Calling performers of all ages who love elevated language, and discovering new ways to tell timeless tales.
Please bring a prepared, approximately 2-minute Shakespearean monologue in verse that shows your experience with elevated language, and an updated headshot/resume. If you don’t have a verse monologue prepared, don’t worry; you can select one of the pieces provided from the script.
Pembroke Players’ Romeo and Juliet will be age-reversed, with Romeo, Juliet, and others playing 60s-80s and Lord and Lady Capulet/Lord and Lady Montague as the children/in-laws of the leads, playing 20s-50s.
Set on a present-day cruise ship and drawing inspiration from many modern sources (think the Bluths in Arrested Development), our version of William Shakespeare’s classic will honor the language and be a comedy…until it’s not.
Directed by Jenny Guy with a key assist from Pembroke Players Artistic Director Cody McCoy, performances will be at the Tulsa PAC in October.
Rehearsals will begin in late July/early August
Our Version of the Story
After a challenging health diagnosis, the wealthy widower Romeo is determined for one final epic romance (or at least a few rolls in the hay) before he shuffles off this mortal coil. So he drags his lifelong buddies onto a 10-day luxury cruise in the Mediterranean. He never expected to come face-to-face with the one who got away.
On the same voyage, the annual Capulet Cruise is even more tense than usual. Unbeknownst to mostly-retired matriarch Juliet, her son’s poor investments have their empire on the brink of financial ruin without a massive cash infusion from an angel investor: Paris. All Juliet has to do to save her family is marry him.
The Capulets and Montagues have been slugging it out in the stock market for decades, but haven’t come face-to-face since Romeo and Juliet met and fell in love in their teens. Their parents forced them apart more than fifty years ago. Now they’re meeting again, a lifetime later, with children and grandchildren.
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Character Descriptions
Female-Presenting Characters:
JULIET
Smart, savvy, surprised by love and her willingness to fall again with Romeo.
Juliet is a widow, the matriarch of the Capulet family, and figurehead of their vast corporate empire.
To play mid-60s to 80s
THE NURSE
A wide-eyed country mouse amongst the wealthy Capulets and other patrons on the ship, she deeply admires and is devoted to Juliet.
The Nurse works for the Capulets and is a Registered Nurse. �To play early 20s to 40s
LADY CAPULET
Determined, playing the game, ready for her ship to come in (literally in this production).
Lady Capulet is Lord Capulet’s wife and Juliet's daughter-in-law; she saw her marriage to Lord Capulet as a great opportunity and has been continually disappointed by her husband’s failures and her MIL’s refusal to fall in line/die.
(Think the daughter-in-law in Taylor Swift’s Anti-Hero video)
To play 30s to 50s
Male-Presenting Characters:
ROMEO
A charming, die-hard romantic who’s loudly hearing the ticking of the clock.
Romeo is a wealthy widower, on a final trip with his lifelong friends and grandson. He falls head-over-heels in love again with Juliet.�To play mid-60s to 80s
FRIAR LAURENCE
Reserved, responsible, kind, and determined to keep Romeo from falling off the ship. �Friar Laurence is Romeo’s grandson and is considering a life in the priesthood. He adores his grandfather. �To play late teens to mid-20s
LORD CAPULET *may be played as female-presenting in this version
Born desperate for his mother’s approval and now just desperate to bail himself and the Capulet Company out from under his poor investments.
Lord Capulet is Juliet’s eldest son and heir apparent to the Capulet Company after her death.
(Think Prince Charles Windsor, current King of England)�To play 30s to 50s
MERCUTIO
Magnetic, boisterous, incorrigible lifelong friend of Romeo�Mercutio is a former frontman who’s spent his entire life getting laid off his one-hit-wonder song from many decades ago, even if his leather pants don’t fit like they used to.�To play mid-60s to 80s
BENVOLIO
Romeo’s kind, sensitive, happily married cousin who’s spent a lifetime being the sensible one in the trio. He would do anything for his ‘boys’, so he dropped everything to come on this trip.
To play mid-60s to 80s
TYBALT
Tybalt is Lady Capulet’s nephew. He dislikes the Montagues.
To play an age based off of auditions
PARIS
Wealthy, lonely, hungry for the chance at a family (and maybe to make a profit)�Paris is the angel investor that the Capulets targeted to save their company. He’s on the cruise to woo Juliet and convince her to marry him.
To play an age based off of auditions.
*Other characters may be added to our version of the script, depending on auditions. Any added characters will likely be female-presenting.
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