Eternal Romeo & Juliet Performed at London's Historic Rose

Scenes from The Eternal Romeo and Juliet, a play written by University of North Texas theatre professor Andrew Harris, will debut in London on February 7th at the remains of the historic Rose Theatre, an Elizabethan playhouse where William Shakespeare is believed to have performed and his plays Henry VI Part I and Titus Andronicus were originally presented.

Frontline Management, an English actors' cooperative, will present portions of Harris' play as part of a benefit for the Rose Theatre Trust. The theatre, London's oldest playhouse, gained recent fame in 1998 when depicted in the film Shakespeare in Love.

"Harris set his play in a courtroom in heaven where Shakespeare, Spanish writer Lope de Vega and Italian poet Luigi Da Porto argue about the originality of their Romeo and Juliet compositions, each written within a few years of each other," state press materials.

"When I conceived this play, I never dreamed it would be produced at the theatre that was at its height when Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet was first produced, nor did I think that I would be the only living playwright to have his work seen there in 400 years," Harris said.

In March, he will receive the 2007 Golden Pen Award from the United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) for his book, The Performing Set: The Broadway Designs of William and Jean Eckart, published by UNT Press. Harris is also the author of Broadway Theatre, which won the Broadway Theatre Institute Award for Excellence in Education.

UNT student Hector Amaya of Houston translated portions of Lope de Vega's play, Castelvines y Monteses, which were incorporated into Harris's adaptation. Amaya will accompany Harris to London to see the translation acted on the stage.  The Eternal Romeo and Juliet was first produced at UNT in April 2005 before being discovered on the Internet by Frontline Management.

"Lord (Laurence) Olivier, Sir Ian McKellen, Dame Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes and Susannah York have lent their support to The Rose whose archaeological remains were discovered in 1989, when a new office building was being excavated on Bankside, London's original theatre district," said Katherine Gregor, Frontline's agent.

Two-thirds of the foundations of the theatre have been excavated and protected. The Rose Theatre Trust is raising money to excavate the rest and turn it into a permanent display for educational and historical purposes.

The February 7th performance will also include scenes from plays by Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Middleton and John Webster, as well as early music by the group Passamezzo.

Harris, who joined UNT in 2002, has served as chair of theatre departments at Columbia University, SMU and Texas Christian University. His production credits include shows in Chicago, New York and Texas, including The Life of Galileo with Laurence Luckinbill and Tennessee Williams' Suddenly Last Summer.