Tara Vocino
Correspondent
August 21, 2008 12:00 am Tragic love stories occur daily, and the Rebel Shakespeare Company can attest to that fact. Eighteen local teenagers who make up the Rebel Shakespeare Company will tour the North Shore throughout this and next week to present "Romeo and Juliet" — with a twist. "Each actor has a large and a small role," said Christina Kingsbury, co-director. "Romeo and Juliet will switch to play each other, and we have two sets of Romeos and Juliets to spread out the commitment." Kingsbury, who is a Boston actress from Marblehead, began as an actress in the Rebel Shakespeare Company, or a "former rebel," as they like to call it, five years ago in the student theater camp. "It's also our first touring production ever," said Alexander Harvey of Marblehead, co-director. "Usually it's only at Winter Island with two to four performances. There are 10 different locations. It expands to a playground, to a castle, to a baseball field, to a library." The idea of the acting counterpart began when Harvey studied at the Globe Theatre in London last fall, where plays were performed in several locations and each actor had two roles. Ross Magnant, Topsfield resident and Masconomet High School senior, notices a trend in playing different genders. "Girls playing guys' parts has become less uncommon in modern theater. The sad thing is the audience thinks it has to be something funny. The biggest issue with playing a female is we have to work around the comedic aura that the situation has; Juliet isn't a comedic part," he said. Before he played Mercutio, Romeo's best friend, at William Shakespeare's birthday memorial at the Globe Theatre, Magnant preferred the role of Mercutio over his Romeo and Juliet characters. "I had a clean slate. They thought I could step up to the task, and I'm really glad they gave me the chance to." It was during that week and a half that Magnant solidified his career path as a future actor. Besides life-changing decisions, other exciting moments regularly come out of the Rebel Shakespeare Company. In the last performance in Haverhill, Kingsbury and Harvey will change each actor's role midscene. The students will have memorized two scripts, but will not know the exact moment when their character will switch. These rebels are also attracted to smaller roles. Julia Kingsley, a sophomore at Marblehead High School, will play both Benvolio, a mediator between the Montagues and the Capulets, and the prince of the town. "Last year, I had a much larger role — Macbeth. I'm really happy about being Benvolio as a smaller role. He's the peacemaker, and it fits my personality," she said, "There's an interesting relationship between Benvolio and the prince, because they work together to maintain peace and order within the town." Maeve Harrington, a resident of Salem and a sophomore at Bishop Fenwick High School, will perform the characters of Friar Laurence, who poisons Juliet, and Abram, a friend of the Capulets. "I've seen the movie with Leonardo Dicaprio, and it's set modernly. It gave me a different outlook on how I want to portray my Friar Laurence. He was not a priestly person, more like a friend," Harrington said. Henry Lutts, a Salem resident and junior at Pingree School in South Hamilton, will act as Romeo and Juliet with 202 spoken lines. "It's not fair to classify this play as drama. It's so poetically written. The way Shakespeare connects with his audience is integral to why he is very much alive today," he said. The Rebel Shakespeare Company's tour will kick off tomorrow night at Beverly Common.
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