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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.

At the Henry Art Gallery, everyone wants to see the Skyspace, an oval-shaped building with an oval-shaped skylight. To get to this famous exhibit, you have to pass through a small, square room. Most people give a few seconds or minutes of a glance before moving on, either to the Skyspace or to another more popular exhibit at the Henry. Within this room is Viewpoints. It’s essentially a rotating display: works from various artists that center around a different theme each time it’s changed.

Double Dare Ya, the most recent iteration of Viewpoints, features works by Amanda Ross-Ho, Marsha Burns, and Justine Kurland. They center around the reality of teenage girls—facing vast change, transience, and the rigidity of femininity. Amanda Ross-Ho, Untitled (SIMPLE PLAN), 2013. Acrylic on dyed canvas. Photo Courtesy of the Henry Art Gallery.

This coming of age meets horror film unnervingly unpacks Tinja’s (Siiri Solalinna) toxic relationship with her mother (Sophia Heikkilä) as well as her own repressed demons. Tinja’s mother is a family lifestyle vlogger, determined to encapsulate her family’s day to day life as perfect. Throughout the film, however, it becomes apparent that Tinja’s family is far from perfect. Director ​​Hanna Bergholm exposes the overbearingness of Tinja’s mother through costuming and set design. Tinja is thirteen years old and still wears frilly dresses and hair bows. Her bedroom is the epitome of a grandma who’s aesthetic never developed past the 1940s. With walls covered floor to ceiling in flowery wallpaper and sheer voile curtains, there is no doubt that Tinja has never rebelled against her mother.

To any outsider, this behavior would scream mommy issues, but to Tinja, she is simply upholding her mother’s desires and is happy to do so for her mother’s approval. Tinja lacks the freedom to be an unbothered teenage girl, so when she finds an egg in the woods, Tinja immediately bonds with it as this is the first thing that is truly hers. Still from Hatching (2022) directed by Hanna Bergholm. Distributed by IFC Films.

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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.

CRASH

Once the lights dimmed, I was silent until confusion came over me; I had not recognized the dull hum of the ocean as the starting music for this piece. But soon I settled again once a faint spotlight outlined a body on stage: a man. The sound of waves rose as he moved his arm up and rolled, his legs up, and rolled. Maybe the movement of his body wasn’t to the music, but rather mimicking where the sounds derived from: crashing waves. Other dancers sprang out of the dark of the back of the stage and simultaneously swayed with him. They continuously worked as a whole to create the illusion of ripples. When performing with one another, the atypical collaboration of dancers flush against each other on the floor had them almost toppling over one another, though fortunately that was avoided. They flowed apart as my eyes adjusted to the light that was gradually brightening.

A shard of light in the darkness. The constant movement of the ocean, drifting in and out like the guitar’s melody. Swirling whitewater becomes the mesmerizing limbs of a dancer, their rolls across the stage becoming the crest of a wave. Two dancers entangle themselves in a complicated lift, like a whale fluke slipping beneath the surface. Large, sweeping movements echo down the line until the dancers fall and slap the ground loudly, suggesting not just the motion of waves, but also emotion connected with the powerful crash. Okaidja Afroso’s song reverberates, his low voice both emotional and nostalgic, fitting exactly with the background sound of the sea. There are no elaborate costumes, and one musician accompanies the dance. Yet, the elements come together to communicate a personal message that anyone could understand, and in a different way than reading a book or watching a movie. The story painted by Jacob Jonas The Company’s Crash is the ocean, both in its simplicity and its mystery.

Lead Photo: Image of dancers in Crash presented by Jacob Jonas The Company’s at ECA. Photo by Matthew Brush.

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 a Dance Journalism Workshop at Edmonds Center for the Arts which was held April 30-May 14, 2022. The workshop was taught by Press Corps teaching artist Omar Willey.

The moon pulls the tides to and fro on the shores. Just a few blocks away, flawless choreography pulls the dancers in Jacob Jonas The Company’s production of Crash back and forth across the stage at Edmonds Center for the Arts. The dancers’ movements are synchronized as they duck and bend with the fluid and seamless spirit of the ocean, never stopping for a moment’s rest. The stage is always taken up by the flourishing and spinning of dancers fanning out like a wave smashing on the sand, followed by the gentler movements of calmer moments in the sea. The restlessness of the ocean is the key inspiration behind the work, and indeed shines masterfully throughout the performance. It’s so invigorating, full of emotion and energy, that I could hardly take my eyes off it.

As soon as the audience members took their seats and the lights dimmed to near complete darkness, Crash began a transition into a completely different world from the theater lobby. Speakers started playing, gently and almost imperceptibly at first, the sounds of crashing waves and the calming ambience of the ocean. Then, the first dancers started making an appearance, joining the sounds of the ocean in gentle, rolling movements across the stage. The dim stage lighting illuminated just the sides of the stage, and seemed to simulate morning light. From the very beginning, the lighting and sound design gave the audience a keen sense of the passage of time and the sun’s cycle through the sky. The early show’s silence and emptiness represented perfectly the feel of the dark early morning, and as the show went on, it progressed into more emotive daytime scenes. In the otherwise silent hall, I was taken by just how overwhelming yet tranquil the combination of the dancers’ repetitive movements and the now loud crashing of the waves was. The entire scene started the night off with an unconventional type of bang, filling one’s senses and setting the mood of the whole piece.

I have known about Jacob Jonas The Company for a little bit. When I found out that they were coming to Seattle, I had to go and see their show called Crash. The waves off of the Santa Monica Pier inspired this show and it included the waves and their height/positions that were scientifically researched. For him, Jacob Jonas said that the ocean was a place of healing and relief. This show offered precisely that.

Crash began in the darkness and silence, and you could tell people were afraid to make even the slightest noise not to destroy the pre-show mood. The light slowly came on from the left of the stage, it was a soft white light. This was the sunrise; the dancer's bodies were covered with this one-sided light, and they looked so peaceful. A couple of solos started, then more and more joined in laying on the ground and making wave shapes with their body. It looked exactly like a wave shape you would see in the ocean. The waves were formed with their legs in their hands, moving in ½ second counts. Gradually, dancers got up one by one, with each performing a solo before they went back into the ocean formation. This reminded me of big waves hitting the beach and then going back in the water. The music was the kind you hear in morning meditations: slow, twinkly, and full of energy. The dancers' movements were soft, and they expressed the music perfectly. It was more like the music wasn't for them, but they were there for the music.