For the Masters theater community, the annual spring Shakespeare production marks the closing of the school year. This year, theater director Meg O’Connor selected the famously tragic tale of the star-crossed lovers: “Romeo and Juliet.”
“I love the fact that the first half of “Romeo and Juliet” is like a comedy and the second half is pure tragedy. I thought it was a good challenge [for the actors],” O’Connor said.
This spring season at Mainstage saw an unprecedented number of auditionees, with over 70 participants. Auditions were held for three days and after a weekend of deliberation, the cast list for both the Spring Shorts and Romeo and Juliet were announced. However, while those cast in Spring Shorts learned their roles right away, another round of auditions was held to determine the roles of those cast in “Romeo and Juliet”. In the end, two casts of “Romeo and Juliet” were created: the red cast and the blue cast.
Chanel Neal ‘24, Juliet of the blue cast, performed on May 15 and May 17. She spoke about her experience with the two casts.
“[O’Connor] will say double casting is apples and pears to attest to the fact that people have their different styles. It just comes off vastly different. In the blue cast we had Xavier and Sage, my parents, and then the other is McKarthy and Thomas. It’s just such a different energy,” Neal said.
Aron Tucker ‘24, Romeo of the red cast, also talked about the two casts.
“They’re both wonderful and it’s really cool to see my counterpart, Camilo. We both have different ways of going at [the role] but I find that in rehearsal when I get to watch him, I learn so much because he’s portraying [Romeo] differently than I would.”
Since March, the casts of “Romeo and Juliet” had been hard at work preparing for this iconic play. Many cast members were taught the basics of stage combat and even worked on choreographing their own fight sequences, according to first-time Mainstage actor Magnolia Bing-Edwards ‘26.
Since the show was set to take place on Graduation Terrace, rehearsals had also been taking place outside.
“It gets everyone’s energy up. It’s a good environment,” Neal said.
For many actors, “Romeo and Juliet” marked the end of their Mainstage journey. Both sets of Romeos and Juliets were seniors, and these roles would be their final ones at Masters. Tucker said that this performance was particularly emotional for him since he had been involved in acting since the second grade.
“This is my last show. I have to live every single moment and not wait until it’s done. It’s my senior show and I’m doing it for myself fully,” Tucker said.
