The Santa Clarita Shakespeare Festival is launching its Educational Outreach Program with a cutting of Romeo & Juliet that will tour high schools throughout the Santa Clarita Valley. The 40-minute production is aimed at ninth graders studying the play and is presented free of charge for local schools. Adapted and directed by Kelly Boczek-Petrie, it will focus on the impetuous nature of many of its characters, leading to the tragedy of the play, and uses a TMZ like broadcast to draw a strong correlation between the 400-year old text and entertainment headlines of today.
Included in the cast are Karen Deputy (Nurse, Lady Capulet & Benvolio), Kristina Teves (as Juliet), Tor Brown (as Romeo), Tom Metcalf (Montague, Capulet & Tybalt), and Brian Helm (as Friar & Mercutio). Amanda Hubbell is the outreach coordinator for the program. In addition to the Romeo & Juliet spring tour, the outreach program also includes an Apprentice Company summer theatre program and a tour of local elementary schools in the fall. This year the elementary school tour will be an original adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol. For more information about SCSF’s programs call (661) 799-3378.
Shakespeare in LA 