Aquila Theatre Company Brings Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to Keene State
KEENE, N.H., 9/7/06 - The London/American troupe, Aquila Theatre Company, will perform William Shakespeare’s most popular play, Romeo and Juliet, at Keene State College’s Redfern Arts Center on Brickyard Pond. This timeless tale of uncompromising love will be seen twice on Wednesday, September 27, 2006, in a school performance at 10:15 a.m. and in a public performance at 7:30 p.m.
Over the past 12 years, Aquila Theatre Company has become renowned for its innovative, bold, and revelatory productions of Shakespeare, leading The New York Times to refer to it as “the excellent Aquila, an extraordinary, inventive, and disciplined outfit.”
Romeo and Juliet has been re-imagined since Shakespeare’s day in almost every art form, yet Shakespeare’s tale of star-crossed lovers still inflames the imaginations of audiences all over the world.
Aquila’s new production taps into the essential truth of the story to invoke the sun-drenched streets of Verona and two powerful houses wrenched apart by fractious rivalry. At the heart of Romeo and Juliet is the very idea of first love: its overwhelming force and ardor and its ability to be irrational, passionate, beautiful, and deadly at the same time.
In Aquila’s new production, each actor in the company will learn every part of Romeo and Juliet. To emulate the way Shakespeare’s audience was gripped by the unfolding events of this new play, Aquila wants to imbue this production with a sense of theatrical danger, apprehension, and the hand of theatrical fate. Thus, a complicit audience will decide each night which of the actors will play which role. Each performance will be freshly minted, creating newfound excitement and drama. In going back to Shakespeare and his all-male company of players in multiple roles for inspiration, Aquila will re-invigorate the text and refresh its many pleasures and surprises.
Romeo and Juliet is supported through the generosity of its corporate sponsor, the Keene Sentinel. Tickets are available through the Brickyard Pond box office, 603-358-2168 or on the web at www.keene.edu/racbp.
Prices are $26 and $23 for the general public, $24 and $21 for seniors and KSC faculty and staff, $13 and $11 for youth 17 and younger, and $5 for KSC students with ID. Tickets for all of the Redfern’s presenting events and for performances by the departments of Music and Theatre and Dance are also available. Patrons can still purchase 20/20 memberships that enable them to receive a 20% discount for all Presenting Series performances.
