00, or pay-what-you-will, and can be purchased at rtp.ludus.com.<\/p>\n
Patterson\u2019s work includes the plays Welcome to Leisureville, Faithless, and Arachnothology, as well as the musicals Oedipus for Kids! And Douchenozzle, a comedy about linguistic misogyny. She holds an MA from NYU\u2019s Gallatin School, an MFA in Playwriting from the Playwright\u2019s Lab at Hollins University and is a member of the Dramatists Guild.<\/p>\n
The Reading Theater Project is a locally-focused, professional theater company, based in Greater Reading\/Berks County, PA. We value collaboration and creative challenges and believe theater is an inclusive experience that can reveal our shared human condition. For more information, visit readingtheaterproject.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A reimagination of William Shakespeare\u2019s tale has Juliet wanting to fall in love while fighting for her independence.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":["post-212506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}