The Heart of America Shakespeare Festival ROMEO AND JULIET Casting Announced

To celebrate its 30th anniversary season, The Heart of America Shakespeare Festival will once again produce a live performance this summer.

Romeo and Juliet, one of Shakespeare's most beloved and enduring plays, will run from June 14 through July 3, 2022, 8:00 p.m., in Southmoreland Park, Tuesday through Sunday evenings. Admission to the Festival will continue to be free.

Sidonie Garrett, Festival executive artistic director and director of Romeo and Juliet, is eager to return to this story. She said, "This is a story about great love in a battle with familial hatred. The play features some of the most poetic, well known, and most beloved language in all of Shakespeare's canon. I look forward to introducing it to a new generation of young people."

Garrett previously directed the Festival's productions of Shakespeare in Love, Much Ado About Nothing (2018 and 2005), Hamlet (2017 and 2003), Twelfth Night (2016 and 2001) King Lear (2015), The Winter's Tale (2014), As You Like It (2013), Antony and Cleopatra and A Midsummer Night's Dream (2012), Macbeth (2011), King Richard III (2010), The Merry Wives of Windsor (2009), Othello (2008), Romeo and Juliet (2007), King Henry V (2006), Julius Caesar (2004) and The Taming of the Shrew (2002).

The cast for Romeo and Juliet will include: Evan Cleaver (Romeo), Jessica Andrews (Juliet), John Rensenhouse (Prince Escalus and Chorus), Scott Cordes (Lord Capulet), Chioma Anyanwu (Lady Capulet), Matt Rapport (Friar Laurence), Justin Barron (Tybalt), Jacques Roy (Mercutio), Cinnamon Schultz (Nurse), Sam Cordes (Benvolio), Erik Mexilsburger (Paris), JT Nagel (Balthasar), Meredith Wolfe (Lady Montague), Collin Vorbeck (Lord Montague and Friar John), Keenan Ramos (Abraham and Watch 3, Joshua Gleeson (Samson, Apothecary and Watch 1), Solomon Langley (Gregory and Watch 2), Freddy Acevedo (Peter and Page to Paris), Weiyi Zhang (Masquer and Citizen of Verona), Kendra Keller (Masquer and Citizen of Verona).

Understudies for the production will include: Taylor Harlow (Romeo), Chelsea Rolfes (Juliet), J. Will Fritz (Benvolio) and Tyler Lindquist (multiple roles) who will round out the cast. The HASF staged Romeo and Juliet, in its fifth season and again in the 15th season which continues to be one of the festival's most highly regarded productions.

The Festival designers and production team will collaborate with Garrett to create a world influenced by the architecture of old Verona with costume silhouettes that are inspired by the Cavalier period. This world is a principality in a time period when duels were fought with swords and daggers in the streets for both honor and glory.

The production designers are Ward Everhart (Lighting), Gene Emerson Friedman (Scenic), Mary Traylor (Costumes), Greg Mackender (Composition) with Mary Robinson and Thomas Newby (Sound). Martin English and William Grey Warren are Co-Fight Directors and Tracy Terstreip Herber is Period Movement Coach and Choreographer.

The Heart of America Shakespeare Festival was founded in 1991 by Tony-Award-winning Broadway producer Marilyn Strauss, and it launched its first season in 1993 in Southmoreland Park. Since then, more than 700,000 theatergoers from 42 states and 11 countries have enjoyed the Festival's professional productions.

Support for the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival is provided by the Neighborhood Tourist Development Fund, Missouri Arts Council, Kansas City Missouri Parks and Recreation, the ArtsKC Fund, a host of leading foundations and corporations, and hundreds of generous individuals. Information on donating to the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival and details on the 2022 season can be found at www.kcshakes.org or by calling 816.531.7728.

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