- Adapted & Directed by Joe Calarco
- Scenic Design James Kronzer
- Costume Design Kathleen Geldard
- Lighting Design Chris Lee
- Sound Design Matt Rowe
- Production Stage Manager Kerry Epstein
Dates
- On sale: January 4
- Student: February 15
- Discussion: February 20 & 26
- Pride: February 22
The Acclaimed Play
Four young men. One scarf. Shakespeare’s transcendent saga of forbidden love reimagined in a brave and bold in-the-round setting.
A repressive all-male Catholic boarding school bans Romeo and Juliet in favor of Latin conjugations and the Ten Commandments. Four students unearth a secret copy and steal into the night to recite the prohibited tale of adolescent passion. While it begins as a lark, the story gradually draws the boys into a discovery of universal truth that parallels their own coming-of-age. A riveting drama within a drama, Shakespeare’s R&J transcends the boundaries between play and player.
“A small miracle… Joe Calarco would appear to be a theater man of imagination and vision. This production is truly astonishing.” – The New York Times
“I’ve seldom seen teenage isolation, insecurity, vulnerability and pain so touchingly evoked.” – The Times
Watch. Listen.
Watch R&J video teasers of the show and behind the scenes interviews with the creative team here.
Get the Inside Tweet
Use #sigRandJ to join our twitter conversation about the show.
Take a Peek Inside
Adapter and director, Joe Calarco blogs about Shakespeare’s R&J‘s beginnings and chronicles the rehearsal process here at Signature.
Shakespeare’s R&J partially sponsored by
Special R&J Discount Ticket Promotional Offer
At Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, the plebes were as welcome as the Queen herself. In honor of this something-for-everyone spirit, Signature is offering a limited number of $25 Signature Shakespeare Stalls as a special discount for most performances of Shakespeare’s R&J. These discounted seats can be purchased in advance at the Box Office in person or by phone at 703 820 9771, pending availability. You can also purchase tickets online using code STALLS.
The Cast
Rex Daugherty (Student 4) OFF-BROADWAY: Disco Pigs. DC AREA: Shakespeare Theatre Company: Hamlet, Love’s Labor’s Lost; The Kennedy Center: Unleashed! (u/s); Folger Theatre: The Taming of the Shrew; Solas Nua: Disco Pigs (Helen Hayes nomination), Johnny Meister & the Stitch; Forum Theatre: The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Helen Hayes nomination). REGIONAL: Reduxion Theatre: Richard III; Totem Pole Playhouse: Almost, Maine; Suite Surrender; It Could Be Any One of Us; Wayside Theater: Othello, The Buddy Holly Story.
Jefferson Farber (Student 2) DC AREA: Shakespeare Theatre Company: All's Well that Ends Well; Constellation Theatre Company: Metamorphoses; Synetic Theatre: Genesis Reboot; Kennedy Center Page-to-Stage/Horizons Theatre: Vanishing Point. NEW YORK: LIU: Madame de Sade; Dramatist's Guild: Lavender Shore; three seasons with the Colorado Festival of World Theatre. EDUCATION: Shakespeare Theatre Company's Academy for Classical Acting at the George Washington University, MFA. Millikin University, BFA.
Alex Mills (Student 1) DC AREA: Synetic Theatre: Jekyll and Hyde, The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Don Quixote, The Master and Margarita, King Arthur, Othello (2011 Helen Hayes Award), Antony and Cleopatra, Dracula, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2010 Helen Hayes Award), Dante, Host and Guest; Studio Theatre: Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson.
Joel David Santner (Student 3) DC AREA: Faction of Fools: Commedia Christmas Carol, Tales of Marriage and Mozzarella; Taffety Punk : The Rape of Lucrece - Remixed, Hamlet – The Bad Ass Quarto, suicide.chat.room, The Golem, Owl Moon, Tiny Alice, Two Noble Kinsmen Bootleg, Burn Your Bookes, Troilus & Cressida Bootleg; Folger Theatre: Much Ado About Nothing; Shakespeare Theatre: Dog in the Manger; Kennedy Center: Don Giovanni, Shear Madness. REGIONAL: Stage One: Come Sing; Jimmy Jo; Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day; Hansel & Gretel; Riverrun: Burn This, True West. FILM: Bare Knuckle, Super 8. EDUCATION: The Academy for Classical Acting at the George Washington University, MFA. UPCOMING: Constellation Theatre Co: Gilgamesh.
Creative Team
Joe Calarco (Adaptor/Director) SIGNATURE: Walter Cronkite is Dead. (writer/director), Assassins (Helen Hayes Award), Urinetown (Helen Hayes Award), Sideshow (Helen Hayes Award), Nijinsky’s Last Dance (Helen Hayes Award), Nest, The Boy Detective Fails, writer of eight Signature in the Schools plays. OFF-BROADWAY: Playwrights Horizons: The Burnt Part Boys, Floyd and Clea Under the Western Sky; Primary Stages: In Transit (Drama Desk Award nomination), Boy; Second Stage: in the absence of spring (writer/director); The Transport Group: Bury The Dead, The Audience (contributing book writer), Shakespeare’s R&J (adaptor/director, Lucille Lortel Award). NATIONAL TOUR: Ring of Fire. REGIONAL: The Old Globe: Lincolnesque, The Glass Menagerie; Barrington Stage Company: The Mysteries of Harris Burdick (book writer/director), The Memory Show; 11th Hour Theatre Company: Ordinary Days (Barrymore Award); Philadelphia Theatre Co.: The Light in the Piazza (Barrymore Award), The Last Five Years, Elegies, M. Butterfly. Executive Board SDC. Associate Artistic Director Breaking Bread Theatre breakingbreadtheatre.com. joecalarco.blogspot.com
James Kronzer (Scenic Design) SIGNATURE: Over 20 productions including God of Carnage, Merrily We Roll Along, Sweeney Todd and Show Boat. BROADWAY: Glory Days. OFF-BROADWAY: Opus, Under the Bridge. DC AREA: Kennedy Center: First You Dream; Shakespeare Theatre: The Beaux Stratagem (Helen Hayes Award); Washington Ballet: Alice in Wonderland; Round House Theatre: Amadeus, The Picture of Dorian Gray; Woolly Mammoth Theatre: Clybourne Park; Folger Theatre: Hamlet. REGIONAL: Playmakers: Opus; Arden Theater: Clybourne Park, Sunday in the Park; Something Intangible (Barrymore Award); Denver Center: To Kill a Mockingbird, The Catch, When Tang Met Laika, As You Like It (Weston, VT); A Christmas Carol (Worcester MA & Knoxville TN). NATIONAL TOURS: Thomas the Tank, Barbie Live!, Backyardigans; Scenic co-ordinator: Addam's Family, Shrek, Spamalot, The Wizard of Oz, Drowsy Chaperone, The Producers. TV: Over 30 Comedy Specials including Kevin Nealon, Louie Anderson, Nick Cannon, Craig Ferguson, Dave Foley. AWARDS: 8 Helen Hayes Awards, 2 Barrymore Awards (Philadelphia). AFFILIATIONS: United Scenic Artists. www.JamesKronzer.com.
Kathleen Geldard (Costume Design) SIGNATURE (selected): The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Xanadu, God of Carnage, Brother Russia, Really Really, The Boy Detective Fails (world premiere), The Hollow (world premiere), Side By Side By Sondheim, Art, Sunset Boulevard, Walter Cronkite is Dead, (world premiere), Chess, Sycamore Trees (world premiere), Sweeney Todd, Les Misérables, The Lieutenant of Inishmore. DC AREA: Studio Theatre: Invisible Man, Sucker Punch; Woolly Mammoth Theatre; Round House Theatre; Imagination Stage; Adventure Theatre; Olney; Folger Theatre; Everyman Theatre; Theater J; Rep Stage. REGIONAL: La Jolla Playhouse, Huntington Theatre, Berkeley Rep, Centerstage, Children's Theatre of Charlotte, Vineyard Playhouse, Studio Arena Theatre. DANCE: Liz Lerman Dance Exchange. AWARDS: 2012 Bay Area Critics Circle Nomination for Ruined, Berkeley Rep; 2012 IRNE Nomination for Ruined, Huntington Theatre; 2009 Helen Hayes Nomination for The Neverending Story, Imagination Stage; named Artistic Associate for Signature Theatre, 2011.
Chris Lee (Lighting Design) SIGNATURE: Over 20 productions including Dreamgirls, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Merrily We Roll Along, The Witches of Eastwick, Saving Aimee, Into The Woods, Assassins, Follies, Hedwig And The Angry Inch, … in the absence of spring … , Side Show, Urinetown, Elegies: A Song Cycle, Xanadu. BROADWAY/WEST END: Fame Becomes Me, Linda Eder Live, Shakespeare’s R&J (Tokyo/London/UK Tour). TOURS: The Pajama Game (National Tour), The Backyardigans (National Tour),Barbie Live In Fairytopia (National Tour), Jesus Christ Superstar (European Tour). FILM: Camp. OTHER: Peep Show for Planet Hollywood, over 150 Off Broadway and Regional Theatre productions. Disney’s Believe, Wishes, Twice Charmed as well as facility design for the Disney Dream and the Disney Fantasy all for Walt Disney Creative Entertainment. His studio, Unit #10, conceives lighting for clients such as Coca Cola, Ford, Sony, American Express, and Intel. AWARDS: 2009 Helen Hayes Award for Kiss of the Spider Woman.
Matt Rowe (Sound Design) SIGNATURE: Dreamgirls, Dying City, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Xanadu, God of Carnage, Brother Russia, Really Really, Hairspray (Helen Hayes nomination), A Second Chance, Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South, The Boy Detective Fails, The Hollow, Side by Side by Sondheim, Art, And the Curtain Rises, Sunset Boulevard, Walter Cronkite is Dead., A Fox on the Fairway, Chess, Sycamore Trees, [title of show], Sweeney Todd, Show Boat, First You Dream: The Music of Kander & Ebb, Dirty Blonde, Giant, The Little Dog Laughed, Les Misérables, Anyone Can Whistle in concert, The Visit, The Happy Time, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Glory Days, Merrily We Roll Along, The Witches of Eastwick. DC AREA: Kennedy Center: First You Dream (Associate Sound Designer), Snow White, Rose Red (and Fred!); Nobody’s Perfect.
Kerry Epstein (Production Stage Manager) SIGNATURE: Dreamgirls, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Brother Russia, Hairspray, The Hollow, Side By Side By Sondheim, Sunset Boulevard, A Fox on the Fairway, Chess, Sycamore Trees, Sweeney Todd, Show Boat, First You Dream: The Music of Kander and Ebb, The Hollow (21/24 workshop), See What I Wanna See, Les Misérables, ACE, The Visit, Kiss of the Spider Woman, The Studio, Merrily We Roll Along, The Witches of Eastwick, Saving Aimee, Into the Woods, My Fair Lady, Assassins, The Sex Habits of American Women, Nevermore, Yemaya’s Belly. SIGNATURE CABARET: Partial Eclipse, December Divas, The Last Garage Hurrah. INTERNATIONAL: Dublin Theater Festival. DC AREA: Kennedy Center: The Snow Queen (New Visions/New Voices), The Trumpet of the Swan, Salute to the Presidential Scholars in the Arts (2010-2012); Arena Stage/Georgetown University: Begotten. REGIONAL: Steppenwolf Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Northlight Theatre, Rivendell Theatre Ensemble. EDUCATION: Dickinson College.