Kids’ Play

McCarter Theatre’s adaptation of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ puts the emphasis on youth, with a cast just out of drama school.

By: Jim Boyle
   Nobody understands teen-agers. The strange and sometimes destructive behavior of young adults has baffled the minds of parents, teachers and doctors alike. In today’s society, ad companies try to tap into the teen mind to sell products. Just as a fad is catching on, their target demographic unexpectedly changes tastes.
   One of the most insightful looks into the teen-age mind was written almost 400 years ago. William Shakespeare’s classic tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, has been performed thousands of times, adapted for all media, translated into dozens of languages and even rewritten as a musical.

"McCarter
McCarter


Theatre’s adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, starring Sarah Drew and
Jeffrey Carlson, is directed by Emily Mann.

Staff photo by Frank Wojciechowski

   The play contains many themes: two houses, the Capulets and the Montagues, in a constant feud with each other; the friendship and loyalty of Romeo and Mercutio. The central theme is that of a young couple who go against their rival families’ wishes for the sake of love.
   "Both adolescents are breaking away from their parents," says Sarah Drew, 19, who plays Juliet in the McCarter Theatre’s adaptation of the play. Directed by Emily Mann, Romeo and Juliet will be performed Sept. 9-30 at the theater in Princeton.
   "Juliet doesn’t like the hatred," says Ms. Drew. "These two children are completely conquering the hatred. Juliet is in a difficult transition of starting to make decisions on her own."
   As long as she can remember, Ms. Drew, from Charlottesville, Va., wanted to be an actress. Her parents recognized her stage potential when Ms. Drew was in kindergarten.
   "At the end of the year, everyone stood up and gave a little presentation," says Ms. Drew. "All the other kids stared at the floor and mumbled while I was loud and clear. My parents have always been my biggest cheerleaders. They always supported my acting."
   Ms. Drew participated in school plays and started community theater in fifth grade. In sixth grade, she earned the lead role in Annie and by eighth grade, she had become involved with professional theater as an understudy for Mary Lennox in The Secret Garden.
   Ms. Drew is making her McCarter Theatre debut and is currently a fourth-year student at the University of Virginia. As a drama major, Ms. Drew is still learning a lot about the technical aspects of the acting industry. She also gained experience by lending her voice to MTV’s animated program Daria for five years.
   "That was a lot of fun," she says. "I would just go into the studio and say my lines into the microphone three times in a row. I didn’t really meet any of the other voice actors."

"Sarah
Sarah Drew, a 19-year-old drama major at the University of Virginia, takes on the role of Juliet in the McCarter Theatre production.

   With some experience working in both art forms, Ms. Drew knows that theater offers certain things for the actors as well as the audience that television cannot.
   "For the audience," she says, "theater is a very alive experience. It’s more visually based. You take the audience with you. For the actors, theater is much more based on relationships. Everybody is working to make a connection on stage. You get to know everybody, even all of the crew members. You’re working together to tell a story and everybody takes care of each other."
   As a student, Ms. Drew learns the behind-the-scene details of the theater. She helps build stages and make costumes for the productions. Of her acting classes, one that has been most helpful in preparing for the difficult role of Juliet has been a voice class.
   "My professor, Kate Burke, has taught me how to use language and pronunciation in my performance," she says. "Shakespeare is different from contemporary language because his characters make discoveries as they are speaking, instead of thinking for a little bit. These gorgeous words make those connections from our thoughts."
   With this knowledge, Ms. Drew used the few months between getting the role and the first rehearsals to understand what Juliet was saying.
   "I started by paraphrasing my lines," she says. "The book I used had a lot of definitions, so I had an idea. Shakespeare gives everything we need, it’s really just learning the words."
   As she prepared, Ms. Drew could find parts of herself in Juliet, and used those aspects to embody the role.
   "We both have vivid imaginations," she says. "Her brain runs away from her, and she jumps to conclusions. We are both problem-solvers. She also has a really strong faith in God, and so do I."
   Learning her character is important for Ms. Drew, but equally crucial for this play is a good relationship with Romeo, played by Jeffrey Carlson.
   "He’s so amazing," she says. "He’s a very generous actor. We had beautiful chemistry right from the beginning. Everybody thought we worked together before. We were just able to connect immediately."

"At
At the University of California, Davis, Jeffrey Carlson was called into the dean’s office and told to major in theater.

   Like Ms. Drew, Mr. Carlson started acting as a child. He participated in school plays, but didn’t see acting as a career. He enrolled at the University of California, Davis as an animal science major. He became involved with the U.C. Davis drama department, but only as part of the ensemble for two shows.
   "The head of the department asked me why I wasn’t a drama major," says Mr. Carlson. "I said it was because of the lack of stability. I got sent to the dean and they both encouraged me to go into acting."
   He followed their advice in a big way, enrolling in the Juilliard School’s drama division, one of the top acting schools in the country. He recently graduated from the renowned institution before taking the role of Romeo.
   "(Juilliard) grounded me in technique," says. Mr. Carlson. "It’s an intense and vigorous training. It gives you a lot of discipline."
   His classical training helped Mr. Carlson prepare for the meaty role of the brash Romeo.
   "Everybody knows the story," he says. "The story is clear and I knew what (director Emily Mann’s) vision was. I wanted to find out what the story meant to me. I sat and daydreamed and studied the text."
   After intense contemplation, Mr. Carlson was able to find aspects of the play that resonated deeply within him.
   "Romeo and Juliet has as much to do with hate as it does with love," he says. "A lot of people forget that because the love story is the easiest thing to grab onto. The families hate each other, but the reasons are never given."
   Mr. Carlson also wanted to find a piece of himself in Romeo. His teachers at Juilliard told him to start with the things he knew. They also told him to explore all the parts of himself.
   "They told me to not just look at the ways that I am similar to my character, but also how we are different," he says. "This is a role I’ve wanted to play since high school. I am a dreamer like he is. I wish I was a poet like Romeo. We both have a certain amount of vulnerability."
   The prevalent themes of love and hate allow Romeo and Juliet to be one of Shakespeare’s most versatile plays. The idea of two young lovers rebelling against what their families have believed for ages has allowed the play to be rediscovered by every generation.
   "There’s something so poignant about the end," says Ms. Drew. "The young couple ends up putting their parents in their place."
Romeo and Juliet will be staged at the McCarter Theatre, 91 University Place,
Princeton, Sept. 9-30. Performances: Wed.-Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 4, 8:30 p.m., Sun.
2 p.m. Tickets cost $23-$43. For information, call (609) 258-2787. On the Web:
www.mccarter.org