Today we're talking with Lindsay Rae Taylor, assistant professor of performance and the director of the final show of our spring 2022 season: William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet." This fast-paced, modern retelling is both a celebration of storytelling and a meditation on why we continue retelling this story in particular.
Today we're talking with Lindsay Rae Taylor, assistant professor of performance and the director of the final show of our spring 2022 season: William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet." This fast-paced, modern retelling is both a celebration of storytelling and a meditation on why we continue retelling this story in particular.
The show runs April 21, 22, and 24, 2022. If you're listening/reading this at that time, you can find more information and purchase tickets at the UM Box Office by calling (662) 915-7411 or visiting https://olemissboxoffice.universitytickets.com/
To learn more about Lindsay and her work here in the department, check out our previous episode with her here: https://stageandscreen.simplecast.com/episodes/lindsay-rae-taylor-assistant-professor-of-performance
The Department of Theatre & Film is grateful for its patrons and corporate sponsors. As a department we are committed to the high quality instruction that our students receive. Investing in the students’ education and these quality productions helps us move toward our common goal of graduating successful, creative adults who are lifelong learners. If you are interested in contributing to these efforts, please visit https://umfoundation.givingfuel.com/theatreandfilm
From the Department of Theater and Film at the University of Mississippi, this is Stage & Screen.
Katherine Stewart
Hello, hello and welcome back to Stage & Screen. I'm your host Katherine Stewart and joining me today is Lindsay Ray Taylor who is an assistant professor of performance and the director of the final show of our spring 2022 season, William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
Katherine Stewart
There's really nothing I can tell you about this play that Lindsay can't say better herself, so we are going to dive right in.
Katherine Stewart
Without further ado, here's Lindsay.
Katherine Stewart
Hi Lindsay, it's so good to get a chance to visit with you again.
Katherine Stewart
Thank you for taking the time to talk about your upcoming production of Romeo and Juliet.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
That's awesome, thank you.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Thanks so much for having.
Katherine Stewart
Me yeah of course.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Chat about it.
Katherine Stewart
So I'm jumping right in.
Katherine Stewart
Obviously, Romeo and Juliet is a well known and beloved play of Shakespeare's, and I'm very curious if you could tell us a little bit about your conceptualization. What is what is your version of this and what was.
Katherine Stewart
The inspiration for that.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Yeah, I mean, I think that uhm, when we first started.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
You know conceptualizing this piece.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I think you know, coming out of the pandemic and COVID, you know, I feel that one of the things that has come up to me about what has been sort of.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Missing from our world.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Is this idea of ritual?
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Certainly for theater, you know, not being able to do things in person.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
And also other events, you know, graduations and I don't know.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Religious services.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Funerals like any, you know any of these type of rituals that we have were sort of stripped away from us so.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
When we started thinking about it with the when I started thinking about it with the creative team we were interested in this idea of ritual and also that this story is a is a little bit of a ritual because most people most students read it in high school and it's it's a story that we all know but and it's as you said, a beloved.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
That everyone is familiar with.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
So like why do we keep telling it?
Lindsay Rae Taylor
So we started thinking about how come you know what's the purpose like?
Lindsay Rae Taylor
We have to keep telling it and why?
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Well, probably because we haven't learned.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
You know if we if we go to the the root of the play it's you know the balance.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Between love and hate, or as I like to think of it as love and fear.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Dumb and dumb.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
You know how one doesn't really exist without the other and I would, you know, argue that our world right now.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Still sort of.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
We haven't learned to put love over hate, so we have to keep telling this story to remind us that the love can't survive because we learn to hate.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Basically, uhm so.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
So we started thinking about like what if this?
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Play was on a loop.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
So, uhm, so it's a it's our idea is that the actors or the characters keep telling a story over and over and over and over again, and that it's like almost like, you know Bell chimes.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
And they started again.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
So our production very much begins.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
At the end and then starts over as if these characters are sort of caught in a.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Oop as and so the the creative team has been very.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
They've had some wonderful ideas, particularly thinking about the costumes that you know this idea that the costumes are aging, but the characters are not.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
So, because we've been telling it for so long, so that's kind of the idea of it.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
It's a little we wanted it to be you.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Know we want to.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Comment that the play is is is a universal theme.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
It's also still relevant.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
So uhm, conceptually it's it's almost no time.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
No place.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Uhm, so the with an Elizabethan structure so the costumes have an Elizabethan silhouette, but they also have some modern touches, so you might see a jacket that you might actually want to wear now.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Basically like the textures are are modern, but so this we made this sort of hybrid.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Of the Elizabethan world meets 2022.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
That makes sense.
Katherine Stewart
Very very cool well.
Katherine Stewart
It sounds like a very interesting concept.
Katherine Stewart
I can't wait to see it.
Katherine Stewart
Uh, on the stage, especially since I was in a couple of those early design meetings, so I kind of got an inkling of what what might be happening, right?
Katherine Stewart
I know things change a lot between the beginning and when it actually gets the stage, so.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
For sure, yeah.
Katherine Stewart
So, so in telling the story in this way, if you can say anything without giving too much away, what kinds of changes are you making to the script?
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Uhm, you know the script.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I think that what you'll.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
It's a very concise cutting, so uhm, I was pretty adamant that we because this you know the idea of.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
The play is.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
There's a lot of it's very passionate.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
You know they're teenagers, so there's raging hormones and all of those things, and people act very.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Uhm, rashly spontaneously, like people are sometimes acting before they think things through.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
So I really wanted to highlight that aspect of the story with the adaptation of the script.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
So it's our intention and I think it's going to work.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
That we're going to perform it in under 90 minutes without an intermission, so it's like once we're in we're in.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
So I think that that's the biggest thing that you'll notice.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Is that a lot of the characters.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
You know are have been cut or spliced into like lady.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Capulet, for example, is a mix of Capulet and Lady Capulet.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
So uhm.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
So we've definitely pared down the cast. It's 10 actors, UM, basically 10 rolls. I'm sorry. 11 Rolls, 1 character double s, but uhm, so I think that that's the biggest thing that audiences will will take note of is that it's. It's a pretty small cast, and it's a very quick.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Script, and there's some characters missing from that, so we've streamlined it so that we can, you know, basically hit all the major plot points and we've sort of like trimmed the fat off.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I guess if that makes sense.
Katherine Stewart
And UM, is having it be.
Katherine Stewart
Shorter and without an intermission.
Katherine Stewart
And you said once you're in, you're in is that part of sort of getting into that cyclical?
Katherine Stewart
We're stuck in a loop.
Katherine Stewart
Feeling of the play.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Yes, totally, yes.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
It's like once.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Yeah, it's basically once the actors go in, they don't come out until it's until it's over and there's sort of.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I mean, we've been saying this a lot in the design meetings that they are, like, literally, trapped.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Won't leave the stage so wow.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Yeah, so it's it's there.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
It's as if they're caught in this, almost like purgatory or limbo.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Uhm, our dramaturg Reese Overstreet has done a lot of research on on you know that idea of being sort of caught in between two things.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
So there's this idea that if they could get out, they might, if they could, maybe this time it would be different.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
So there's a sense of deja vu and fate and.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Maybe this time, oh, I have this moment where if I if I went left instead of right maybe I could escape this.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
So there's a sense that there's something on the outside of this world that is bright and hopeful, but because they're caught they can't get themselves out of it.
Katherine Stewart
How how are you communicating?
Katherine Stewart
That to actors as a director.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Well, I mean, I think that it's they seem to be enjoying it.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I you know I I haven't told them yet that they're trapped, but they are aware that they're we've been playing around with a lot of elements of them.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
They're all storyteller like they're with each other.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Throughout every moment, for example, when Juliet, you know, takes the poison, the whole company is involved.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Or when she you know when she when she drinks from the vial to to send her to sleep.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
And kind of faking her own death, they're all.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
They all have sort of a hand in it so and they add in.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Words and they repeat each other words.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
So there's a real ensemble feel to it that I that is meant to enhance those moments of deja vu or to enhance those moments of like this is a huge thing that's about to like shift.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
The course of fate.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Uhm, you know.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
So I, I think that they're all kind of really getting into that about how can they contribute to the storytelling even when it's not their scene, because you'll see them.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
They're going to be sitting on stage.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Change on staircases or in chairs, so they're also so you have like an ensemble of storytellers at any point to kind of help guide us along.
Katherine Stewart
Herriko, it sounds almost like they're they're in a shared dream.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Yes, oh, that's beautiful.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Yes, that's exactly.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Yeah, that's great.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
That's exactly what it, yeah, 'cause there is this kind of feeling of.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Where are we?
Lindsay Rae Taylor
We're in it together.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
We've been here before.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I think what happens next, yeah?
Katherine Stewart
OK, very very cool.
Katherine Stewart
So there are two guest directors coming in to work on this show.
Katherine Stewart
Have an intimacy director and a fight director.
Katherine Stewart
Can you tell us a little bit about those people in those roles and why they're?
Katherine Stewart
Important to this piece.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Yes, OK, so you know, I think that the intimacy direction has become.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Something that come, you know the professional industry is is really trying to.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I I guess you know, the professional industry is trying to shift its culture and being sure that people have an awareness of their own boundaries.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Of course you know being an actor, there's a lot of things.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
You're asked to do that.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
You know, simulate things that are, you know, life, and so, but I think.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
There's some people have gotten into some trouble.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
In terms of asking 'cause you know, it used to be.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
When I was, you know, working professionally it would.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
You a kiss comes up and and you've got to kiss somebody.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I mean, I've played Juliet.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
And you know.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
They say you know you'll just go and then you kiss and it's just assumed that it doesn't need to be choreographed.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
And then things can get a little bit muddy, because, uhm, so the idea of an intimacy coordinator or intimacy director.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Is that it's choreographed just like you would have a fight and that there's notation that the stage manager will have in the script, just as they would notate blocking and and so that if an actor starts to feel unsafe that there's it's.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
It's noted somewhere and that there is a.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
It's it's choreographed and that they're dumb and that it's consistent so that the if you know the the the choreography doesn't morph into something.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Else, and that those lines aren't sort of blurred between, you know who your character is versus who you are as a person.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
So the idea of bringing in, of course, Romeo and Juliet is a love story.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
There are some very dumb.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
You know, big moments of touch and kisses and uhm.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
You know, of course, uh, there's different ways to approach it, but there are definite like you have to have these moments, and so we myself as well as Michael Barnett, our department chair, was very adamant that we involve an intimacy choreographer because it's.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
'cause we're trying to mirror what's going on in the industry.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
So we have Mary Beth Gorman Craig, who is an intimacy director that I've worked with before and and I personally love it because it really does help me as a director.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Understand the story that I'm trying to tell because there's.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Ways of kissing and touching and all of those things.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
So if you come so she will ask me basically what she does is she?
Lindsay Rae Taylor
She creates a triangle because I think you know an actor really wants to and I speak for myself personally.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
You know you want to please.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
You want to get rehired, you want to.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Uhm, be cast in the next show, and so there's a sense of wanting to please the.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Director and having an intimacy choreographer creates a a triangle so that there's someone that is kind of a, you know, a witness or somebody that they can go to.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
That's not, you know, just the director.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
So and then what's great for me is that Mary Beth will ask me questions like, well, is it this type of kiss or is it that type of kiss?
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Or what are you trying to say with this?
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Moment so it kind of helps me hone in on what are we trying to say with this moment and the fight choreography is exactly the same.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
So Sara Flanagan is here.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
She was here last or two years ago, I think, directed the Wolves and she's doing a hand to hand combat class.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Uh, this semester.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
She just arrived yesterday and she is she'll do the same type of thing.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
There's lots of fights but she'll you know approach me and say, well, is it this type of fight or is it that type of fight?
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Like what do you want to like?
Lindsay Rae Taylor
What's what are?
Lindsay Rae Taylor
We trying to say with it, which I think that collaboration to me is incredibly.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
And and and we get more women in the room.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Which is also pretty cool.
Katherine Stewart
OK, so so, just in general, what do you hope audiences take away from this show?
Katherine Stewart
And what do you think?
Katherine Stewart
They'll enjoy about it.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
You know, I think that they'll enjoy the pace of it.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Uh, we're working very quickly in the rehearsal room and and the actors are just.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
They're very they're digesting the language at a very impressive pace, so I think that the clarity and and the sort of relishing in Shakespeare's language is.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Is definitely a strong take away from what we've got so far. Uhm, I hope that people will. Audiences will hear the story in a different way because we're kind of have.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Things we're doing.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
This contemporary cutting of it when I say contemporary.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I mean we're not changing any of the words, but because the cut is pretty aggressive and quick, I'm hoping the audiences will respond positively to that.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Like we they should be having to.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
We should be moving so quickly.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
That they have to work to keep up with us like it should be.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I feel like the whole show is almost like a shot of espresso or something.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
So I'm, I'm hoping that that that they hear the language in a in a in a new way.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Uh, and that they're excited when they're watching it because they're trying to, yeah, keep up with us and and and they're they're, you know they're fully engaged.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I think is is is my big hope.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Uh, with this production?
Katherine Stewart
Wonderful, I just thought of a question that I.
Katherine Stewart
Should have asked before.
Katherine Stewart
Because that last one sounded like a.
Katherine Stewart
Last question, but are.
Katherine Stewart
There are any of the performers people who have not worked with Shakespeare before.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Oh, that's a.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Question I think a lot of them are new to it.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I do have some seniors that are in a Shakespeare class that I teach, so they're kind of getting a sort of double Shakespeare time right now because I have them in class and so we're breaking down the language in there and then.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
They're also in rehearsal.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
At night, so I think that they.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
They feel completely immersed in it right now, but I I think for the most part a lot of them have a love of it, but have said that they haven't actually been in a production, so.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
We didn't have a lot.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Of new actors to Shakespeare in it, and I have to say that I'm.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Very impressed with how quickly they're digesting the language and using it effectively, and they all seem pretty.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I mean, there's swordfighting, there's dancing.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
There's movement, there's language, it's just, it's, it's they're, they're getting a good workout, I guess.
Katherine Stewart
Yeah, especially if they don't leave the stage for the whole.
Katherine Stewart
Time yes yes, we're trapped yeah.
Katherine Stewart
All right, well is there.
Katherine Stewart
Is there anything else you would like to share about this play?
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Uhm, I don't think so.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I think that you know, I just I.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I want to invite everyone to come and celebrate.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
You know it. It falls at A at a beautiful time of year as the semester's is is wrapping up.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
And I think the double Decker festival is that same weekend.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
So I I'm envisioning it.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
And the weather, of course not today totally.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
But it is opening up into spring, and so I do think that.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I'm I'm just hoping that it, and as we're kind of coming unmasked and actors are able to act without masks.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Now I feel that I I just want it to be a big celebration of of ritual and and of and of a kind of re emerging into our art form.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
As the way we like to do it, I guess so.
Katherine Stewart
Wonderful, that's wonderful.
Katherine Stewart
I'm really looking forward to it.
Yeah me.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Too me too.
Katherine Stewart
I can't wait to see it.
Katherine Stewart
Well, thank you so much Lindsay again, I really appreciate you taking the time.
Katherine Stewart
It's a fun conversation.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Yes, so much Katherine.
Katherine Stewart
Thank you.
Katherine Stewart
All right, once again, that was Lindsay Ray Taylor, assistant professor of performance and the director of our upcoming production of Romeo and Juliet.
Katherine Stewart
We've got some more information about Lindsay and the production in the show notes, so do check those out.
Katherine Stewart
Thank you so much for joining us and until next time this is Stage & Screen.