Castellanos, Carpenter, Eccles Cast In Cal Shakes ROMEO & JULIET 5/27-6/21

California Shakespeare Theater (Cal Shakes) today announced casting and creative teams for the opening production of the company's 35th anniversary season, Shakespeare's legendary tragic romance Romeo and Juliet, directed by Cal Shakes Artistic Director Jonathan Moscone. The production, which opens Cal Shakes' 35th anniversary season, will run May 27-June 21 at the Bruns Memorial Amphitheater.

Moscone is finding inspiration for the production in the extreme tension between desperate, blind, adolescent passion and the repressive culture of violence that surrounds it-and that the play's youth are fated to grow into. Alex Morf, a recent graduate of A.C.T.'s MFA program who appeared in last season's Pericles and Twelfth Night, and Sarah Nealis, last seen in Cal Shakes' Pericles and An Ideal Husband, play the titular lovers.

Cal Shakes Associate Artist Catherine Castellanos will portray Juliet's nurse and Lady Montague, with fellow Associates James Carpenter and Julie Eccles as the Capulets, L. Peter Callender as Montague and the Apothecary, and Dan Hiatt as Friar Laurence.

Liam Vincent, last seen at Cal Shakes in 2008's Twelfth Night, will play Paris, Jud Williford (A.C.T.'s War Music, Rock n' Roll) portrays Mercutio, and Craig Marker (most recently seen in Shotgun Players' Macbeth and The Story at SF Playhouse) will take on the role of Tybalt.

Julian Lopez-Morillas-whose history with Cal Shakes stretches back to 1977-will return to the Bruns stage as the Prince. Others in the cast include Thomas Azar (Benvolio), Nick Childress (Gregory), Avery Monsen (Sampson/Balthasar), and Patrick Lane (Abram); rounding out the ensemble are Matt Hooker, Omoze Idehenre, and Marilet Martinez.

To complement Moscone's vision, Neil Patel-set designer for Cal Shakes' groundbreaking production of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, whose recent credits include the Broadway productions of [title of show], and Sideman, and the HBO series In Treatment, returns to create an Italianesque urban landscape. The world of the play, says Moscone, "was initially inspired by a kind of fascist architecture in Italy. Imposing, monolithic, and anything but cheery." But, against these gray walls is a burst of graffiti-inspired color to underscore the young lovers' intense, electric energy."

Raquel M. Baretto, who designed the 2008 BATCC Award-winning fashions of Cal Shakes' Uncle Vanya, as well as Pericles and The Triumph of Love, will create the show's contemporary Italian style. Sound design for Romeo and Juliet will be created by Andre Pluess, an Artistic Associate at Chicago's Lookingglass Theatre who designed the soundscape for Cal Shakes' 2008 production of Twelfth Night, as well as Berkeley Rep's recent production of Arabian Nights. Russell H. Champa (Pericles, The Triumph of Love, Man and Superman) is the production's lighting designer, Cal Shakes Associate Artist Nancy Carlin is the text coach, Associate Artist MaryBeth Cavanaugh is choreographer, and Resident Fight Director Dave Maier serves as fight choreographer.

Single tickets start at $20 and go on sale to the public on May 1. Season packages and group tickets (10+) are available now. For information or to charge tickets by phone with VISA, MasterCard or American Express, call the Cal Shakes Box Office at 510.548.9666. Additional information and online ticketing is available at www.calshakes.org.

California Shakespeare Theater's 2009 season is sponsored in part by BART, City National Bank, KDFC, Lafayette Park Hotel and Spa, Meyer Sound, and Peet's Coffee & Tea, and receives institutional support from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Dean & Margaret Lesher Foundation. Artistic Learning programs are sponsored in part by Shapell Homes and underwritten in part by Citigroup Foundation, the Dale Family Fund, Koret Foundation, Links for Life Foundation, The Thomas J. Long Foundation, Oakland Fund for the Arts, The San Francisco Foundation, and Yahoo! Employee Foundation. Audience Enrichment programs are underwritten in part by the City of Orinda's Community Grants Program.