Romeo & Juliet

WRITTEN BY: Willam Shakespeare
PERFORMED AT: Corning Community College, Corning, NY
PERFORMED ON: March 10-16, 1997 (9 performances)
DIRECTOR: Clare Reidy
SPONSORED BY: CCC Two-Bit Players
CAST:
* ESCALUS, PRINCE OF VERONA- Daniel Roemmelt
* PARIS, A YOUNG COUNT- Stephen Miller
* MONTAGUE- Sam Losito Jr.
* CAPULET- Gary Yoggy
* ROMEO, SON TO MONTAGUE- Dion Clark
* TYBALT, NEPHEW TO CAPULET- Eric Giancoli
* MERCUTIO, KINSMAN TO THE PRINCE- Vince Lisella
* BENVOLIO, NEPHEW TO MONTAGUE- Thomas Schink
* GREGORY, SERVANT TO CAPULETS- Jeffrey Spencer
* SAMPSON, SERVANT TO CAPULETS- David Alan Scott Jr.
* ABRAHAM, SERVANT TO MONTAGUES- Chad Moon
* BASSANIO, SERVANT TO MONTAGUES- Grant Blackburn
* BALTHASAR, PAGE TO ROMEO- Alex Feulner
* FRIAR LAURENCE, A FRANCISCAN- John Fitzgibbon
* FRIAR JOHN- Daniel Costello
* CHEIF OF THE WATCH- Laurence Wilcox
* APOTHECARY- Larry Josbeno
* GENTLEMAN 1- Michael Taylor
* GENTLEMAN 2- Adam Youngs
* GENTLEMAN 3- Michael Saglibene
* GENTLEMAN 4- Dennis Aiken
* GENTLEMAN 5- Joseph Regan
* PETRINA, SERVANT TO CAPULETS- Laura Fusare
* LADY MONTAGUE- Marina Novack
* LADY CAPULET- Darcy Jo Martin
* JULIET, DAUGHTER TO CAPULET- Shannon K. Molloy
* NURSE TO JULIET- Margaret Menges
* LADY 1- Jill Demonstoy
* LADY 2- Michelle Moore
* LADY 3- Jami Mathews
* LADY 4- Heidi Hilligoss
* LADY 5- Kristi Moses

PLOT: Romeo Montague (Dion Clark) and Juliet Capulet (Shannon Molloy) fall in love despite the feuding between their families. A Shakespearian tragedy.

HISTORY: This show boasted a larger cast--and, as a result, a less "together" one--than the previous year's "Hamlet".
I didn't have that much to do in this play, having only a few lines within the first few scenes, and not doing much else onstage after that. And the large cast made it easy for me to be lost in the crowd. It was quite a come-down from previous roles.
I would not have minded such a minor part if I hadn't been led (by no one person, and perhaps inadvertently) to feel so insignificant about it.
One incident that made me feel this way was an argument I kept having with the crew over a prop I needed for the opening scene. In that scene (under Clare's direction), my character uses a breadstick as both a phallic symbol and a sword (My line in the scene: "My naked weapon is out!").
When the lone breadstick they had given me to use had become stiff and stale, it broke into two pieces before the first performance, during which it then broke into more pieces (caused by an accidental and embarrassing fall I had taken off of a platform on the stage).
Before the next performance, I asked for another breadstick, which no one on the crew bothered to buy (or tell me to buy). When given a small loaf of bread, I told them I wanted something longer to represent a sword. Others, meanwhile, thought I just wanted something longer to represent my other "weapon".
Fortunately, cast member Larry Josbeno managed to get me some plastic breadsticks from the CCC cafeteria. And so ended a huge fuss that I shouldn't have had to make over such a minor scene.
My only true disappointment with this production, though, was that I had been anxious to learn some dances for the party scene, but got to do nothing but stand around during the whole sequence.
Fortunately, less lines and scenes meant more time for me to work on my studies, as well as on rehearsals for another play, "Ten Little Indians".
In between a few performances, I used a hand-held tape recorder to tape some cast members doing ad-libbed, funny things. One of these recordings became Canned Ham Island, which four other cast members and I made up while hanging out on the stage.
Despite fun times like these, this production of "Romeo and Juliet" ranks with "Lady, Be Good!" under my least-enjoyable theater experiences of all time. Onstage, I think it showed. Oh well.
And to deepen the wound, this became my final show with the CCC Two-Bit Players. I had tried out for all of their shows the following school year, but was cast in none of them. Oh well.
The following year, I performed with Clare, Darcy, Eric, and Jeff in a more-enjoyable ballet version of the "Romeo" story.