Media Archive

“We all know it or we think we know it, but I’m always interested in directing classics in a way to wake them up and have an audience experience them as if they’ve never seen them before,” [Diane] Paulus said.

“It is principally by means of the incandescent brilliance of its language that Romeo and Juliet has earned its place as one of the greatest love stories in world literature,” writes Stephen Greenblatt.

“Romeo and Juliet are two young people who have a vision of where the world is going for them and where the world could go. In many ways, they are determined to not repeat the path of their parents or the generations that came before them,” said director Diane Paulus.

[Sidi Larbi] Cherkaoui and [Diane] Paulus agree that “Romeo and Juliet” is an intensely physical text, not just in its violence but also in its sensuality… Cherkaoui said he admires the way Shakespeare so freely and frequently brings the conversation back to the body.

“Romeo and Juliet” is a full-circle moment for [Sharon Catherine] Brown, the daughter of two Broadway performers, who was so enthralled with the story as a child that she carried her paperback copy everywhere she went. Performing a show at A.R.T and working with Paulus are two other checks off her career bucket list.

“We’ve got a really interesting telling of this story that we all know so well,” [actor Clay] Singer said. “It’s a really interesting choice that helps lead to questions like ‘What is hate?’ and ‘Why do we hate?’”