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Romeo & Juliet

by William Shakespeare

directed by Sarah Corbyn Woolf

CAST

Frederick Bickford

Chris Boldt

Liz Burdick

Shea Flanagan

Ethan Fifield

Noa Hellquist

Martha Nichols

Kailey Potter

Lucy Randall-Tapply

Beks Roen

Tom Shane

Eliana Weiss

Benvolio

Chorus, Friar John, Apothecary

Nurse, Gregory

Mercutio

Montague, Peter

Paris, Abram

Prince

Tybalt, Balthasar

Capulet

Romeo

Friar Lawrence, Sampson

Juliet

CREATIVE TEAM

Director

Stage Manager

Producer

Fight Director​

Costume Design

Sarah Corbyn Woolf

Savannah Muzzey

Lucy Randall-Tapply

Beks Roen

Sarah Corbyn Woolf

Special Thanks:

Jessie Chapman, Amanda Twaddle, Chris Kreis, Alix Coolidge, Ruth Stuart, Vicky Dworkin, Jo Bickford, Debbi Finkelstein, John Davidson, Sandwich Farmer’s Market, Deerfield Academy Theatre Department, St. Andrew’s in the Valley Episcopal Church in Tamworth, The Community Church of Sandwich, The Bearcamp Center, Sandwich Town Hall, Castle in the Clouds, Doris L. Benz Center.

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This summer, we honor the memory of Susan Postlewaite with boundless gratitude for her presence in our community of volunteers and patrons.

CONTENT NOTE

This play features discussion and/or depiction of sensitive subjects and themes that audience members may wish to be aware of in advance. These include family conflict, community violence, and suicidality.

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Resources:

988 Suicide and Crisis Hotline

Call or text 988

https://988lifeline.org/

 

Veterans Crisis Line

Call 988, and then press 1

https://www.veteranscrisisline.net/

 

National Alliance on Mental Illness

New Hampshire Branch

Text “NAMI” to 741741

https://www.naminh.org/

 

Domestic Violence Hotline

Call 1-800-799-7233

Text 88788

https://www.thehotline.org/

 

The Trevor Project

24-hour confidential suicide hotline for LGBTQ youth

Call 1-866-488-7386

https://www.thetrevorproject.org/

 

Trans Lifeline

Trans peer support line

Call or Text 1-877-565-8860

https://translifeline.org/

Director's Note

At risk of stating the obvious: Romeo & Juliet is a really good play. 

 

It can be easy to oversimplify because it’s oversimplified by our culture. We almost all have a point of contact with this play, and because it’s so mired in our own culture, it’s hard to take at face value. It’s arguably the most well known of the canon. “Take it for what it is rather than what you remember it was.”

 

I know it can be easy to dismiss Shakespeare’s stories and prioritize the poetry, but this plot is as tight as I’ve seen in his canon. The motivations, timeline, and locations all hold. It’s even missing the usual supernatural elements that so often solve for gaps in Will’s other work (I’m looking at you, Winter’s Tale). 

 

The most implausible part: two teenagers get so excited about a new discovery that they exercise some poor judgment; and adults around them are so stuck in their ways, and so desperate for their loved ones’ safety and stability, that they do the same. Pretty plausible when you put it that way.

 

I have spent nearly my entire life loving this play. I loved this play before I loved theatre. I loved this play before I loved Shakespeare. So I entered this process intent on questioning the defaults burdening this canonical classic while still honoring its lauded place in our culture, not to mention its nostalgic place in my heart. Our cast has been the key to walking that line. Their insight, creativity, and compassion for the characters and one another has completed that miracle offered us by any Shakespeare production: breathing new life into an old thing, and finding timeless wisdom for our newer world.

 

We are left with a story of self-discovery, community care, cyclical trauma, and best intentions. I hope you depart from our “two hours’ traffic” with as overflowing a heart as we have had through its crafting.

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- Sarah Corbyn Woolf

The People of Verona

House of Montague

Montague – head of the household, played by Ethan Fifield

Romeo – his son, played by Beks Roen

Benvolio – Romeo’s cousin, played by Frederick Bickford

Balthasar – a manservant of Romeo’s, played by Kailey Potter

Abram – a servant of the Montague house, played by Noa Hellquist

 

House of Capulet

Capulet – head of the household, played by Lucy Randall-Tapply

Juliet – her daughter, played by Eliana Weiss

Tybalt – Juliet’s cousin, played by Kailey Potter

Nurse – a servant of the household, Juliet’s primary caretaker, played by Liz Burdick

Peter – an assistant to the Nurse, played by Ethan Fifield

Sampson and Gregory – low-ranking guards of the Capulet house, played by Tom Shane and Liz Burdick

 

Everyone Else

Prince – the leader of Verona, played by Martha Nichols

Mercutio – one of the Prince’s family, a friend to Romeo, played by Shea Flanagan

Paris – one of the Prince’s family, a suitor to Juliet, played by Noa Hellquist

Friar Lawrence – the spiritual leader of Verona, played by Tom Shane

Friar John – a lower-ranking brother of Friar Lawrence’s order, represented by our Storyteller and played by Chris Boldt

Apothecary – an impoverished citizen of Mantua, represented by our Storyteller and played by Chris Boldt

Chorus – our guide to the story, represented by our Storyteller and played by Chris Boldt

Team Bios

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Sarah Corbyn Woolf

Director

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Sarah Corbyn Woolf

Director

Director

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Sarah Corbyn Woolf

Director

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