West Linn High School Performing Arts Dept.

Romeo & Juliet

Set and Lighting Design by Jon Ares.

Winter 2010.

Written by William Shakespeare.

Directed by Jessica Middleton Murray. Costume Design by Shana Targosz, Sound Design by Jessica Middleton Murray.

Jessica conceived a production where adults played adults, and kids played kids. She utilized professional actors, community theatre actors, and the high school students to make that contrast work.

Our collective concept tried to blend reference to the Elizabethan stage, with reference to modern influences. Jessica and Shana developed a vocabulary with the costumes that gave the older characters a silhouette of the Elizabethan, with a modern interpretation, whereas the younger ‘kids’ definitely had a more modern flair, with some Elizabethan reference.

My set was much the same: some Elizabethan tradition (the balcony/upper above, the wooden thrust-like plankboard stage), but a little askew. See-through metal staircase, sheer chiffon panels, and exposed lighting fixtures and escape stairs peel away the visual, allowing the layers of the environment to show. All the world’s a stage, even (some of) the back stage.