TeenTix Blog Theater

The play I’m reviewing is Romeo y Julieta, performed at the Glacier Middle School gym by Seattle Shakespeare. The play takes place in Italy with Spanish and English dialogue, where the story of Romeo and Juliet’s forbidden love is shown. The play Romeo y Julieta has tough dialogue, but the actions of the play make it easier to understand.

Romeo & Julieta's families despise each other; therefore it is just a common fact that there should be no interaction between the two. But the more Romeo and Juliet secretly talked, the more they fell for each other, choosing love over family in the long run.

On May 25 of 2022 I saw the Shakespeare adaption, Romeo y Julieta at Glacier Middle School. They did amazing acting with minimal sets. I was truly impressed with how focused they stayed throughout the entire performance; especially since they were doing it in front of 200 middle schoolers.

Can you imagine Characters in Romeo and Juliet having gender roles switched? Because in Romeo y Julieta, the male actors played female roles, and the women did some male roles. As a part of the Lgbtq+ community I was surprised and excited when they did that in the play; mainly due to the diversity. I highly recommend this play as it encourages that you do not have to be a different gender to play one specific role just because you are that gender.

In the play of Romeo y Julieta, I saw the role of Romeo being played by someone other than a man. And the mother of Julieta was a male and done wonderfully. All of this plus how they played inside of a school, meaning they had to use little resources to make sets/props/costumes/etc showed a great use of resource management, and diverse ways to play a role as it does not matter if you were a girl/boy because you got the role either way.

When I was watching the bilingual version of the Romeo y Julieta play in school, I noticed it was a unique play because could you imagine female actors playing male roles and males playing female roles? And they used their limited stage very well- If you could call it a stage- it was just a few banners with images of walls and that was about it. They ran between the banners (some had images of a large door) making it feel like they were really exiting the building they were in. But my one major complaint is that it was extremely hard to understand what they were saying. Since I was new to Shakespearean English and wasn’t exactly good at Spanish either, I don’t think you would really enjoy it if you were like me and couldn’t understand it pretty well.

Romeo y Julieta is a play about two characters, Romeo and Julieta, wanting to be together. But their families, the Montagues and the Capulets, have a strong hatred for each other so it wouldn’t work out too well if the families found out Romeo and Julieta were together. But they still loved each other so they would try to keep their relationship a secret. However, an incident happened causing Romeo to be evicted, so Julieta made a plan with someone. But it went horribly and both families ended up accepting each other because of what happened to their children.

Can you imagine my shock when I learned that the play I was watching had male characters that were dressed (or played) female characters? I was so happy and surprised; especially since it was Lgbtq+. As a member of the community I was so happy and excited that they did that in a Shakespeare play. If anyone was to want to start getting into Shakespeare I would tell them to watch Romeo y Julieta as their first play or read the book of it. It's really easy to understand the play once you know the plot of it and what it's about. Even though sometimes it was hard to understand what they were saying because people were talking, it was a very nice, enjoyable play and I hope to see it again one day.

Everything was really well put together; especially since they had little to no proper equipment for the play, so seeing that made me so happy because it approved that you don't need to have everything or all the right equipment to perform a play. The actors were able to change behind a black background fast and get ready for the next scene. They had very good transition music, props, and backgrounds which were very nice and fit the theme of the play and time era.

In Romeo y Julieta Shakespeare explores the lives and deaths of two lovers who were so passionate about each other that they could not escape their fate. Despite their love, both of them eventually failed to get their happy endings. One of Shakespeare's most popular works is Romeo and Juliet. This tragic love story is about two lovers who were so passionate about each other that they could not escape their fate. The idea of tragedy is that people are doomed to fail due to their own errors, their shortcomings, and even through the nature of their destiny. Romeo and Juliet is a tragic tale based on two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. I recommend this play for anyone who loves the art of Shakespeare, and is currently studying/interested in directing, or acting in plays themselves. They could learn a lot from watching Shakespeare. Although it would be very difficult for young audiences to understand the concept of love, they can still learn a lot from watching Romeo y Julieta. The actors use various language features and text structures to create a replica of the audience's attitudes and beliefs.One of the most tragic and popular love stories of all time is the story of Romeo and Juliet. The two characters came from very different backgrounds, with the Montagues and the Capulets being very well-off. However, their families had been feuding for a long time, and it was forbidden for them to be together. The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is that both the actions of others and the fortune of the characters make their deaths inevitable. In the play, Shakespeare explores the idea that people have no control over what happens to them. The actors did an amazing job of portraying the story and using the language of Shakespeare to convey the message. The actors also did a fantastic job with making the play relatable for people who may experience a love like that someday. This is a very difficult task for the actors since the play Romeo y Julieta is very unrealistic and not very relatable for the audience. They have had many chances to get what they want, but they have been unable to take advantage of them. In one of the scenes, Romeo talks about a mysterious danger that's hanging in the stars. This concept of fate explains how life works. In one of Shakespeare's most famous scenes, Friar Lawrence warns Romeo about the consequences of his actions. This warning serves as a reminder that his actions will have negative consequences. The central theme of the play is that we have no control over what happens.Another thing the play directors did an amazing job with is including LGBTQ+ representation. A lot of plays tend to not include LGBTQ+ representation and as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, it's very comforting to see such chemistry between two actors of the same gender! Especially since Shakespeare created Romeo and Juliet near the 1600´s, which was when it was unheard of for a couple to be of the same gender. In recent years, the number of LGBTQ+ characters being featured in television and film has been increasing this is due to the increasing acceptance of sexual orientation in society. However, while it is important to note that this representation is still very limited, it does not represent all people. Being able to include a wide variety of LGBTQ+ people in media, such as television and movies, can have a powerful impact on the marginalized community. It may take a long time to see how this will affect people. This play shows how the LGBTO community is portrayed in a positive light. Personally, I was very pleased to see that the actors didn´t mock the community, and they didn't try to make it seem like they are being overbearing, or that their entire personality is being gay. It's very rare in modern media to see this kind of representation. Being able to show the LGBTQ+ community in a positive light can help the audience feel like they are being represented in a proper manner. Being able to see positive role models in media can also help an individual feel like they are being represented in a good light. It can also help the viewers of such shows feel less negative about the people who are in the LGBTQ+ community. However, being able to show the LGBTQ community in a negative light can also lead to the development of stereotypes that are harmful to the community.This leads me to my next idea: language, text, and body language. This can be seen in this passage by the way that the actors use words such as Thee, Thou, and etc.. The lovers do this in scenes that they are in together as well as those that they are not, so it is not a form of speaking that they only use with one another, but how they were raised to articulate their thoughts. Although the writing was done in a way that was supposed to control the way that the actors portrayed the role, many performers say the lines in a way that could change the entire meaning of a single word, which is not something I feel like the actors did. A lot of people also couldn´t understand the Shakespearean language which made it very confusing to those who have never watched a play from Shakespeare.From the audience's perspective, the seating was very unusual and made it so that people didn't have enough leg room, since people started laying on each other during the entire show. I was one of the people who had people lay on them and I didn’t feel comfortable during the entire play. The seating also made it so that it was hard to hear any of the actors while they were performing. An alternative to sitting on the bleachers is sitting/laying on the floor, or getting chairs/seats that we could sit in. That way, we can move more freely and we'd be closer to the actors so we could hear them and see them better. Another complaint I heard quite frequently was that it was hard to understand them when they were switching languages (English to Spanish). I agree with this statement because I believe that switching so often from Spanish to English had good intentions, and were well suited for people who were Dual-Language speakers, but, it lost track of where the story is taking place. It was hard to understand in Spanish because I don't know the language very well and it was unexpected when they switched languages. Since it was hard to understand the Spanish, It was also easy to lose track of what they were saying because they switched languages all the sudden.All of the reasons above conclude that the play was excellent, but isn´t recommended for those who wouldn´t relate to it personally.

Lead photo credit: Romeo y Julieta by Seattle Shakespeare Company. Photo by Christian Zumbado.

The TeenTix Press Corps promotes critical thinking, communication, and information literacy through criticism and journalism practice for teens. For more information about the Press Corps program see HERE.

This review was written as part of an Arts Criticism workshop at Glacier Middle School in Mrs. Fishman’s Language Arts classes, taught by Press Corps teaching artist Jordi Montes.

Everyone should see Romeo y Julieta because it is a play about love and hate. The play Romeo y Julieta is about two families who dislike each other—but within those two families are Romeo and Julieta who meet at a party and fall in love with each other.

One element that made the play about love and hate was the props. During the play, when Juliet woke up to see that Romeo had drunk the poison, she was trying to find a knife to kill herself because she couldn’t live in a world without Romeo.

Honestly, I was impressed with the play. They did a really good job because when the male dressed as a female I was like, "Wow!" Because since they did not have more actors, they had to get in different outfits which I think is a lot of work because you need to be acting, and then you need to be acting like a female knowing that you're a male but still trying to show how much you've been training for that moment, which was impressive to see. Another thing I think is that there were really pretty dresses in that play. When they came out with the masks and everything, I thought it was lit because I had never seen pretty masks like that at a play.

Another thing that surprised me was that there were interesting fights. Every time they fought, they put a song in the background, which I think was cool because that made it more interesting. Also, every time they fought, there was this girl in the play who, when they started to fight in the first fight, took out the middle finger. I think that made the play more interesting and not boring because every time they fought it was a cool part because sometimes it was funny and sometimes it was angry. However, one thing that made it more confusing was when they talked in another language. I did not understand anything that they were saying and I think that's why I'd say that the play is in the middle of good and bad. Also, another thing that I think was a problem was because of the family; the reason why the girl stabbed herself.

Have you ever loved someone so much that your family disapproves of it? Well, Romeo y Julieta is a play about two families who have been fighting for a long time. The two main protagonists are from the two opposing families but they find out they love each other. The families do not agree with each other so they brawl it out. What will Romeo and Julieta do when their families hate each other?

In my opinion, the play Romeo y Julieta was really well adapted and acted by the cast. Romeo y Julieta is a great play because the acting was good and switching between English and Spanish was easy to understand. The acting showed the love between Romeo and Juliet while showing how much love meant to them. Also, switching between the two languages makes it easy to understand if you do not speak English. The great acting was on point throughout the play.

Have you ever seen a movie or play and thought, “These are good actors,” and think that you feel like they are not acting, like if he was really experiencing those things. That is one thing you would feel if you watched the Romeo y Julieta play. Romeo y Julieta is about two people who fall in love with each other, but whose families have always hated each other, so they do not approve of their love. They end up killing themselves thinking they could never be with each other, and not wanting to live without their love.

In my opinion, what helped me understand this play way better was their good acting and background and costumes. Let's talk about the background for example. Since one male actor and one female actor had to pretend to be their opposite gender, wearing the girl and boy costumes made it a lot more realistic and understandable. Also when an important character like Romeo or Juliet wore fancy dresses and clothes, it helped you understand how important they are in the play. For example when Juliet came in the play, she wore really elegant dresses.

My experience with Two Mile Hollow was not what I anticipated. This subversion of my expectations works both for and against it.

I came into it hoping it would lean into the irony of its premise–satirize a petty rich white family by casting Asian American Pacific Islander actors for each role. The promise of seeing something akin to The Mystery of Irma Vep, which used two actors in cross-gender roles to lampoon traditional Victorian gender roles, was what drew me to Two Mile Hollow in the first place. Its deficiency in this department was why it was a disappointment.

In the play, This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, and This Girl Does Nothing by Finnegan Kruckemeyer, there are three sisters - triplets - who live together with their parents. Some big events made them separate from each other. Then, each of the girls goes through their own interesting experiences and grows up. The themes of this play are about family, identity, childhood and being alone, so if you are the person who loves stories about family and self-expression, this one is the perfect movie choice for you.

First, in the play, they show you about how the family is important to you. For example, the dad left the triplets in the forest but instead of getting mad, the first thing they think about is finding him. To me, this shows that as a family, we are never going to be mad at each other for a long time and that family is always the most important thing in our heart. Secondly, the experiences that each of the sisters go through made me really impressed and it showed me about how we find out our identity. For instance, Carmen, the girl who chooses to stay in the woods, has her own way to go and she is helping people and then has her own family. Or Albienne, another sister who chose to go, to fight for her love and protect the village. This shows how we have to deal with being alone in real life. This movie reflects the experiences that we will have to go through to grow up and become mature in our real life.

The play This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, and This Girl Does Nothing by Finnegan Kruckemeyer, is a story about three sisters who live with their dad. The three sisters are Albienne, Carmen and Beatrix, and each have a different idea/identity. The themes of this play are find your own way for your future, find yourself and family.

When the sisters get lost, they have to find their own way for the future and find themselves. After their dad abandoned them, Carmen, who was the one who did nothing and stayed in that place where their dad left them, was friends with the animals. It shows that Carmen doesn't want to go forward or backward. The second sister, Beatrix, went to the west where her dad left and where the sun set to find her dad. This shows she doesn't want to lose the things she has so she decides to go backward and find her dad. And the third sister Albienne goes to the east and she becomes a soldier and a woman who helps people around that area. This shows she doesn't want to go forward and she wants to try new things.

In the play, This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, and This Girl Does Nothing by Finnegan Kruckemeyer, three sisters grow up with their father until they are thirteen years old. In a dark night, the three sisters got lost in the woods so each one decided to go a different way. As time passed the sisters had different lives that they did not imagine they would have. But as the years passed and they found their own way, they noticed that they missed their previous lives with their father and their sisters.

One theme of this play is about growing up alone. Growing up can be so difficult because sometimes you have no idea how to face situations on your own without help, without anyone else who can explain the things you don't understand. But also over time things may change the situation because we can find ourselves that we like, the different opportunities that we have and learn to be independent. For example, in the play when the father abandoned them in the forest, all of them took different paths. At the beginning it was not easy because they spent many years apart. But they found a way to do well in life. That is what the play also wants to show.

In the play, This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, and This Girl Does Nothing by Finnegan Kruckemeyer, there were three sisters who lived with their dad and mom. They were a family at first but then somehow they separated and they all wanted to get back together, so at the end they found each other again.

The theme of this play is that family is important.

The 5th Avenue Theatre has historically been the first residence of many productions. The newest addition to its repertoire of world premieres is called Afterwords by Zoe Sarnak and Emily Kaczmarek. It follows sisters Kali and Simone as they struggle to piece their life back together following the death of their mother. With the new burden of ever-mounting bills and the house mortgage, they rent out their attic to news journalist Jo, who is similarly in the midst of wading through the churning sea of loss. As they get to know each other, a complex history of intersecting stories unravels and new relationships form. The show bounces between modern-day and the past as we meet our characters and explore their stories. This story is one of love and loss, grieving and healing, hardships and family.

Afterwords was very reminiscent of Rent. A newer, less rock, version of Rent, but Rent nonetheless. It has some of that raw and truthful emotion that Rent’s composer Jonathan Larson loved to utilize in his work. As I sat down in the theater, the first song “After” came on it immediately engaged me. The use of bold harmonies straight off the bat to build the music and draw the viewer in immediately gave me goosebumps and a sense of total encompassment. Now, as we evolve as a music loving society, Broadway evolves with us—Six embraces our pop side, Hadestown our love of folk and jazz and of course Hamilton the popularity of rap. So Afterwords’ pop/rock/folk score was not new per se, but still thrilling, and surprisingly cohesive throughout the show given the differing genres.

Despite being overwhelmingly enjoyable to view, Afterwords disappointed on more than one front. After having thoughtfully contemplated the story, I felt the characters lacked development around the mental health issues they faced, and the plot had a very disheartening resolution. The musical opens with a well-delivered monologue, from a character named Jo, then progresses into the story of two young sisters, arty Simone, and Kali, the older, Grammy-nominated sister. They live in their recently deceased mother’s home together. They both struggle with grief in a realistic way—Simone tries to push it down, and Kali is deeply bitter. When Simone brings up the fact that they really need another source of income and suggests they get a roommate, Kali is extremely defensive, but eventually relents when Jo, a war reporter, shows up on their doorstep to apply to be a tenant; she recently lost someone very important too.

The 5th Avenue Theatre’s Afterwords, a new musical about three women working through an unexpectedly intertwined grief, is a bone-shaking masterpiece.

The show follows sisters Kali and Simone six months after their mom has passed, living together in their childhood home. When finances get tight, they search for a roommate. Jo, a journalist mourning the loss of her mentor, moves in, hoping the change in scenery will help her write his eulogy. The show switches from past to present—it follows Kali and Simone’s mother as she falls in love and cares for her daughters in the months leading to her death, and how Jo’s mentor shapes who she will become—to the women trying to navigate the space they left. The final twist completed the tragedy of the relationship of these five.

The Seattle Shakespeare Company took the title of Much Ado About Nothing very literally in a half-hearted, Bachelor-esque adaptation with very little to say. Arriving home from a vague war to a country club romance, Benedict and Claudio are looking for love. Beatrice is trying to get back at Benedict for breaking her heart, and Hero is looking for a husband. A reality TV-esque web of lies and rumors twist through this island summer setting.

The one thing that makes this adaptation worth watching is the acting. Unconventional casting asserted the dignity of the female characters with entirely non-male love interests. The adaptation had a new and holistic take on the sweet, sought after Hero (Joellen Sweeney), who is usually a helpless damsel type in the original source material. Her anti-heroic love interest, Claudio (Meme García), proves that regardless of gender, leaving someone at the altar is always a dick move. Sweeney preserves the grace and kindness of Hero throughout the second act without taking away her agency, which proves to be an impressive balancing act. Sweeney’s Hero did not shrink when upstaged by her more grandiose family. When her reputation is on the line in Act Two, you can feel the rage radiating off of Hero, who is so typically played as a submissive damsel-in-distress. She does not take Claudio back because she thinks she deserves his treatment; rather, she does so out of the kindness of her heart and her belief in redemption. Sweeney is a powerful force on stage, bringing a new life to this previously bland, shrinking violet.

Exam season is in full swing for teens across the country. It can be difficult to ease the waves of stress that accompany exams. We at TeenTix would like to reassure our readers that we have full faith in their abilities. Whatever happens, it will be alright! De-stressing is important for success, both personally and academically. We hope that readers will set time aside to take care of themselves by participating in art, be it a classical music performance or a modern film! There’s a huge selection of events that will be happening this month, and we’d like to highlight just a few that we hope you’ll enjoy.

From May 20-21, Pacific MusicWorks will be holding their music show, Wayward Sisters: A Dynamic Tapestry of Sound, at Benaroya Hall. The event will be an ode to 17th century soprano trios, reimagining the major works of the century as theatrical events. If you’re looking for something more contemporary, catch SIFF’s film Hatching. The film follows a twelve-year-old gymnast as she confronts her conflicts in the form of a fantastical, yet increasingly grotesque, creature that hatches from an egg that she finds in the woods.