Romeo and Juliet
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The Play“The language comes to life in these young actors' mouths and sings as if the poetry were written for all of us today.” – Rinda Frye The classic Shakespeare tragedy “Romeo and Juliet” will unfold on the stage at U of L’s Playhouse Nov. 15-19 with an approach seldom taken in other productions, its director says. “We are trying to base scenes on what real people would have done,” said director Rinda Frye of the university’s Department of Theatre Arts. |
The play, which focuses on tragic lovers from warring families, is marked by violence, a problem “affecting everyone in society, whether in Verona or today in Louisville,” Frye said. “But we will stress the story of their love more than their death.”
The production also will contain strong elements of history, she said.
J. Barrett Cooper, manager of interpretive programs and education at Frazier International History Museum , is coaching fight scenes in the play, while U of L music history professor John Ashworth is advising on music and instruments of the period.
Frye teaches voice and stage speech, acting, Shakespeare and theatre history at the university. She also coaches voice and dialects for Actors Theatre of Louisville and the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival. She joined U of L in 1981 and since then has directed some 30 campus plays.
The play will be performed at 8 p.m. nightly with an additional 3 p.m. Sunday matinee.
Ticket prices are $10 for the general public, $9 for U of L employees and senior citizens and $7 for students. Call the box office at 502-852-6814 for reservations or group ticket prices.
U of L’s Playhouse, built in 1874 as a chapel, is located between Second and Third streets at Cardinal Avenue on the west edge of Belknap Campus.
For more information, call Frye at 502-852-7682.
The Players
Christina M. Browder (Lady Capulet), Clanton, AL, is a first-year MFA student in Performance. This is her debut performance at UofL. Past productions elsewhere include Phaedra, For Colored Girls . . . , The Trial, and The First Breeze of Summer.
Sarah Carleton (Juliet), Darlington, PA, is a first-year MFA student in Performance. This is her debut performance at UofL. Past productions elsewhere include Quilters and Everyman.
Drew Cash (Paris, Abram), Hardinsburg, KY, is a freshman Theatre Arts major. This is his debut performance at UofL. Past productions elsewhere include Bye, Bye, Birdie and You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown. He also co-wrote and performed in various roles in four original musicals at Breckinridge County High School.
Erica Goins (The Nurse), Louisville, KY, is a senior Theatre Arts major. Past productions at UofL include The Winter’s Tale, Poet from Pikeville, Seven Stops to Freedom, and Lift Every Voice and Sing. A transfer student, Erica has previously performed in the following productions at Jefferson Community College: The Three Sisters, The Cherry Orchard, Sure Thing, Art Control, and Cover.
Jared Hanlin (Gregory, 2 nd Servant, 2 nd Musician ), Crestwood, KY, is a sophomore Theatre Arts major. This is his debut performance at UofL. Past productions elsewhere include The American Century, Rumors, and A Rehearsal for Murder.
Kevin Hillerich (Tybalt), Louisville, KY, is a freshman at UofL. This is his debut performance. Past productions include Romeo and Juliet at the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival, She Stoops to Conquer and The Outsiders at the Youth Performing Arts School. He also wrote and directed It Is a Mystery for the New Works Festival at YPAS.
Kate Holland (Prince,Assistant Director), Bowling Green, KY, is a junior Theatre Arts major. Past productions at UofL include Winter’s Tale,A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Playwriting 101, and Arabian Nights. She performed in School Play with the Rep Company in Russia. Other productions elsewhere include Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Once upon a Mattress, Singin’ in the Rain, and Big River. She has also performed with the Storytelling Drama Troupe in Bowling Green, KY.
Janelle Hunnicutt (Lady Montague, Chorus, Musician), from Spartanburg, SC, is a first-year MFA student in Performance. She most recently was the Assistant Stage Manager for King Hedley II and performed in the African American Theatre Program production of Lift Every Voice and Sing as Queen Esther for the Louisville NAACP Conference. She has also stage managed and directed at Berea College.
Sarah Imhof (Sister Jean, 1 st Citizen), Louisville, KY, is a junior Theatre Arts major. This is her debut performance. She was the Assistant Stage Manager for As Bees in Honey Drown at UofL.
James Isaac (Benvolio), Louisville, KY, is a sophomore. Past credit includes Florizel in The Winter’s Tale at UofL. He is extensively involved with the improvisation troupe, The Indicators, and has been involved in Studio Theatre productions. Outside of UofL he has performed in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Robert and Elizabeth, The Impossible Years, Carousel, and Tartuffe, among others.
Doug James (Friar Lawrence), LaFollette, TN, is a second-year MFA student in Performance. He earned his BA in Theatre at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Past credits at UofL include Autolycus in The Winter’s Tale, stage manager for A Doll House, Roy Bryant in The Face of Emmett Till, and fight choreographer for As Bees in Honey Drown. Past productions include: Waiting for Godot, Oklahoma!, Sing Down the Moon, ‘Tis a Pity She’s a Whore, King Stag, and Romeo and Juliet. Directing credits include: How I Learned to Drive, For Whom the Southern Bell Tolls,The Stonewater Rapture and Phillip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread.
John Lina (Montague, Older Capulet), St. Louis, MO, is a Continuing Studies student at UofL. This is his debut performance.
Bryan McKinley (Capulet), Shepherdsville, KY, is a Parking Enforcement Officer at Indiana University Southeast in New Albany, IN. He earned his B.A. in Theatre and History at Indiana University, Bloomington. Past productions include Cock-A-Doodle-Dandy, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Bus Stop. He also had parts in two independent films—Concentric and Mime. This is his debut performance at UofL.
Katie McNeal (Peter), Campbellsburg, KY, is a sophomore English major. This is her debut performance at UofL. Past productions elsewhere include Guys and Dolls, Cinderella, Wizard of Oz, and The Last Gladiator. She also co-directed and produced Showtime for Oscar for her high school’s youth showcase.
Brandon Meeks (Romeo), Louisville, KY, is a junior English major. Past productions include The Winter’s Tale, As Bees in Honey Drown,The Face of Emmett Till, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Party Play Cycle. He is a member of The Indicators improv troupe.
Corey Music (Sampson, Balthasar, First Musician), Painstville, KY, is a freshman Theatre Arts major. This is his debut performance at UofL. Past productions include A Christmas Carol, Peter Pan, Legend of Jenny Wiley, The Music Man, Beauty and the Beast, and Jesus Christ Superstar at Jenny Wiley Theatre.
Gerry Rose (Mercutio), Birmingham, AL, is a first-year MFA student in Performance. This is his debut performance at UofL. Past credits elsewhere include Lenny Ganz in Rumors and PA Joad in Grapes of Wrath.
Katy Sanborn (Apothecary, Servant 1, Musician 3) is a freshman English major and Theatre Arts minor. This is her debut performance at UofL. Past productions elsewhere include She Stoops to Conquer, The Dinner Party, and Plaza Suite. She has two years of vocal and vaudeville training.
Megan McKinney (Scenic Design ) is a second-year MFA student in Design. She earned her BA degree in Theatre at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She was the Scenic Designer for As Bees in Honey Drown. Past scenic design credits elsewhere include Romeo and Juliet, Oklahoma, Pump Boys and Dinettes, Oliver, and Midwives. She received training as a scenic artist at Cobalt Studios in White Lake, NY.
Zhanna Goldentul (Costume Design) is the resident Costume Designer for the Theatre Arts Department at UofL. Her recent designs for the department include: Blithe Spirit, As Bees in Honey Drown, In the Blood, Night Sky, The Face of Emmett Till, All in the Timing, Home, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Threepenny Opera, The Importance of Being Ernest, Vinegar Tom, Troilus and Cressida, Woman in Mind, and The Trojan Women. She teaches Costume History, Costume Design and Construction, and Stage Makeup. She graduated from the Theatrical Art College in Moscow. Before coming to the U.S. in 1992, she worked in Russia at the Old Drama Theatre, the Moscow Contemporary Theatre, the New Moscow Musical Art School, Avant Garde Ballet Company (for TV), and designed book covers for Printinghouse Illustrating Materials. She is a member of the United Scenic Artists' Union.
Patrick Fitzsimmons (Lighting Design) is a senior Theatre Arts major at UofL. This is his first mainstage lighting design. He was the Sound Designer for A Doll House, Night Sky and The Face of Emmett Till.
Jillian A. Spencer (Stage Manager), Louisville, KY, is a sophomore Theatre Arts major. She was the Assistant Stage Manager for As Bees in Honey Drown at UofL. Other Stage Managing credits include Little Shop of Horrors in Winchester, KY, The Great Divorce, Adaptation of Everyman, and Scrambled Eggs at University of Kentucky.
J. Barrett Cooper (Fight Director) has been involved in staged combat for over 20 years and has been fight director on over 30 shows. He is happy to finally work with the people at UofL. He is the Manager of Interpretive Programs at the Frazier Historical Arms Museum where he is responsible for the Historical Combat presentations amongst other things. He has trained with John Waller and Keith Ducklin at the Royal Armouries in Leeds, England and displays this particular form of staged combat tonight. His work as a Fight Director as been seen locally with Kentucky Shakespeare, Necessary Theatre, and Walden Theatre. Fight Director credits include The Passion of Dracula, I Hate Hamlet, Corpse (Wayside Theatre), Burn This (Itinerant Theatre Guild of Chicago), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Arkansas Rep), Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night (Kentucky Shakespeare Festival (Asst. Fight Director, 1988-89 season) and over 20 shows at Walden Theatre. Mr. Cooper is also an actor and director and has performed locally and regionally. This spring, he will be performing the role of the King in Walden Theatre’s production of King Lear at their Young American Shakespeare Fesitval.
The Director
Rinda Fry, Faculty Director, teaches voice and stage speech, acting, Shakespeare, and theatre history. She recently directed A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Stop Kiss, Troilus and Cressida, and Woman in Mind for the University Theatre and Macbeth for the Repertory Company. She coaches voice and dialects for Actors Theatre of Louisville, including Tall Grass Gothic and At the Vanishing Point for the last Humana Festival and Blues for an Alabama Sky, Dracula, and A Christmas Carol this past season. She has worked as an actress with various theatres. Most recently, she played Pam in Tender at the Kentucky Center for the Arts. She performed in Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Winter’s Tale, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Henry IV Part 1 and A Comedy of Errors for the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival as well as working as voice coach. She was co-founder and artistic director of the Utah Shakespeare Players where she also directed and acted. Dr. Frye’s Ph.D. is from the University of Oregon and she has published a book, William Poel's Hamlets: the Direct or as Critic, and several scholarly articles.
The Stage
The UofL Playhouse
1911 S. 3rd Street
Louisville , KY 40208
Built in 1874, the current Playhouse originally served as a small, interdenominational chapel for a local orphanage. In 1923, the University of Louisville acquired the land on which the chapel stood, converted the structure into a theatre, and designated it a "temporary building" for use until a permanent theatre could be erected.
In 1977, the Playhouse was dismantled to make room for the construction of the William F. Ekstrom Library and Learning Resources Center. The building was systematically taken apart and safely put into storage.
Rebuilt in 1980 on the traffic island between 2nd and 3rd streets at Cardinal Ave., the Playhouse was expanded to include a basement and full-working scene shop. It is also the location of the offices of the Technical Director and Scene Shop Foreman.
The Playhouse is located on the corner of Cardinal Blvd. & 3rd Street. Metered street parking is available along 3rd Street and Cardinal Blvd. Free parking in the university parking lots located on 3rd St. is free after 7:30 p.m. weekdays and all day on weekends.
Click here for Map
The Ticket
Box Office
HPES / Studio Arts Building
Corner of Floyd and Warnock Streets
Office Hours
Monday - Friday
10am - 3pm
(502) 852-6814
Ticket Price
General Public - $10
Students - $7
Season Tickets - $30.00-$45.00 (Order Form) [DOC]
Additional Information
To make ticket reservations, please contact the Box Office Manager, Debbie Hudson, at 852-6814. Accepted methods of payment include Visa & Mastercard.