Back in March of 2020, I was two weeks away from starting rehearsals as Friar Laurence in a new cutting of Romeo and Juliet by director/producer Sean Hagerty of Shakespeare@ (the same company for whom I played Polonius in Hamlet in 2019) in Jersey City, NJ. Then covid stopped the world.
Flash forward to today, August 24, 2023, and I’m about to start rehearsals for Romeo and Juliet at last! Some of the cast members have changed, the cutting is even sharper, the new venue is fantastic, Shakespeare@ has been rechristened The Curtain, and I’m still so excited to play Friar Laurence opposite my buddy (and my Laertes) Aria Shaghasemi as Romeo, with Sean directing. Our Juliet is the wonderful Anita Pomario, making her U.S. debut with this role. There is going to be a lot of smoldering between those two!
We held a private launch event this week for patrons and Jersey City politicians, and it’s so great to see how much local support there is for this new classical company in Jersey City. This is going to be a terrific and exciting new production; I’ll share more information soon!
