The Mount Greylock theater department will present its annual Shakespeare performance on November 16, sponsored by Shakespeare and Company as part of Berkshire County’s Fall Festival of Shakespeare. This year’s play, “Romeo and Juliet,” will be held in the Mount Greylock Regional High School auditorium at 7:00 p.m., and all members of the school and local community are invited to attend.
Directors Naire Poole and Erin O’Conner are leading more than 40 Mount Greylock thespians in the school’s 35th year offering of a fall Shakespeare performance. According to Poole and O’Conner, this play “is Greylock’s first tragedy in a long while, but, because the actors are such natural comedians, we chose Romeo and Juliet because we really felt we couldn’t do away with comedy altogether.” “Romeo and Juliet” is one of the most well-known Shakespeare plays, so both the directors and cast members are excited about the opportunity to borrow from prior portrayals of the play while also putting their own spin on different characters.
Junior Claire Burrow, who will be one of two actors performing as the nurse, says the opportunity to research and explore doesn’t stop with how the cast decides to portray characters. The differences between the language used in “Romeo and Juliet” and today means that “there is an added element of basically learning a new language while performing it, which is really cool.” Along with learning a new language, the actors often become more in touch with their feelings because of the long conversations they have with each other about the characters and how to best perform them.
Another important aspect of the Shakespeare experience is the sense of camaraderie and community created by cast and crew. Junior Alec Sills says that “the most integral part of Shakespeare to me is the community aspect of it…because of the community, the actors perform with more of an ‘umph’ because they have great passion for their fellow performers.”
This year’s performance has been going well so far and many cast and crew members feel it is going to be one of the best fall Shakespeare performances yet. Come out and support this extraordinary effort, and don’t leave the cast and crew asking “wherefore art thou Greylock community?”
