A new adaptation of Romeo & Juliet at Strand Theater Company in Baltimore City
co-conceived and produced with Betse Lyons
June 17th - June 30th 2023
“With a Trans Romeo and a Fat Juliet at its center, this newly-devised adaptation Queers more than just the lovers’ relationship: family structures, violence, love, duty, identity, and even death. In every possible aspect of the production, we are centering Trans folks, Queer folks, fat folks, BIPOC folks, and women - all badass artists local to Baltimore. Quite simply, seeing these kinds of bodies showing up with revolutionary joy in roles traditionally reserved for thin cisgender heterosexual people makes an enormous impact. Stories told with passionate and radical authenticity act as signposts shifting culture toward truth.
Artist flight and exhaustion is unfortunately endemic to small cities like Baltimore, where avenues of opportunity are narrow and often traditionally proscribed. Creators who challenge these strict norms often feel isolated and are forced to migrate to larger city centers in hopes of finding artistic community. R/J seeks to call that opportunity back home to the city we love. Baltimore has an evolving, diverse Queer scene that must be represented on its stages. We insist that our audiences recognize themselves, their legacy, and their beautiful city. This production invites audiences to be unapologetically LOUD and ROWDY. Combatting the impulse to censor oneself in a theater setting. Creating accessible space for community and collective catharsis”.
Cast & Devising Ensemble:
Betse Lyons (Conceiving Artist), O’Malley Steuerman (Conceiving Artist), Theodore Sherron III, Bex Vega, Makayla Beckles, Jackie Youm, Shannon Willing
Director: Susan Stroupe
Contributing Writers: Elizabeth Ung & Aladrian C. Wetzel
Stage Manager: Jennifer Hasselbusch
Art & Environmental Set Design: Mika J. Nakano
Sound Design: Madeline Oslejsek
Intimacy Choreography: Katie Hileman
Props Design: Caitlin Bouxsein
Lighting Design: Rowan Ethridge
Promotional & Production Photography: Erik Wuesthoff, @erikwphotography
“They are here. Their story is told”
R/J is dedicated to the memory of Rowan Ethridge. Lighting designer. The truest of collaborators and the most genuine of artists.
MEDIA FOR “R/J”
Personal Statement:
Sometimes being a gender-expansive actor means people not knowing what to do with you and that simply means you have to tell them. You have to show them. As a Trans human I feel I have been engaged in a state of constant self awareness and reflection from a very young age. An ongoing state of transition - to seek, to find, to never completely know the answer, or exactly who I am, or what’s coming next. I embrace this state of transition for it is in those definitives that authenticity is lost.
“Trans–moving across, beyond, through, changing thoroughly.
Isn’t this the life of an artist?”
-Will Davis, artistic director–Rattlestick Theater
I’ve often felt isolated and exhausted by the emotional labor of being the only trans artist in the room. Working and existing in environments in which the people around me perhaps do not see me in my entirety. Feeling as though I don’t always fit the stories being told.
So. We write them. We re-tell them. We show up and we show them.
I believe in theatre that makes euphoria accessible through stories that demonstrate it is attainable.
I believe that by holding space for ourselves, we create space for others.
I believe in no longer waiting to initiate collaboration across all underserved identities and communities toward collective change in the theatre.
I believe in theatre that challenges its audience to question and engage with their relationship to self.
R/J encompasses all of this and more.
“Queer is not an ‘instead of’, it’s an ‘inclusive of’”.
-Adele Morrison
