Sara Levine
Reporter
Oct. 21-23, the Drama Department will start off its new season with The Seussification of Romeo and Juliet and The Rules of Comedy. Both are one-act, 40-minute comedies that turn the traditional story of Romeo and Juliet upside down.
The Drama Department has been performing serious and dramatic plays for the past three years. This year, they plan to incorporate comedy. “It was time to lighten up the acts,” Theatre Director Deirdre Alexander said.
In The Seussification of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare’s original plot remains the same, but the lines and characters have been “Seussified.” “Dr. Seuss has really influenced the characters because everything rhymes, the costumes are bright and colorful, and the language is Seussy,”senior Ryan Timberlake, who plays Romeo, said.
However, modeling a Dr. Seuss-like book does not make production easier. “Doing a comedy show is much more difficult because it is easy to make people cry and difficult to make people laugh,” Ms. Alexander said.
The second act of the production, The Rules of Comedy, also spoofs traditional Shakespeare. “The play is about all of the different rules of comedy and how they can be applied to a Shakespearean play, like Hamlet,” junior Olivia Canning said. “The audience may know the story already, but we make something totally new out of it.”
The shows will be performed in a full-round, meaning that instead of an audience sitting only in front of a stage, they will be seated on all four sides so actors will perform from all angles. “This show is going to be different,” Ryan said. “Because since we’re in a full-round, we’ll be interacting with the audience.”
Students involved in the shows have been enjoying work. “Production has been so much fun,” senior Brooke Turpin, Juliet in The Seussification of Romeo and Juliet, said. “I cry all the time from laughing so much!”
The Seussification of Romeo and Juliet will be going to the Connecticut Drama Association (CDA) Theater competition in March.
