Romeo and Juliet Meets Waldorf

Jadan Smith played Romeo in Waldorf’s production of “Romeo and Juliet.” Photo from Waldorf Theatre Facebook Page

The Waldorf Theatre department performed the Shakespeare play “Romeo and Juliet” Nov. 14-17 in the Smith Theater.

Jadan Smith and Anicka Teater played the leads, Romeo and Juliet, in this romantic tragedy.

The play shows the relationship of two teens who love each other, but cannot be together because of their family rivalries. The Capulets and the Montagues hate each other, but no one truly knows why. The play ends with the two leads committing double suicide via poison and dagger.

Audience members consisted of young and old alike, and the generational gap played a major difference in their reception of the play.

“The feedback was mostly positive from the older audience, but the younger audience seemed bored with the story,” said Mickey Simmons, who played Friar John.

Older audiences tend to be bigger fans of William Shakespeare while the young people find it harder to understand the message and the storyline, mostly because of the old English.

“Old English makes it three times [more] complicated [than] it needs to be,” said Waldorf student and audience member Kristine Kingland. “It’s just a style of writing that I’m not used to. It makes you try to decipher what they are saying instead of paying attention to what’s happening in the play.”

Other than the generation struggle, the play went well. “We took a different angle to the play and I think it paid off for us,” said Simmons.

The theatre department’s next performance is “Picasso at the Lapin Agile,” set to premiere after the winter break.