Romeo and Juliet

Every year we usually see one KY Shakespeare Festival Shakespeare in Central Park (free Will) play with our friend Sarah. This year we had to go on our own to see "Macbeth," when we all miscalculated about the weather. This past Sunday Sarah - just back from a mission trip to Taiwan - joined the two of us and her friend Dean and his daughter to see "Romeo and Juliet," which we'd seen as a family in Schiller Park and whose 1990s movie version Vincent and I love. Pictured above is Sarah with Dean to her right, trying to give his daughter directions for hwo to get there. Stephanie and Sarah (below) enjoyed the time before the play started.



The new artistic director (below) has the task of - among other things- generating some donations. He follows in the footsteps of a charismatic man who started a Shakespeare in prisons program.

The play began (below) with the famous fight scene. At times this play was very serious - esp. in the second half - or romantic (esp. in the later part of the first half) but at times it was pretty funny too. No goth outfits or pole-dancing poles this time, though there was some overlap in acting personnel with "Hamlet." (The modern-day version of this opening scene from the 1990s movie is what scared Vincent out of the movie the first time.)

Romeo (below left) first spied Juliet (below right) - from a rival, feuding family - at a mascarade bill. I have to confess - I missed Leonardo DiCaprio and Clare Danes as the two of them (in the 1990s movie - see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFVHliyGqBs&feature=related - as well as Natalie Wood in the early 1960s "West Side Story" )

The two spoke for the first time on the dance floor (below). The actress who played Juliet had played Lady MacDuff in "Hamlet," whose brutal murder the festival had depicted in that show.

Also from "Macbeth" was the actress who played Lady Macbeth and here Juliet's nurse (below) and who sometimes stole the show with her saucy mannerisms.

All four of them (below) watched intently.

Since it's mid-July - on the last night of the show and the professional season at the festival - it was darker earlier and quite dark - except for the lights - by the end of the show (which does not have a happy ending).

We stayed and all talked for a while - although Vincent was out with Evan until we got home late to phone call him home. Dean's daughter - between Vincent and Sarah's ages - was surprisingly interesting. Not sure what Sarah made of all of it. But we sure enjoyed seeing another one of these and with her/them!

-- Perry