The Play Is the Thing

ISU presents Romeo and Juliet

The hall was made for conferences at a reproductive health center with the most hideous curtains known to man - thick cream fabric with bold wavy patterns in navy and blood red, dizzying to the eye. I spun the space on its head so that we could use the balcony, making their platform our audience.
The stage was a configuration of wooden black risers, warped from years of rain and romping, splintered at the corners, hollow beneath such that even flip flops filled the room with elephant-like stomping sounds.
The costumes were jeans and t-shirts, Montagues in black and Capulets in white, some traditional Ugandan robes for the Friars, and an Ethiopian dress accompanied by a white eyelet parasol for the Nurse (played by boy of course).
The cast comprised of fourteen students from grades 8-12 of every nationality you can imagine: Congolese, Bangladeshi, Iraqi, British, Korena, Ugandan…
The transitions between scenes required the students to run around the entire building, mounting and descending stairs with the rapidity known only to teenage lungs and legs.
The students were brilliant: the intensity of their emotions heightened the language to such an extent that our little nothing of a play became the shot of adrenaline so needed at this school.
The student audiences giggled at the kissing and gasped at the fights, staring with wide eyes at the feat before them.
The parents were glowing.
The faculty and administration were slack-jawed.
“How did you do this in such a short amount of time?”
“You turned a sow’s ear into a purse!”
“Drama is back!”
The director of the school said he had never seen such amazing acting in any high school production.
I know this play backwards and forwards and yet they still moved me. When my lovely Romeo pronounced, “Is it even so?” after learning of Juliet’s death, tears welled up in my eyes.
After the final performance, the students hugged me and thanked me for being “the best director ever.” Seeing that I’ve never directed before in my life, nor even fully comprehend what it means to do so, I was and continue to be stunned.
And thus, a little triumph for Ms Eve was born.