Romeos and Juliets to mark Stratford Festival's 65th season with reunion
Festival is bringing together 6 Romeos and 5 Juliets, including current performers, on Thursday
"O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?"
Star crossed lovers will meet again on Thursday when nearly a dozen actors who played Romeo and Juliet will gather on stage to mark the 65th season of the Stratford Festival.
The festival is bringing six Romeos and five Juliets together in Stratford, Ont. to celebrate the first performance of its first ever production, Richard III, on July 13, 1953. All of the actors will gather on stage after Thursday's matinee performance of Romeo and Juliet in the Festival Theatre.
"It's a special day at the festival," Ann Swerdfager, publicity director of the Stratford Festival, said Wednesday.
"We thought it would be nice to mark the day by reaching back into our history."
Play is 'rite of passage'
Actors interviewed by CBC News and who will be there on Thursday called the play is a "rite of passage" for young performers.
All of the actors expected to attend on Thursday have gone onto theatrical careers, Swerdfager said. About half have made names for themselves in film and television, while the other half have established themselves in the theatre — largely at Stratford.
Expected to attend from past productions are: Colm Feore and Seana McKenna (1984); Antoni Cimolino and Megan Follows (1992); Graham Abbey (2002); Gareth Potter and Nikki M. James (2008).
Also expected are: Tom Rooney (1990) who played Romeo in a bilingual production of the play staged in a tent on the Festival grounds; and Annette av Paul (1979) who played Juliet in a ballet performance from Les Grands Ballets Canadiens at the Festival.
Stratford's current Romeo and Juliet, Antoine Yared and Sara Farb, will also be there.
"What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."
In an interview with CBC Kitchener-Waterloo, Megan Follows and Antoni Cimolino said they are looking forward to the reunion.
Follows, who played Juliet and was a new mother at the time, said: "I remember being very excited about the work. I have always sort of felt there was something very sacred about working on certain texts. We are very lucky to do what we do as actors, especially when you are in such an amazing environment as the Stratford Festival."
She said took the role very seriously and the reunion will bring back those memories.
"It's going to be amazingly wonderful to see Antoni. Romeo and Juliet is kind of a rite of passage for young performers when you have been lucky enough to have gone on that journey. It's amazing to be there to share that with other performers," she said.
"The language is so beautiful. That is really the gift of Shakespeare — these exquisite words to express something what we all kind of recognize and feel. He has given breath and words to those feelings."
"My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite."
In an interview with CBC London, Seana McKenna and Colm Feore said the play holds special memories from early in their careers.
McKenna, who is playing the nurse in the festival's current production, said: "It was a major event for me. It was my first major Shakespearean role on the Festival Stage. This was a real challenge and a delight. It was pretty exciting.
"We all sort of came together in that production and had a good grasp of the material."
Feore said: "It was delightful. It was a huge break for both of us. A great start.
"It feels a little bit like yesterday. It's such an extraordinary play. Once you do it, it sticks with you forever. As you say, these are milestones in an actor's life. You put so much into it. We spent a year doing it. It just becomes part of you.
"One gives up one's youth very reluctantly."
With files from Jackie Sharkey