New York based teaching artist, Gary De Mattei, returns to Playful People Productions to direct a radio play version of Shakespeare’s most popular love story, adapted to fit our brave new world of Zoom theatre. 

Verona’s ruling families, the Montagues and Capulets, have been feuding for ages, and wherever they meet — be it on social media or in public— violence is sure to follow. And then, one enchanted evening, during Lord and Lady Capulet’s ball, where all of their guests are wearing masks but failing at keeping socially acceptable distances, Romeo Montague and his friends crash the party. And there, across a crowded room, he spots Lord and Lady Capulet’s teenage daughter, Juliet. And then the masks come down and the tragedy begins— asking the question, can star-crossed love survive a world of political rivalry, family rage, deadly pandemics, teenage angst, sleeping potions, homemade masks, meddling monks, and neurotic nannies?  If you wrap the story in the greatest poetry ever written it can. Is it any wonder Romeo and Juliet is as timely today as it was in 1597, when the first quarto was published? Young love has never been as dangerous or delightful as it is in Shakespeare’s romantic masterpiece, brought to vivid life in our very first radio play production. 

Romeo and Juliet will be presented as a pre-recorded radio play at the end of the twelve-week study program conducted on Zoom by director Gary De Mattei. This workshop will meet on Wednesdays from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM (PST) and Sundays from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM (PST) on Zoom. The final week cast members will meet each day for recording purposes. Not all actors will be required to be at each recording session during the final week of rehearsals. A detailed rehearsal and recording schedule will be published once registration and casting is complete, and conflicts are assessed. After auditions, workshop participants will be assigned one or more characters. Once attendees have been assigned their character(s) they will be required to memorize and rehearse their scenes via Zoom during class, and, if applicable, with their scene study partners on their own time. Each week, when the entire class meets, attendees will discuss and read through the sections of the play assigned and receive direction. In this workshop attendees will learn about acting Shakespeare as well as how to mine the text for their character’s circumstances, intentions, goals, and obstacles, allowing them to build a layered and nuanced performance. To audition please prepare and submit a one-minute video doing a monologue from any Shakespeare play. Monologues must be memorized. No formal acting training or experience is necessary.