Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles (SCLA), under the artistic direction of Ben Donenberg, returns to the Japanese Garden at the Greater Los Angeles VA Healthcare Campus for the third consecutive summer, with a Los Angeles-centric summer production of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet– directed by Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal National Theatre alum Kenn Sabberton – for seventeen performances only, July 8 to 26.
The cast includes Jack Mikesell (Rizzoli & Isles) as Romeo, Christina Elmore (Fruitvale Station, The Last Ship) as Juliet, Elijah Alexander (Metamophoses on Broadway, Mr. and Mrs. Smith) as Lord Capulet, Tracey A. Leigh (Grey’s Anatomy,Death of a Salesman at SCR) as Lady Capulet, Gregg Daniel (True Blood) as Lord Montague, Wyatt Fenner (Rest andThe Whale at SCR) as Benvolio, Gregory Linington (Shameless, Major Crimes) as Mercutio, Chris Rivera (Shakespeare Center Los Angeles, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, ER and Castle) as Tybalt, Michael Manuel (Medium, National Treasure) as Friar Lawrence, Tony-Award-Nominee Kimberly Scott (I am Sam, The Velocity of Gary) as Nurse, Cristina Frias (Black Butterfly, Culture Clash) as Prince and Colin Bates (Billy Elliott) as Paris.
The Japanese Garden is located on the grounds of the Greater Los Angeles VA Healthcare Campus at 11301 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90073 (adjacent to the Brentwood Theatre). Tickets, starting at $20, are available by calling213.893.8293 or online at www.shakespearecenter.org. For information about the ticket program for active military and veterans, please call SCLA at 213-481-2273.
Artistic director Ben Donenberg said, “This July, we light up the Japanese Garden with a new production of Romeo and Juliet that draws its inspiration from 1920s Los Angeles, when the rivalry between newspapers seeking readers, influence, revenue, and power broke out into gang skirmishes that matched the lurid and sensational brand of journalism popular then as we reimagined the Capulets and the Montagues as the Chandlers vs. the Hearsts. For the fourth time for Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles, the imaginative director Kenn Sabberton invigorates our stage with Shakespeare that speaks directly to modern audiences. It is also our third summer at the Japanese Garden, a unique venue which exemplifies how wondrous our city can be.”
More about Shakespeare Center’s Romeo and Juliet
Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles is well known and beloved for its unique and engaging Los Angeles focused interpretations of Shakespeare’s plays. This Romeo and Juliet is set in 1923 in a Los Angeles that was booming -- as a real estate sign proclaiming HOLLYWOODLAND is erected.
Silent films are all the rage, prohibition is in full swing, and flappers are dancing the Charleston through their bathtub gin-soaked, non-stop party lives – some parties running for weeks at a time -- that would be memorialized by F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby.
Crime, starting with illegal booze, was everywhere. Juvenile delinquency was on the rise as hoodlums and criminals became role models. From 1900 to 1925, the average age of jail convicts dropped from 50 to 25. At first the crimes were smaller – by “tomato gangs” whose weapons were rotten fruit and vegetables – and were soon followed by street fights. Thugs – like the gangs of today – engaged in turf wars.
Los Angeles grew big enough for two newspapers to emerge and it is in this world of rival editors that this Romeo and Juliet unfolds. Lord Capulet (think Harry Chandler) edits one of the papers; Lord Montague (think William Randolph Hearst) edits the other.
The inspiration for this concept came from the book Mickey Cohen, in My Own Words: the Underworld Autobiography of Michael Mickey Cohen, As Told to John Peer Nugent:
I would hustle news papers, but each night I would also get a little extra just to be there if there was any fighting to do … the city editor of the Examiner was a pretty good drinker, and I got to know him through my boot-jacking day.
I got the sheets first off the press with a big story … it got known I had access to the sheets first. I had two or three guys with me. They would start shouting, "Extra! Extra!" and we'd get as high as a buck a sheet -- anything the traffic would bear. I started hustling on Seventh and Broadway and Eighth and Hill. Later I went after the top downtown corners. Naturally you had to fight for these corners, and the guy who had the most strength kept the best ones. A lot of times I was hired for protection by guys who owned other corners that cost $1500, $2500. $3000.
About The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles
Since 1985, The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles has been a cherished community resource committed to making Shakespeare accessible, relevant and enriching for students, educators, artists and audiences from all walks of life.
Ben Donenberg, one of the city’s greatest proponents of Shakespeare, started the Shakespeare Center with a free production of Twelfth Night in Pershing Square in 1986 and since then has provided performances of Shakespeare, along with outreach programs such as Will Power to Youth, which provides hands-on artistic experience with paid job training and arts education for at-risk youth. The program has been so successful that it has been replicated in communities around the country.
Well known for its L.A.-centric approach to Shakespeare, past Shakespeare Center production highlights include A Midsummer Night’s Dream featuring jazz standards set in the 1920s along Central Avenue, a 1990s Julius Caesar on the steps of City Hall, Twelfth Night on Venice Beach, As You Like It featuring Peter Seeger’s music imagined in Yosemite National Park, The Two Gentlemen of Verona featuring Beatles music in a suburban 1970s San Fernando Valley, as well as a contemporary The Taming of Shrew at a time-share, featuring music by contemporary Los Angeles composers. Throughout its 26-year history, the Shakespeare Center has presented Shakespeare that reflects the landscape, history and people of Los Angeles, rendering interpretations that are artistically, financially, geographically, and physically accessible to all.
The center recently presented its 25th Anniversary production of Much Ado About Nothing at the Kirk Douglas Theatre starring Helen Hunt, Tom Irwin, Lyle Lovett, Grace Gummer, Dakin Matthews, Stephen Root, David Ogden Stiers, Sara Watkins and Sean Watkins; it also hosted the West Coast Premiere of The Trial of Hamlet having previously been presented at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Boston and Chicago.
Now in its 19th year, Will Power to Youth (WPY) is the highly acclaimed youth development program at The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles. WPY combines academics, human relations, job training and art to create a unique summer employment opportunity for youth aged 14-19.
WPY has also been nationally recognized by the National Endowment of the Arts, First Lady Laura Bush, and The U.S. Department of Justice for its effectiveness at addressing unemployment, youth violence and high-school dropout rates. In 2008, WPY was selected as one of ten arts programs for inclusion in the groundbreaking report The Qualities of Quality: Excellence in Arts Education and How to Achieve It released by Harvard’s Project Zero. In 2005, The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles was selected by Bush as a destination point on her “Helping America’s Youth” tour. The tour highlighted model youth programs that made a significant difference in the lives of young people. Subsequently, SCLA’s Will Power to Youth program was invited to participate in the White House Conference for Helping America’s Youth, as the Featured Lunchtime Presenter.
Dates: Performances begin Tuesday, July 8 through Saturday, July 26
(Press opening is Sunday, July 13)
Tuesday through Sunday evenings at 8 pm
Gates Open at 6:30 for pre-show picnics
Theatre: Japanese Garden at the Greater Los Angeles VA Healthcare Campus
11301 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90073
(adjacent to the Brentwood Theatre)
Prices: $20, $49, plus premium $70 (includes box dinner)
Tickets for active military, veterans, and their guests are free of charge
(while supplies last; reservations required).
Please call SCLA at 213-481-2273.
Tickets: call 213.893.8293 or visit www.shakespearecenter.org
More Info: www.facebook.com/shakescenter
www.twitter.com/shakescenterLA
