What it's all about
A small history
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What it's all about...
I've always considered that the majority of Shakespeare's Romeo & Julieta romantic comedy. I think most dramaturges will agree with that idea... mostly because it is the light hearted and loving bulk of this play that make the tragedy so poignant. Anyone attempting to retell this tale has a long way to go and modern adaptations - even including West Side Storyare simply ugly imitations. That's just one opinion from a 30-year veteran of the boards..., which very, very few will agree with..., but I'll stand by it.

My story then is only the slightest re-telling but, hopefully, builds on these characters that I have known my entire professional life. I have known half a dozen Juliets and company and have run the play over in my mind in numbers and permutations beyond counting. I know first hand a number of variations of Benvolio, Gregory and the Prince and, I believe, have written their continuations with only the slightest nod toward modernization.

My verse is not as rich but it is clever and, again in my belief, true to what the original poet had in mind. The plot, however, I don't think 'the Bard' would willing touch with a ten foot pole. That story is my own and I'll wager there's no one in the wings waiting to snatch that credit!

Romeo & Juliet Revisitedis, more than anything else, about love. It plays the common Shakespearean devices of missed signals, concealed royalty and mistaken identity as well as plan upon plan and any a play on words.

Unlike this long winded narrative, it is pared down to only the essential words and syllables... trying it's best to hit that ten-count meter and sometimes even succeeding!

As with the original, and maybe even a bit more so, it argues the stupidity of these petty battles... making any such brawling nothing more than a fool's errand. The fact that I have now gently played the race card should remain transparent to the story itself. Shakespeare said only that the families were equal and that they hated each other... he also said that such rivalries were stupid and destructive. I agree and have given a focus to a new round of feuding as well as a wholly miraculous cap to finally put it to an end... which again, harkens back to the Shakespeare's works both tragic and comedic.

The play is about love and peace... and how, with a clever mind you can make both last. It's also about pettiness and death... both of which most people are looking for an excuse to avoid.

In the end, and I do thank you for reading all the way to the end, it's a story I can only tell... if you'll help me.

Will you?

A small history...

 Many years ago, when I was a recent graduate of the University of Utah's Film Studies program, a local theatre group... known for it's saphonic sympathies... cast me in two of it's plays (the first of a total of ten that I did with them... and am very happy with that relationship).

Within that group my art found a nurturing home and when their annual playwriting contest came around I was ready, willing and able to answer the challenge. As with the best contests of this type, there was no entrance fee and no guideline except plays were to be 10 minutes or less. The fact that I was invited to participate in "The Utah Shorts" competition just before the deadline... was due to my ignoring the posters splashed all over the theater and its environs... and waiting for a gentle nudge instead. Charged by my healing relationship and the kindness of this loving theatre I wrote five short plays in just over a week.

Nora and Torvald: The Next Daypicks up Ibsen's A Doll's Housethe morning after Nora leaves (the group had just performed the classic).

Real Menwhere an old man delivers a walking stick as his grandson's 10 birthday present - along with a discussion of what it is to be a man.

A Service To The Community the confession of a priest sentenced to the electric chair puts another priest on the same road.

Two Angry Womenis just that. They start a scene but both walk off P.O.'d in less than two pages.

And

Romeo & Juliet Revisiteda tale in verse of what happened after everyone else went home.

Within the month four were returned. Real Menwas too preachy, A Service To The Communitya little too dark, Two Angry Womenwas just too much of a gimmick and Romeo & Juliet Revisitedwas just too long and too expensive to produce.

That's right... they went with Nora and Torvald: The Next Day... far too obscure for a general audience but right up the alley for a group that just got raves for their version. I was paid $40 (10% of the box office) and allowed to 'guide' the direction. Again, I waited until called... I know what a butt-in-ski some writers can be... but this time the call never came. When I saw it opening night I was... shocked by what they'd done with it... but congratulated them all thoroughly (for, even if I hated the direction they chose... they had done ALOT of hard work and I am still flattered that anyone would perform my scratchings).

In those days I thought of myself as more of a 'Romeo type'... and, in celebration of my re-kindling marriage, I have Romeo look straight at the audience and say: 
  "I am the world's most luckiest man,
    My life knows naught but joy.
    If ever one sat in fortune's eye
    It is I!


    My wife is clever, beautiful
    Bold, wise and true.
    Fate smiled its broadest smile yet
   The day I said, 'I do.'"
Do I need to mention that my feelings changed a bit after the end of my marriage... no I didn't think so. And so Romeo & Juliet Revisited, originally copyrighted in 1987, sat lifeless in a drawer for the next 11 years.

Upon coming to L. A. I, as most do, cast about trying to find a route into 'the business' and applied to every ad in several issues of the local trades. Some acting work, some camera work, some television and writing jobs... but I also saw several ads soliciting screenplays, shorts and stories for production. Trying to sort out the real offers from the scams is still tough work but I did find a few people who were earnestly looking for works to perform.

I dusted off my old plays and retyped a few into the computer in the locally preferred script format and sent them away. A few months later I received a call from a local group wishing to put on a staged reading of Romeo & Juliet Revisitedat a coffee house setting. The first performance conflicted with a sketch show I was doing at The Comedy Store so the second (and final) was my only chance to see this work performed. The fact that parking was easy to find in the 'little theatre district' on Santa Monica boulevard worried me a little, but the tiny cafe was filled to capacity before the show began.

That reading was pivotal for me. I saw, after all those dormant years, that the play was a reasonable piece of theatre... worthy of performance. Remember, it was my first time ever seeing it read. What a difference a few trained voices make! The actors put so much of my intended meanings into undeniable thoughts and actions I was astounded. They 'got it'. The obscure Shakespearean references, the odd rhymes...90% of the inflections, pauses and asides were exactly the way I had heard them in my mind. So, the idea that this was a meaningful and 'doable' piece of art was not just the imaginings of a would be playwright... it was actually true.

Beyond that there was something else added... wholly beyond my conception. Most of the members of this performing group were black. To most people above the level of idiot this should make no detrimental difference in any way. Ah, but that's where my color blindness was wrong. When I heard one of the mothers' ebonic lilt grab a simple rhyme and run with it... I realized what a bigot I had been. Of course there was nothing 'wrong' with being black... but I had overlooked the advantages of that condition.

There are gestures, looks, and vocalizations... the very wealth of black history and culture that I had never even considered. So many more characters choices that my prejudice had never seen - were now standing in front of me... putting more and better life to my words than I had ever dreamt possible.

So energized I was by the idea that I started investigating the possibility of performing it myself.

This is where real life kicked in and put me on hold for another year.

During that time I slipped from group to group... moving on as performers out numbered audiences... until I landed on the doorstep of 'The Berubians' where the proprietor, Chris Berube, seems always to be looking for projects to be done under his roof.

After several invitations, I agreed to produce Romeo & Juliet Revisitedat his stage on LaBrea and Sunset. As I thought about how I'd like to see it done... added to the idea that I needed more work on screen... the decision evolved into making it as a movie. I'd use Chris' theatre for a rehearsal space and a location for a staged reading / fundraiser of my own.

At the end of May 2000 I completed casting and we performed to a nearly full house of invited guests. I was very happy with my actors and received praise from the attendants (unfortunately, they weren't ready to put their money where their mouths were).

I spent the next four months securing the fiscal sponsorship of the Film Arts Foundation (meaning non-profit status) and writing grant request letters as well as working the play into screenplay format and trying to nail down everything from costumes to locales to SAG contracts to the best deal on logo golf shirts.

That brings us to the end of August and the strange tale of other funding... which I'll relate separately... soon

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