Romeo and Juliet 16.30 (Aaron)
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S ROMEO AND JULIET
Adapted by Ben Murray-Watson for The Young Actors Group
PRODUCER / WRITER’S NOTE
This year marks our eighths straight year performing at Brighton Open Air Theatre and the fourth year that we’ve attempted two productions on the same day.
Once again, on just one week’s rehearsal, Sam and Aaron will be bringing their own creative take to our one hour script.
Romeo and Juliet is always hard for a young cast. Creating a dynamic between the two leads that is believable amongst the political and personal battles, isn’t easy – it’s a challenge to make it feel genuine.
As always I wanted to bring in an ‘on-theme’ element to the play and with Artificial Intelligence in the process of invading all of our lives, this felt appropriate. But at the same time, bringing this story to a young audience and to young actors poses in itself a huge challenge – step up our original characters of Writer and Computer who take us on this journey.
Also, by setting it in the future, this allows both of our directors a huge scope of creativity. No-one knows the future and so anything goes! I have no idea what they are going to do with the script!
Overall, these Shakespeare weeks are about fun and escapism for the young actors. They are given a chance to play with a language that is at the heart of our theatrical history and to address Shakespeare’s writing in a way that it was meant – through performance.
I was lucky enough to have an English teacher who taught us Shakespeare by getting us out of our seats and ‘acting’. I have fallen in love with it ever since. The vision for these yearly weeks is to enable other young children and teenagers to equally embrace that love and to be inspired by the language and the theatricality that Shakespeare demands.
I am hugely grateful and delighted that we can bring together two amazing casts of young actors once more.
If you’d like to learn more about YAG or try out one of our term time weekly classes, then do take a look at our website. Enjoy the show!
Ben Murray-Watson, Founder, The Young Actors Group
THE ROMEO AND JULIET CAST
WRITER – Lucy Murray-Watson
MERCUTIO / SAMPSON – Jake Murray-Watson
COMPUTER / PARIS – Alex Hitchcock
LADY CAPULET – Sofia Sanches
SERVANT 1 – Emilia Murray-Watson
JULIET – Amia Sequoia-Pintos
TYBALT / DEVELOPER – Sasha Smith
BENVOLIO – Leila Smith
FRIAR LAWRENCE – Samuel Hill
GREGORY / SERVANT 2 – Felix Small
CAPULET – Alex Kingshott
ROMEO – Erin Russell-King
ABRAHAM / THE MONTAGUES – Honey Overton-Lemon
BALTHASAR / PRINCE – Rosa Overton-Lemon
NURSE – Noa Bennett
THE ROMEO AND JULIET CREATIVE TEAM
Director – Aaron Tonks
Assistant Director – Maya Cooper
Producer / Writer – Ben Murray-Watson
Movement Director – Holly Ray
Set Design and Build – Adam Rose (please see bio at the end of the programme)
Costume Designer – Maya Cooper
Costume Hire – Gladrags Community Costume
Special Thanks
The Church of the Good Shepherd
Roly Puzey and Saddlescombe Farm
Brighton Open Air Theatre
Aaron Tonks and Ben Warren
Every parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, brother, sister and friend who are supporting their young actors today and throughout their lives.
*Adam has been working within the Art Department for over 20 years and designs and builds practical sets and props to help tell his stories, adding layers of narrative to both actor and audience. Using everyday items, and sometimes not your everyday items to help bring worlds and environments to life.