Romeo & Juliet

NOVEMBER 12 – 28, 1998
By William Shakespeare
Director Linda Hardy

 

 

Harvey M. Miller

Harvey M. Miller is a member of ACTRA and both Canadian and American Acto r’s Equity . For the past 25 years he has worked profess ionally as an
actor and director in both Canada and the United States. His diverse directing credits include New York product ions of Talley’s Folly and Chapter Two for the Westchester Theatre Ensemble and Ten Little Indians for the Provincetown Repertory Company. He has also directed productions of Les Liaisons Dangereuses and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? for The Guild Theatre in White Horse.

A forme r co-artis tic director of the University of Victoria’s Phoenix Summer Theatre he has directed many productions at the University of Victoria ‘s Phoenix Theatre including, most recently, As You Like It and Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape which was produced as part of the University of Victoria’s 1996 Beckett Festival.

As an actor, Harvey has appeared onstage in various North American regional theatre productions including Luv for Persephone Theatre , Saskatoon; Social Security for Stage West, Edmonton; Julius Caesar for the Clarence Brown Company, Tennessee; and Two for the Seesaw for the Delano Playhouse, New York. On television he has appeared in episodes of Air Wolf II and Bordertown; feature films include The Journey of Natty Gann, Harry Tracy and The Glitterdome.

In addition, he has conducted numerous workshops for Theatre BC, the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival-Northwest Drama Conference and American Alliance for Theatre & Education. He has served as a Directing consultant on various productions and adjudicated drama festivals in the United States and Canada.

Harvey is an Associate Professor of Theatre at the University of Victoria and teaches directing to both undergraduate and graduate students.

Directors Notes

I was first introduced to Steven Dietz’s powerful play, God’s Country at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 1989.The play had an enormous impact on me and I knew that this was a play that a university audience should see.

For those who might question whether the University of Victoria’s Department of Theatre should be doing a play based on an American racist group, I would answer that this play addresses important universal issues including freedom of speech and the rights of the individual in relationship to the good of society.

In the lobby you will see a display that documents various Canadian racist incidents that have occurred in the last five years. Perhaps the most publicized Canadian cases since 1984 were those involving Jim Keegstra, the former Alberta school teacher, and Ernst Zundel, the pro-Nazi publisher from Ontario, who were brought to trials emanating from their racist beliefs. Both men were defended by Doug Christie, a longtime Victoria resident.

As a teacher of directing, I tell students that it is critical that they care deeply about the plays they choose to direct. This play confronts the racism that we can no longer ignore nor deny.
In his book, Web of Hate: Inside Canada’s Far Right Network, Harper Collins, Warren Kinsella writes,

“When confronted by the growing web of hate, it is the inclination
of many Canadians – too many – to avert their eyes and cross to the other side of the street. Unaware, and in some cases uncaring, they persist in the belief that it is too dangerous to turn back the rising tide of hate and that it is too dangerous to get involved.
But, the simple fact is that, whether we like it or not, we are involved. The haters are here, and they are not going to go away.”

In October, the Department of Theatre was honored to have the playwright, Steven Dietz, as our visiting Lansdowne Scholar. At his public lecture, Mr. Dietz challenged us to consider the theatre as a social forum. He spoke about his play.

“… God’s Country is an attempt to use the ritual of the theatre event to reflect upon some disturbing facts, some insidious fears … The Theatre is a necessary place for a society to confront itself.
It is a place for reasoning and rage, recognition and discussion.”

Everyone involved in this production thanks you for attending tonight’s performance.

 

Cast & Creative

Creative Team:

Director Linda Hardy
Costume Designer Mary Kerr
Set Designer Jeremy Gordaneer
Lighting Designer Alan Brodie 
Sound Design and Music Consultant Robert Holliston
Sound Design and Co Ordination Ryan Sheeley
Fight Choreography Nicholas Harrison
Dance Choreographer Kelly Arnsby
Stage Manager Pamela Bethel
Assistant Director and Fight Captain Paul Donison
Assistant Costume Designer Lindsay Walker
Ball Headdress Designer Nicole Meeson
Assistant Lighting Designer Larissa Beardmore

 

Cast:

Mary Simpson Chorus, Old Capulet

Gerry Turple Escalus, Prince of Verona, Man in Mantua

James Hallam Paris

Alex Robertson Montague, Man in Mantua

Cam Culham Capulet

Scott Williams Romeo

Michael Armstrong Mercutio

Greg Landucci Benvolio, Man in Mantua

Jeffrey Fisher Tybalt, Brawler

Paul Donison Friar Lawrence, Singer

Helen Devine Lady Montague, Rosaline, Sister Joana

Jeff Kluge Balthasar, Martial Arts Student Sampson

Geoff Chapman Man in Mantua

Michael G. Costa Gregory, Sensei, Night Watch, Brawler

Jeff Glenn Peter, Security Guard

Rob Robinson Abram, Apothecary, Security Guard, Delinquent

Drew Williams Night Watch, Martial Arts Student, Security Guard, Party Guest, Sex Worker

Michelle Addison Martial Arts Student, Security Guard, Party Guest, Sex Worker

Christina Cicko Martial Arts Student

Krista McKeachie Lady Capulet

Mairi Babb Juliet

Elisabeth Dent Nurse

Brodie Stevenson Page to Paris, Martial Arts Student, Party Guest, Devotional Lady

Heather Young Ambulance Attendant, Prostitute, Servant, Party Guest, Devotional Lady

Celine E. Stubel Ambulance Attendant, Sex Worker, Servant Party Guest, Servant, Woman in Mantua

Aurora Faulkner-Killam  Singer

PROGRAMME