A woman plugged away on the piano while another played a clarinet. A man standing nearby would sing soon. Some people sat on benches against the wall, drinks in hand, watching the dancers clap and laugh and spin around, and change partners and do it all over again.
This was not a bar or a club of any sort. It was a play. It was not a typical theatrical performance of Shakespeare's romantic tale, but it was the story of Romeo and Juliet.
The members of the cast and crew just finished their third week of performing Romeo and Juliet in the Lyceum Theater. But the play was more than the typical routine of the lights going off, the stage coming to life with swordplay, love, and death, and then the applause.
The mood was set before audience members were even seated.An artist stood on a riser, painting a masterpiece before doors opened. Mr. Capulet, played by Shawn Alan Murphy, was walking around greeting guests with an Old English accent.
Stage manager Jorge Delgadillo, a theatre junior, explained that the theme of the show was that the story was taking place in the building as it was being restored. The supposed restoration of the building was seen also in the set, consisting of all scaffolding and no masking.
"The set didn't hide anything, and it all moves," Delgadillo said. The set allowed shorter scene changes and less pauses in the plot than those of other shows.
After being seated, some of the members of the audience were invited to the Capulets' ball by a woman dressed as a servant. And there actually was a ball that those people got to go to.
The ball took place in the appropriate scene within the play's plot, so those who were invited were escorted out of the theater and into the lobby, where they were served drinks and had the chance to watch a splendid evening unfold all around them.
It was "so the audience could be a part of the ball, something you don't get to see very often," Delgadillo said. Of course, those audience members who attended the ball missed out on the first meeting of Romeo and Juliet on the stage, but we all know the story.
During the entire show, the actors and actresses made big entrances and exits through side doors and even behind the audience. These actors used every bit of the building's architecture and the set as if these were normal things they climb on, from poles to steps, from doors to railings.
The reason this play stands out is due to the interpretation taken on by director Victoria Holloway. The artistic director, Linda Essig, wrote in the playbill, "the play is literally here - here in the academy ... here where the ballroom is the lobby."
Weather permitting, the audience was asked to leave the theater to watch the swordfight on the street, where it was actually on a street. Rather than building sets to create the concept of a place, Holloway sought to have the story make sense within the building, within the Lyceum Theater.
This version of Romeo and Juliet differs in more ways than the use of the building and street. "This is a very sexy version, done for a college audience," Delgadillo said. "[It's been] done in the way that it would have been performed in the Globe."
He continued to explain that when performing in the historic Globe theater, audience members would actually throw fruit at the actors if they weren't thoroughly entertained. So the pressure was much greater to keep the audience's interest.
When Romeo, played by David Ojala, slipped into the room of Juliet, played by Sarah Tully, for a romantic moment, the reason for the partial nudity warning was made evident. However, it was done so tastefully that the scene was nothing less than artistically sexy, and the passion portrayed was so real one could taste it.
The play nears the end with the death of Juliet, which made members of the audience jump. The gun sound effect's volume was true to life, and the eerie blood splatter that was seen just after the gun shot made sure that there was no lingering doubt that Juliet was dead.
"It's an awesome show," Delgadillo said. "Bill [Shakespeare] would be proud."
Laura Winger is a freelance writer for the Web Devil. Reach her at laura.winger@asu.edu.
