Co-Op Brings Shakespeare To The 1950s

Lights dim in the theater. From one side of the stage, the Capulet servant Sampson (Keona Gomes) enters dressed in a baseball cap, ball bat heavy in hand. Fellow Capulet Gregory (Rebecca Sykes-Quirk) saunters toward a seat, wielding a hammer. The two sidle up beside each other and set some music into motion, bodies relaxed. It seems chill.

Then Pertrucio (Janiya Woods) and Abraham (Tatyana Ramirez) walk past them. They are dressed in jeans and jackets, holding tools of their own. Sampson and Gregory don’t look happy to see them. There’s a little bit of Greece, a little West Side Story. Feet jump to the floor. Tools spring into action. Bodies lean and lunge towards each other. It’s a downright brawl, the origins of which aren’t entirely clear.

That was the scene Thursday afternoon, as students at Cooperative Arts & Humanities Magnet High School (Co-Op) lent a 1950s vibe to William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet in the school's black box theater. Directed by teachers Scott Meikle and Charley McAfee, the play featured two casts, to accommodate both afternoon and evening performances. It is part of a curriculum in which theater students spend a year working on Shakespeare.

“In requiring our students to spend a year working with Shakespeare we do hope to instill an appreciation and passion for the form itself … students should be able to walk away knowing they are far better actors than when they began,” read a note from the directors in the program. “They may never act another line of verse in their lives, but they have been inducted into the school of acting and, hopefully, can take the attitude ‘I conquered Shakespeare so now I know I can act anything.’”

Modern takes on Shakespeare (and particularly, Romeo & Juliet) are not new—recent performances in New Haven have seen the Capulets dancing to Beyoncé among other things. But from the beginning of the play, Co-Op’s willingness to bend the Bard drew the audience in. During the play's prologue, Meikle took the stage in traditional Elizabethan garb, carefully reciting lines of Shakespeare to give the audience a sense of what they might hear on stage.

McAfee reminded the audience that the directors had chosen to stage the play in the 1950s, so a cell phone going off might be particularly distracting. If they needed to find the exit during the show, “just follow the six-foot-four man in purple tights,” he joked, lifting the mood before a centuries-old story of hate and anger unrolled onstage.

As students-turned-actors took the stage, the sixteenth century jumped into the twentieth. Romeo (Donte Warren) and Juliet (Alanna Cajigas) brought not just tragedy to their roles but also humor, interpreting the language for their audience in a way that made it understandable. Even characters with smaller roles—the Nurse (Efencheli Rivera), Capulet (St. Micheal Perez), Lady Capulet (Jeana Noel) and others—conveyed as much in movement as in speech, brusque at some moments and tender and caring at others.

Lihame Arouna, who took the role of Mercutio in the 2:30 p.m. performance, seemed to step fully into her character’s world. From a focused student member of the Board of Education to a centuries-old bro, she took on the easy laughter, cockiness, swagger, and even“drunk mess” that so defines Mercutio’s character and ultimately contributes to his untimely death.

When her character was combined with Benvolio (Carlos Perez) and Warren as Romeo, it seemed like nothing could stop them. As Benvolio, Perez was filled with a positive and even hyper energy, his acting a bright spark of humor in between scenes that echoed with tragedy.

Miles Saxton wowed as Escalus, barreling through monologue pieces with agility and confidence, his anger palpable as he performed. He was able to recite out towards the crowd, making eye contact while speaking his lines fluently without hesitation.

Even arguments and fights came off as real, perhaps one of the hardest things for actors to pull off when smoldering anger and violence replaces their real-life high school friendships. Each fight scene involved punches, throwing, and realistic stabbing with a pocket knife. A scene between Romeo, Benvolio, Mercutio, and Tybalt (Gabriel Rodriguez) gave one a realistic experience of witnessing a fight, as arms and weapons were lifted overhead and the actors circled each other defensively.

But the star of the show—which could be set in 1595 or 1955—was the romantic connection between Romeo and Juliet, and the futility of violence that ended it early. Throughout the play, Warren and Cajigas maintained a steady, consistent love, the kind that keeps two people bound to each other forever. Through them, the audience was able to see the meaninglessness of the violence and hatred that doomed them from the start.

The crew behind Romeo & Juliet included directors Scott Meikle and Charley McAfee, Stage Manager Rayona Higgins, Production Assistant Alexis Annan, Lighting Designer Doug Harry Costume Designer Denise Santisteban, Scenic Design Janie Alexander-Haverkampf and Operator Sharric James. To find out more about Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School, check out their website.