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ROMEO AND JULIET

Rechnitz Theater

By William Shakespeare
In a modern verse translation by Hansol Jung

Co-directed by Hansol Jung and Dustin Wills

Original Music by Brian Quijada

Run Time: 2 hours 35 minutes, plus 15-minute intermission

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The classic tale of star-crossed love is infused with contemporary vitality by playwright Hansol Jung (Wolf Play, Wild Goose Dreams, Cardboard Piano). Seen in 2020 as part of Two River Theater’s Two River Rising online reading series, this new take on Shakespeare’s ode to young love was originally commissioned by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Play On! project.

This production contains strong language, use of profanity, adult and sexually explicit content, violence, and depictions of suicide.

WATCH

Official Trailer

Major Curda and Dorcas Leung in ROMEO AND JULIET. Photo by T. Charles Erickson.

The Cast Guess Shakespearean Slang!

this show is for you if...

  • You love the poetry of Shakespeare — and are curious to see the classic and modern mix in this new translation by contemporary playwright Hansol Jung
  • You’re a sucker for tales of timeless romance— no matter how star-crossed
  • You can’t wait to see Two River Theater’s Rechnitz stage transformed into a theater-in-the-round for the first time in its history!
  • You’re ready for a take on Shakespeare’s classic tale that sees it as more than just a tragedy: reflecting the full joy, humor, and romance of its heroes’ youthful energy and passion
  • You’ve heard that music is the food of love, so you’re excited to see how original music by composer Brian Quijada plays on!
  • You recognize how themes of revenge, resentment, inherited biases, and generational violence speak to our modern times

PHOTOS

MEET THE ARTISTS

The Cast

Purva Bedi

PURVA BEDI (she/her) (FRIAR LAURENCE) Off-Broadway: Playwrights Horizons: Wives (Playwrights Horizons), Dance Nation (Drama Desk Award, Playwrights Horizons), Passage (SohoRep), India Pale Ale (Manhattan Theater Club), An Ordinary Muslim (New York Theatre Workshop), Uncommon Sense (Tectonic Theatre Project), IDIOT! (HERE), Veil’d (WP), Rise of Dorothy Hale (St. Luke’s). With Target Margin Theater as Associate Artist: Reread Another, Tempest, Second Language, Ten Blocks on the Camino Real, Old Comedy, 5 Hysterical Girls Theorem. Regional: Rice Boy (Mark Taper), My Wandering Boy (South Coast Rep). Select Film: The Assistant, Sully, Homebody, The Surrogate, Equity, Kumare, Cosmopolitan, Green Card Fever, American Desi. TV: “One of Us is Lying,” “Billions,” “High Maintenance,” “She’s Gotta Have It Too,” “The Code,” “Person of Interest,” “Madame Secretary,” “Nurse Jackie.” Member Actors Center Workshop Company. Co-Creator Assembled Identity (HERE). Purva studied at Williams College, BADA and Public Theatre Shakespeare Lab.

Major Curda

MAJOR CURDA (all pronouns) (ROMEO) was last seen opposite South Korea’s recording superstar Luna in the Broadway musical KPOP! Major is a multi-disciplinary storytelling artist who is overjoyed and truly humbled to be working with such a phenomenal AAPI cast & creative team on ROMEO & JULIET. Special thanks to Mom, Dad, Riley, Piper, Glory, Saylor, Leo, and Seonjae. Select TV/Film Credits: CW’s RIVERDALE, Netflix’s ATYPICAL, Nickelodeon’s THE THUNDERMANS and GAME SHAKERS. GODLIKE: A League Film. Select Theater Credits: Flounder in Broadway’s The Little Mermaid (2009), The Radio City Christmas Spectacular (Tour/NYC) and The King and I (Dallas Summer Musicals). Recent graduate of the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. SITI Company Alum. NHSI Cherub. Member of One Year Lease Theatre Co. Reps: Prototype Talent Agency, Zoom Talent, and Curtis Talent. Website: MajorCurda.art @Majorly.MC

Jose Gamo

JOSE GAMO (he/him) is a Filipino artist born and raised in Indonesia. Theater includes: The Great Leap at Arc Stages; Cymbeline, Much Ado About Nothing, Richard II, The Heart of Robin Hood at Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival; Forbidden Colors at LaMama. Screen: “Instinct” on CBS. Training: Fordham University, London Dramatic Academy. All the thanks in the world to Elli, his beloved. www.jose-gamo.com

Brian Lee Huynh

BRIAN LEE HUYNH (CAPULET) is proud to be making his Two River debut. He has appeared in War Horse (Lincoln Center Theater) on Broadway. His Off-Broadway credits include A Clockwork Orange (New World Stages) and The Light Years (Playwrights Horizons). Regional credits include Pride and Prejudice (Long Wharf Theatre), Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (Huntington), The Engagement Party (Hartford Stage), Vietgone (Denver Center for the Performing Arts), The 39 Steps (Triad Stage), Sherlock Holmes (Portland Stage Co.), Auctioning the Ainsleys and A Single Shard (People’s Light). Television credits include appearances on “Instinct,” “Gotham,” “Madam Secretary,” and “Elementary.” Mr. Huynh holds a BFA from Ithaca College and an MFA from The Old Globe/University of San Diego.

Zion Jang

ZION JANG (he/him/his) (BENVOLIO) Regional: Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure (Portland Stage). Thank you to my team for keeping my eyes on target. Thank you 엄마, 아빠, and 동호, y’all are my rock. 사랑해 <3. Training: UNCSA. www.zionjang.com IG/Tiktok/Twitter: @zeejster

Mia Katigbak

MIA KATIGBAK (NURSE) is the actor-manager and co-founder of the award-winning, New York City based NAATCO (National Asian American Theatre Co.), with whom she has acted extensively. Selected NAATCO productions: Out of Time, commissioned by NAATCO; the U.S. premiere of Caryl Churchill’s What If If Only, a remote live production; Henry VI, Shakespeare’s Trilogy in Two Parts (St. Clair Bayfield Award); Awake and Sing (Obie Award). Other selected productions: Russian Troll Farm, an online, live-edited play, which received an Obie Special Citation this year; A Delicate Balance (Transport Group); Dear Elizabeth (WP); Ivo van Hove’s Scenes From a Marriage (NYTW); Good Person of Szechwan (Foundry/Public Theater) as well as productions with: LCT3, Soho Rep, Public Theater, New Georges, Foundry, New Group, Ma-Yi, Target Margin, Clubbed Thumb, Bushwick Starr. Regional work: Two River Theater (I Remember Mama); Yale Rep and Long Wharf (CT), the Humana Festival at the Actors Theater in Louisville (KY), Berkeley Rep (CA), and the Guthrie (MN). International: Manila, Philippines and Abu Dhabi, UAE. Television: “How to Get Away With Murder” (ABC), “The Sinner” (USA), “Chicago PD” (NBC), “Mysteries of Laura” (NBC), and “Conviction” (NBC). Awards: USA Fellow (2021); TCG’s 2017 Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellow for Distinguished Achievement; Special Drama Desk Award (2019); Otto René Castillo Award for Political Theater; NYIT for Artistic Achievement; Lily Award for Trailblazing; Lucille Lortel and the Lee Reynolds Awards (League of Professional Theatre Women); Actors Equity’s Rosetta LeNoire Award. She holds a BA from Barnard College and an MA from Columbia University.

Rob Kellogg

ROB KELLOGG (PARIS/TYBALT) is thrilled to make his TRT debut. Television credits include “Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin” (HBO), “Uncoupled” (Netflix), and “FBI” (CBS). Favorite regional credits include Davis (Red Light Winter), Orsino (Twelfth Night), Orlando (As You Like It), Malcolm (Macbeth) and Dev (W.P. of Quentin Nguyen-Duy’s Amputees). Most recently, he played in Spring Awakening (Northern Stage) and Shakespeare Unplugged(Powerhouse Theatre). He trained at LAMDA and received his BFA from Boston University, where his performance thesis centered around his identity as a white-passing Japanese American, exploring the inheritance of the oppressed and the oppressor. In 2022, he founded The Itch Art Collective, which seeks to re-platform young artists affected by the pandemic. robkellogg.com @rob.kellogg

Dorcas Leung

Dorcas Leung (she/her) Broadway: Miss Saigon (Gigi Van Tranh), 1st National Tour: Hamilton (Eliza, Angelica, Peggy/Maria), Regional Favorites: Chicago Shakespeare (The Notebook, world premiere), Classic Stage Company (Dou Yi in Snow in Midsummer), Berkeley Rep (Despereaux in The Tale of Despereaux), St. Louis MUNY (Les Misérables), Dallas Theater Center (Cosette in Les Misérables, A Christmas Carol), Barrington Stage Company (Little Red in Into the Woods), Goodspeed Opera House (Bye Bye Birdie). Film/Television Includes: “Bull”, “Madam Secretary”. For Olive.

 

Daniel Liu

DANIEL LIU (PETER/LADY CAPULET) is a graduate of Yale School of Drama, and Northwestern University. Previous theater credits include: Roundabout Theatre Company’s YOU WILL GET SICK by Noah Diaz, directed by Sam Pinkleton, LCT’s workshop of Broadway revival CAMELOT, by Aaron Sorkin, directed by Bartlett Sher, and Yale Repertory’s production of GIRLS, by Brendan Jacob Jenkins, directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz. Daniel has also appeared on the hit series SEARCH PARTY.

The Creatives

Playwright

William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s greatest dramatist. He is often called England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon”.

Translator / Co-Director

Hansol Jung
Hansol Jung

HANSOL JUNG (PLAYWRIGHT) Productions: Wolf Play (Artist Rep, Soho Rep / Ma-Yi ), Wild Goose Dreams (Public Theater, La Jolla Playhouse), Cardboard Piano (Humana Festival), Among the Dead (Ma-Yi), and No More Sad Things (Sideshow, Boise Contemporary). Residencies/Fellowships: Hodder, Royal Court, NYTW, Berkeley Repertory, MacDowell, Hedgebrook, Sundance Theatre Lab, and Page 73. Awards: Steinberg Award, Whiting Award, DGF Award, Helen Merrill Award. TV: Tales of the City (Netflix), Pachinko (Apple +)

Co-Director

Dustin Wills
Dustin Wills

DUSTIN WILLS Upcoming: A Boy’s Company Presents: Tell Me If I’m Hurting You by Jeremy O Harris (Hauser & Wirth) and Wet Brain by John J. Caswell (Playwrights Horizons). Notable: Wolf Play by Hansol Jung (MCC, Soho Rep, Ma-Yi), Montag by Kate Tarker (Soho Rep), Frontières Sans Frontiéres (Top Ten Theatrical Productions 2017 – New York Magazine) by Phillip Howze at the Bushwick Starr, Mikhail Bulgakov’s Black Snow adapted by Keith Reddin (Juilliard), and a Baryshnikov Arts Center Residency for AWFUL EVENT! Recent opera: Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte and Handel’s Alcina with Yale Opera. He has created large-scale community puppet projects with Creative Action, devised new work for Teatro L’Arciliuto in Rome, is a two-time recipient of the Princess Grace Award for Theatre, a Drama League and Boris Sagal directing fellow, and for a couple of years gave rogue tours of the Vatican. MFA: Yale School of Drama.

Composer

Brian Quijada
Brian Quijada

BRIAN QUIJADA is an Emmy-nominated playwright, actor, and composer whose original work has been developed and produced all across the country. His hip-hop solo show Where Did We Sit on the Bus? has been produced at Victory Gardens, Geva Theatre, Teatro Vista (Jeff Award), Ensemble Studio Theatre (Drama Desk Nomination), Boise Contemporary, 1st Stage, City Theatre Pittsburgh, and a digital production at Actors Theatre of Louisville (Drama League Nomination). His play Kid Prince and Pablo premiered at The Kennedy Center in 2019. Most recently, his musical Somewhere Over The Border received a critically-acclaimed rolling world premiere at Syracuse Stage, Geva Theatre, and TeatroVista, winning three Jeff Awards including Best Musical. His musical plays have been developed at The Kennedy Center, Pittsburgh CLO’s Spark Festival, Victory Gardens’ Ignition Festival, New Stage and Film’s Powerhouse Festival, and the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Musical Theatre Conference.

Music Director

Nygel D. Robinson
Nygel D. Robinson

NYGEL D. ROBINSON (MUSIC DIRECTOR/COMPOSER ASSISTANT) is an Artist based in Chicago, IL. Select music directing credits include: ‘Lady Day (Mercury Theatre), ‘The Amen Corner’ (Shakespeare Theatre Company), ‘Rose’s War’ (The Rave Theatre Festival). Nygel is also the co creator of the new live looped musical ‘Mexodus’ which started being developed through New York Stage and Film in early 2020. Nygel’s very excited to be working with this incredible team!

Copyist

Emily Whitaker
Emily Whitaker

Scenic Designer

Junghyun Georgia Lee
Junghyun Georgia Lee

Junghyun Georgia Lee is a Korean-born New York–based scenic and costume designer. She has designed for New York Theatre Workshop(Drama Desk Nomination, Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord), Public Theatre(the Chinese Lady), Ma-Yi, NAATCO, Soho Rep, the Play Company, Alley Theatre, the Guthrie Theater, Hartford Stage, Huntington Theatre Company, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, PlayMakers Rep, and the Acting Company. She earned her M.F.A. at the Yale School of Drama.

Costume Designer

Mariko Ohigashi
Mariko Ohigashi

Mariko Ohigashi (She/Her) A NY based Costume Designer, born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. Mariko is so thrilled to be back in Red Bank! Her U.S. theatre credits include A Little Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet (Two River Theater); Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance (Transport Group/Connelly Theater, NYC); Out of Time (NAATCO/The Public, NYC); Veil Widow Conspiracy (NAATCO/NYTW Next Door); Vis-à-Vis (New York City Ballet, Choreographic Institute); Hanjo (SITI Company/Japan Society, NYC); Williams College Dance Concerts. International theatre credits in Japan include Hansel and Gretel (Sony Music Foundation/Suntory Hall, Tokyo); Lulu (Shinjuku Bunka) and Carmen (Kanagawa Kenmin Hall) with Tokyo Nikikai. Professional training: MFA from NYU-Tisch, BA from UNC-Chapel Hill. www.marikoohigashi.com

Lighting Designer

Joey Moro
Joey Moro

Joey Moro (Lighting Designer) is a New York based designer, who designs lighting, projection, and scenery.  Joey has designed over 150 productions in NYC, regionally, and abroad. Recent Lighting:No Child, (Kitchen Theatre Co) Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Choir Boy, (Le Petit Light/Set) Bright Half Life, (Syracuse Drama Light/Set,) The Rape of Lucretia, (Boston Lyric Opera,) Awful Event, (Baryshnikov Arts Center,) Die FladermausAlbert Herring (SUNY Stony Brook,)  Streetcar Named Desire (Le Petit Theatre.)  Recent projection work, The Wanderers, (Roundabout,) Good Vibrations, (Houston Ballet,) Sunken Cities Exhibit, (Virginia Museum of Fine Art,) 72 Miles to Go… (Roundabout Theatre,) A Bright Room Called Day, (Juilliard,) Skeleton Crew, (Dorset Theatre Fest,) Orange Julius, (Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre.)  Joey creates and engineers video systems for on/off Broadway, ballet, museums, and installations.  MFA Yale School of Drama.  Joey is an Associate Professor in Live Experience Design at BerkleeNYC, and a guest lecturer at the Yale School of Drama and NYU Tisch.  www.joeymoro.com  www.moro.media

Sound Designer

Megumi Katayama
Megumi Katayama

MEGUMI KATAYAMA (SOUND DESIGN & COMPOSITION) is a NY-based designer. Her recent credits include Two River: Living and Breathing. New York: Regretfully, So the Birds Are (Playwrights Horizons), The Nosebleed (Lincoln Center LCT3), For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow Is Enuf (The Public), The Life (City Center Encores!), Our Brother’s Son (Signature), Generation Rise (Ping Chong and Company/New Victory), The Gett (Rattlestick). Regional: Arena Stage, Everyman Theatre, Alley Theatre, Geva Theatre Center, Long Wharf, Yale Rep, Studio Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Kansas City Rep, CTG, Berkley Rep, Virginia Stage Company, Dorset Theatre Festival, Chautauqua Theater Company, Skylight Music Theatre, and more. MFA Yale School of Drama. Member of IATSE USA 829.

 

 

Fight Director

Rick Sordelet
Rick Sordelet

Casting Director

Andrea Zee
Andrea Zee

Upcoming: God of Carnage (Off-Broadway); Sweeney Todd (5th Avenue Theatre); Dear Jack, Dear Louise (Virginia Theatre Festival); Choir Boy (Portland Center Stage). Off-Broadway/NYC: A Delicate Balance (NAATCO/Transport Group); Our Man In Santiago; Golden Shield (MTC); Where The Wild Things Are (New Victory); NeurosisSyncing Ink; New York Stage and Film; Dramatists Guild Foundation; ACLU/NYCLU. National Tours: Yemandja; The Sound of Music; Bullets Over Broadway; Elf The Musical; Finding Neverland. Regional: Portland Center Stage, 5th Avenue Theatre, Florida Studio Theatre, Arrow Rock Lyceum, Alley Theater, TUTS. Associate credits include numerous Broadway, film, television, and commercial projects. www.zee-casting.com

Associate Scenic Designer

Yi-Hsuan (Ant) Ma
Yi-Hsuan (Ant) Ma

YI-HSUAN (ANT) MA ASSOCIATE SET DESIGNER New York-based Taiwanese, a scenic and production designer. She is interested in exploring the relationship between characters and the environment, involving the audience’s participation immersively in storytelling. Coming from a different culture and background of literature training, her approach to design is interdisciplinary and inclusive. For more work see her website: https://yihsuanma.wixsite.com/ant-setdesign

Associate Sound Designer

Keirsten Lamora
Keirsten Lamora

Dramaturg

Aaron Malkin
Aaron Malkin

Stage Manager

Hannah Woodward
Hannah Woodward

HANNAH WOODWARD (she/her) (PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER) Recent: Kiss My Aztec! (Hartford Stage), On Your Feet! (Paper Mill Playhouse). Broadway: Be More Chill. Off Broadway: Between the Lines, A Commercial Jingle for Regina Comet, Our Dear Dead Drug Lord, Jersey Boys, Harry Clarke, The Government Inspector, The Moors, The Woodsman, The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey (also National Tour), Buyer & Cellar (also National Tour).  Regional: Paper Mill Playhouse, Hartford Stage, McCarter Theatre, A.C.T., Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey.

Assistant Stage Manager

Kathleen Rose Gallardo
Kathleen Rose Gallardo

Kathleen Rose Gallardo (Assistant Stage Manager) is thrilled to join this wonderful company! She was recently the PSM for Stranger Sings! Off-Broadway. Other credits include The Wanderer (Paper Mill Playhouse) and Kiss My Aztec! (Hartford Stage). She was also the recipient of the 2020 NJACT Perry Award for Outstanding Stage Management of a Musical for Mamma Mia (Phoenix Productions). Proud Muhlenberg alumni. VCL.

Creative Producer, NAATCO

Peter Kim
Peter Kim

Peter Kim is NAATCO’s Creative Producer. For the company, he has produced Out of Time at The Public Theater, Caryl Churchill’s What If If Only, Henry VI: Shakespeare’s Trilogy in Two Parts (two Drama Desk nominations), Awake and Sing! (OBIE Award and Drama League Award nomination), [Veil Widow Conspiracy], Charles Francis Chan Jr.’s Exotic Oriental Murder Mystery and Sagittarius Ponderosa. Through the NAATCO National Partnership Project (NNPP), he has produced Public Obscenities with Soho Rep and QUEEN with Long Wharf Theatre. He has acted in NAATCO’s Charles Francis Chan…, The Seagull, and He Who Says Yes/No, and on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regionally. Film/TV credits include Billy Eichner’s BROS, The Forty-Year-Old Version (Netflix/Sundance Film Festival Directing Award), The God Committee, Saturday Church (2017 Tribeca Film Festival Audience Award), Margin Call, Sex and the City, Hackers, After Forever, Chicago Med, Ugly Betty, Law & Order: Criminal Intent. He is a Steering Committee member OBIE and TONY Honor winning AAPAC (Asian American Performers Action Coalition); Lecturer in Theater at Princeton University; co-creator of the critically acclaimed Off-Broadway comedy, SIDES: The Fear is Real. He recently produced Radha Blank’s exhibition room for the The Costume Institute’s In America: An Anthology of Fashion at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. He is a recipient of the 2020 Rising Leaders of Color grant from TCG (Theatre Communications Group) and the Lilah Kan Red Socks Award. He holds an MFA from Yale School of Drama and a BFA from New York University.

CRITICAL ACCLAIM

[Brian Quijada’s music] adds layers of emotion that enhance the spirit of the show.

—THE STAR-LEDGER

Hip, moving and entertaining.

—BROADWAYWORLD

Raucously comedic… heartbreakingly beautiful… always intriguing.

—OUT IN JERSEY

A radically new way of approaching one of Shakespeare’s best-known tragedies.

—NJARTS.NET

Before Play with Zion Jang

AUDIENCE EXTRAS

PRODUCTION SPONSORS

Dates and tickets

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