By William Shakespeare

Music by Landon Doak

Old Flame Theatre Co.

August 2015

With the end of theatre school beckoning, my dear friend and collaborator Landon Doak approached me with the idea of doing a musical rendition of Romeo and Juliet. He said he had been working on some music, and had a fantastic space in mind: the Old Flame Brewery in Port Perry. Immediately I jumped on it. George Brown, though excellent at what it does, does not give many opportunities to do much outside of acting. Landon and I spent many nights talking it over, ruthlessly cutting the script, day-dreaming, and then finally, we were there.

The week of the show was probably one of the highlights of my adult life. Every day was spent with many of my best friends, and Port Perry in the summer was just awesome. We would wake up midday, explore the town, hang out, the actors would do the show and I would drink, and then we would drink the night away and do it all again. Paradise.

The Old Flame Brewery has also become my favourite place to direct. It is such a beautiful, versatile space. It had this old wagon that we turned into the balcony, and all these barrels around that became our only set. Plus, it worked perfectly for theatre-in-the-round, which is by far my favourite way to direct Shakespeare. Bodies in space with a few props - nothing else.

I also need to give credit to Landon Doak for composing some of the finest music I could have imagined for the show. And, I am not necessarily saying that he is a super-genius or struck the zeitgeist or anything, but since we did that show, other companies have started doing 'Shakespeare done to music'. Just saying.

The cast

Romeo: Landon Doak

Juliet: Reanne Spitzer

Nurse: Annie Tuma

Mercutio: Matthew Finlan

Capulet: Noah Spitzer

Lady Capulet: Jocelyn Adema

Tybalt/Friar Laurence: Jonathan Woolley

Benvolio: Chris Fulton

Paris: Francois Macdonald

(Production Photography by Tom Warwick)