“Romeo and Juliet” is arguably the most widely-known William Shakespeare play, and a performance opened May 4 in SF State’s Studio Theatre. But it is far from your typical regurgitation of the Bard's tale of star-crossed lovers caught between feuding families.

“We’re doing a contemporary spin on the piece,” said Roy Conboy, theatre arts chair and director of the play. “We’re making choices based on our own lives in contemporary times.”

The cast is made up mostly of seniors.

“The main reason why this production came into play was that most of the cast are graduating, so we got all these talents together for a fantastic show,” said stage manager Laura Osburn. “It’s kind of the best of the best.”

The experienced cast, appearing in their last performance on campus, has rehearsed constantly since February, making this a special production, according to Conboy.

”It’s a senior project so it’s a group of maybe some of the best theatre arts students in the department,” Conboy said. “So it’s also an exciting project because of a lot of exciting young actors.”

The play is set in San Francisco and is what Osburn described as “a modern ‘Romeo and Juliet’ with an abstract twist.” However, this production should in no way be thought of as an imitation or reproduction of the movie released in 1997 which starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes.

“We’re not imitating that movie because most of us don’t like it,” Conboy said. “We’re using the language, (and) we’re also doing it in modern dress.

“But we’re also bringing in different kinds of theatricalities, like we’re doing mask work, there are movement pieces in it, and we’re doing a sort of Asian style of fighting.”

Though there are some things from the film that inspired the play, Osburn said the SF State production is more profound.

“I believe there’s more depth in this production of 'Romeo and Juliet' than there was in the Leonardo DiCaprio one,” Osburn said. “The weapons are sticks. They’re not guns. They’re used in a kind of martial arts movement.

“There’s a lot of mask play because we use them to represent the people who’ve died."
Shakespearean works can sometimes be a bit dry, boring and hard to follow, but this production will be different, Osburn said.

“People going into the show shouldn’t expect to be bored,” Osburn said. “When you think of classics, you think of yawning, and this show does not give you time to yawn.”

The show will take place at 8 p.m. May 4-7 and May 11-14 in the Studio Theatre in the Creative Arts building. Admission is free.