18.Mar.2010 Notes from the director of Becky’s New Car
LIBERATION by James Still, Director What if Cinderella goes to the ball and stays past midnight? I have liked, admired, and followed Steven Dietz’s work as a playwright for 20 years, so it’s especially sweet to find myself directing Becky’s New Car. As a student of other writers, there’s nothing like directing a play to [...]
21.Jan.2010 The Designers
Notes from the designers of IRT’s 2010 production of Romeo and Juliet Gordon R. Strain Scenic Designer Romeo and Juliet was one of the first Shakespeare plays I read. We read it in high school English and then watched the Zeffirelli film. Several years later, I remember viewing and enjoying the Baz Luhrmann film. I have since re-read [...]
Crossing the Line
by Janet Allen, Artistic Director Romeo and Juliet is easily the best known of Shakespeare’s plays. Popularized by innumerable film adaptations, the story of the star-crossed lovers is known world-wide, and is equally accessible to both children who are seeing their first Shakespeare play and adults who have seen this particular play many times. In [...]
Loss
by Tim Ocel Director of IRT’s 2010 production of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet William Shakespeare makes us watch a horrible event: two teenagers commit suicide. The world in which they live will not allow them to seek happiness with each other. The double suicide is not a romantic act, nor a poetic one; they [...]
20.Jan.2010 Shakespeare’s Theatre
In Shakespeare’s day, playgoing was enormously popular for all classes of people, and new theatres were springing up across London. None was more popular than Shakespeare’s home theatre. The Globe functioned in many ways as a metaphor for contemporary concepts of society, civilization, and the universe at large. The name of the theatre itself—the Globe—suggested [...]
Shakespeare
Although William Shakespeare is generally considered the greatest dramatist in the English language, few facts are known about his life. Only a handful of legal documents verify his existence. Tradition has it that he was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, a small market town, on April 23, 1564. His father was a glove maker who became High [...]
“Two households, both alike in dignity …”
Romeo and Juliet is perhaps Shakespeare’s most familiar play. Its story of forbidden love translates into all cultures and has served as inspiration for artworks in all forms: music, opera, ballet, film, literature, and painting. Even people who have never read or seen the play know lines from it, so pervasive is its influence in [...]
Why Shakespeare?
Why do we study the plays of William Shakespeare? He lived and died almost 400 years ago. He wrote about kings and queens and other people far from our own time. His use of poetry is strange to our ears, and his vocabulary is full of words we don’t understand and can’t pronounce. How could [...]
The Cast of ROMEO AND JULIET
Karen Aldridge Nurse Karen makes her IRT debut. At Chicago Shakespeare Theatre she has played Olivia in Twelfth Night, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, Isabella in Edward II, and the Princess of France in Love’s Labor’s Lost; she also appeared in the international tour of Le Costume directed by Peter Brook, which included performances at Chicago [...]
28.Oct.2009 A Christmas Carol: Production Team
Priscilla Lindsay Director A favorite at the IRT for 33 of its 38 seasons, Priscilla most recently played Nan in Rabbit Hole. Among her more than 50 roles at the IRT are the title roles of Shirley Valentine, Driving Miss Daisy, and Molly Sweeney, as well as Sister Aloysius in Doubt, Mrs. Gibbs in Our [...]