Mine Is Yours Theatre to Present R&J, 11/7-16

On September 15, 2014, Mine is Yours officially announced their upcoming production of R&J, William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, edited and gender-reversed by Hannah Pell, and directed by the bold and brilliant Abby Craden*.

R&J will feature Alan Blumenfeld* as Nurse, Hayley Brown as Paris, Charles M. Howell IV as Capulet's Husband, Katherine James* as Capulet, Cynthia Kania as Sister Laurence, Wendy Pigott as Montague and Apothecary, Hannah Pell as Benvolia, Taylor Jackson Ross as Mercutia, Mary Ellen Schneider as Romea, Caitlin Stegemoller as Princess, Paul Turbiak* as Julian, and Sarah Watson as Tybalt (*Member of Actors' Equity Association, The Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States).

The Montague family is liberal and sexually free, particularly the wild and Bohemian daughter Romea. The Capulets are a traditional, religious family (led by a hot-headed woman and her reticent and timid husband), the most chaste and devout of whom is young Julian. Their feud is deep- seated, and the violence simmering in the streets of Verona can no longer be ignored. And that's all before the play even begins.

Mine is Yours Theatre Company knew that they wanted their next production to be a fully gender- reversed Shakespeare classic for several reasons: a lack of gender parity is still prevalent across the entertainment industry; Shakespeare's characters embody such fundamental truths about human nature that their words translate beautifully from one gender to another; and separating the words Shakespeare wrote for Romeo, Juliet, the Nurse, etc. from the genders we associate them with both reveals often- overlooked facets of those characters and challenges our assumptions about what it means to be a man or a woman.

"We didn't want to do a gender-reversed production because we think Shakespeare's female roles are uninteresting. Quite the contrary! Shakespeare wrote extraordinary roles for women! But given the theatrical and legal constraints of his era, he understandably wrote primarily male characters." Mine is Yours executive director Hannah Pell continues, "In both classical and modern theatre, we consider it normal to NOT see women on the stage." Across Shakespeare's plays, the gender breakdown of roles is 84% male, 12% female, and 4% gender-ambiguous (the "servants," "messengers," etc.). That doesn't accurately reflect the world at all. All the world's a stage where the gender breakdown is about 50/50. "If we just wait for it to become normal to see an equal number of women and men on the stage, it will never happen. Change doesn't come through lamenting the status quo.

"Men and women have been under-served by age-old gender stereotypes in fiction as well as by a lack of gender parity. During the callbacks for Romea and Julian, director Abby Craden vented, "I'm just tired of -- maybe it's because I have a son -- but I'm tired of the women always being the honorable ones and the men always being the lust-driven ones." What would be revealed about the complex characters at the center of Shakespeare's most famous romance -- and about the nature of men and women -- if the more impulsive, poetic one is the woman, and the more thoughtful, reflective one is the man?

"In Shakespeare's time, people went to hear a play. Today, we go see a play. Hear the play like you've never seen it before."

Mine is Yours Theatre Company, born out of a few actors who met during Theatricum Botanicum's amazing summer stock in 2012, is growing steadily with the support of a strong audience following and killer artists! They started with a 6-actor-and-1-musician production of Twelfth Night that was so well- received in its first run in January, that they brought it to the Hollywood Fringe Festival in June, and won an Encore! Producers' Award and an extension in July.

Mine is Yours Theatre Company's R&J

Directed by Abby Craden*
Assistant Directed by Elisabet Johannesdottir
Stage Managed by Shen Heckel

Featuring: Alan Blumenfeld*, Hayley Brown, Charles M. Howell IV, Katherine James*, Cynthia Kania, Wendy Pigott, Hannah Pell, Taylor Jackson Ross, Mary Ellen Schneider, Caitlin Stegemoller, Paul Turbiak*, and Sarah Watson. *Member of Actors' Equity Association, The Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States

Performances run at Theatre of NOTE, 1517 N. Cahuenga Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90028, November 7-16, 2014, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm Sundays at 3pm and 7pm. $15 general admission, available starting 10/17. For more information, visit: www.MineisYourstc.com, or follow on Facebook: www.facebook.com/MineisYourstc and Twitter: www.twitter.com/MineisYourstc.