Auditions – Romeo and Juliet
ROMEO AND JULIET IS BEING STAGED AS PART OF THE ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY’S OPEN STAGES PROJECT
SHOW DATES: 12th – 19th May 2012
REHEARSAL DATE: From mid February onwards
FIND OUT ABOUT THE PRODUCTION: Tues 1st November, 7.30pm
OPEN AUDITION DATE: Tues 15th November, 7.30pm
Rugby Theatre will be staging a Polish/English bi-lingual production of Romeo and Juliet in May 2012 as part of the RSC Open Stages project. This is a really exciting opportunity for Rugby Theatre and those involved because not only do we have opportunity to engage a brand new audience within Rugby, there is also the possibility that we will be chosen to perform at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon as part of a national showcase of Shakespeare.
We will be holding a ‘find out more about the production’ night on Tues 1st November at 7.30pm and everyone is welcome, members and non members. As well as actors, we invite new members to join and get involved with behind the scenes – be in scenic, backstage, lighting, sound, props or front of house. Anyone interested in getting involved backstage should contact the director (details below).
The open audition will be held on Tues 15th November at 7.30pm at Rugby Theatre and as well as British actors, we are particularly interested in actors from the Polish community who are bi-lingual.
A bit about the production
In a typical town in Britain work is scarce and tensions amongst the native Brits and the Polish immigrants are high. Against the backdrop of two seemingly very different households, a Polish boy and a English Girl meet and fall in love.
Both households are alike in dignity, at heart they believe in the same morals, but the feeling of unease runs deep within these two communities.
This production of Romeo and Juliet is an energetic modern day interpretation of this classic tale using a mixture of young Polish and British actors to play the Montague and Capulet households.
Rugby and the surrounding area has a thriving Polish community, a community that as a theatre society we haven’t engaged with in the past. This production is an incredibly ambitious one because not only do we hope to recruit new Polish members in and around Rugby to play the Capulet household, some of the lines spoken by the Montagues will be in Polish, particular those lines spoken by the older members of the household.
By featuring Polish actors and staging some of the scenes in Polish, and by going for a modern day interpretation, we hope to appeal to a new, younger audience, both Polish and British and really show them that Shakespeare is far from being stuffy or dull, but is in fact exhilarating, epic and above all deeply moving. This is not a comment on Polish integration into the UK, but the production uses this as a vehicle to explore the theme of language and distrust, fear and hatred, which can come from not being prepared to fully communicate with another community.
This production has already gained interest from BBC Coventry and Warwickshire’s’ radio program ‘Poles Apart’.
What is RSC Open Stages
RSC Open Stages is a new project that aims to embrace, develop and celebrate amateur theatre, re-forging the bond with the world of professional theatre.
Earlier this year the RSC invited amateur theatres to put forward proposals for exciting and different productions of Shakespeare related shows. To be accepted into Open Stages the productions had to be ambitious and challenging for us as a society and our audience.
With this in mind Rugby Theatre put forward a proposal to stage an innovative production of Romeo and Juliet set in the modern day, featuring both British and Polish actors, and more importantly, it will be bi-lingual.
This production is part of around 270 other shows which are being staged across the nation during this year and 2012. Many Open Stages productions have already taken place. For more information on Open Stages visit the RSC website: http://www.rsc.org.uk/explore/projects/open-stages/
As part of this experience Rugby Theatre members will be invited to take part in skills workshops for both actors and backstage crew. As well as this, in June 2012 the regional theatres will hold a showcase of the best productions in their region. There are 10 regional theatres across the country and ours just happens to be the RSC. So if our production of Romeo and Juliet is deemed to be good enough there is a chance we would be invited to Stratford to perform at the RSC (although at this stage its not clear whether it would be the full play or an excerpt).
The best shows from around the country will then be invited to perform as part of the World Shakespeare Festival at the RSC in July 2012. So, if our show was considered to be good enough not only would we perform as part of the regional showcase, we would also be invited to perform as part of the Shakespeare festival – very exciting indeed!
There is a facebook page which shows just how engaged many of the amateur theatres are in the project. The page also shows videos of some of the skills workshops which have already taken place: https://www.facebook.com/rscopenstages
If anyone has any questions, please do let me know.
Rob
robert-sloan [at] hotmail [dot] com
07852 447208
Leave your Response!
You must be logged in to post a comment.