HARLINGEN — Romeo’s arms reached out from gold puffy sleeves, speaking words of endearment to Juliet.
But Juliet, played by Beth Cantu, would have none of it. When Romeo, played by Matthew Stolp, leaned in to kiss her, she grimaced in her lavender dress and pulled away.
The cast members of “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged,” which opens tonight at Harlingen Community Theater, will present passages from all 37 works of the famous bard.
“I’m ready, excited,” said Stolp, 41, of Harlingen.
“I put a lot of energy into it so we’re ready to release it and have everybody enjoy it now,” he said.
The three-member cast began working on the project in March, said Beth Cantu, 26, of Monte Alto.
“It is a scripted show, but it’s improve-based, so we kind of add our own little flair to go along with it,” Cantu said. “But mostly it’s sort of a condensed version of each play. We basically cram the main plot points into each little segment. We self direct.”
They all seemed to love the craziness of the production, the quick putting on of costumes and the remembering of so many Shakespearean lines from different plays.
“It’s completely insane,” said Jenna Fite, 26, of Harlingen.
“Once it clicks it feels so great and it feels so much fun,” Fite said. “It’s less of a storyline and more of just like, ‘Hey, do you wanna know about Shakespeare? Here’s a little piece of all of Shakespeare.’ We’re playing ourselves basically in the interim. Then the rest of it will be, ‘OK, let’s do Othello. Let’s do Romeo and Juliet.’
“And then we pick up all those roles.”
Which is her favorite role?
“Hamlet is my favorite,” she said. “The play itself is supposed to be very dark and brooding. He’s very melancholic. But in this you get to laugh at him. He’s whiny a little bit.”
She also enjoyed stepping into the character of a leading male role.
“That’s actually been really fun, as a girl just to get up there and like, ‘I’m wearing the pants!’” she said with a laugh.
Cantu pointed out some curious realities about Shakespearean speech.
“People assume that Shakespeare is very high brow, very sophisticated,” she said. “Those of us that enjoy theater history know that Shakespeare was in fact quite the opposite. He made a lot of poop jokes, a lot of fart jokes, kind of raunchy comedy. It gives us the goofy aspect of it.”
She further explained that Shakespeare wrote in the common language of the day.
“It really is not all serious like people think it is because Shakespeare was just a normal person like you and me,” she said. “He wrote plays for normal people like you and me, not necessarily for the wealthy. That was just the normal everyday language for them.”
That doesn’t necessarily make it any easier to memorize, though.
“The most challenging part has been learning true Shakespeare language,” Stolp said. “You have to try and put it in your brain and remember it. We try to hold the integrity of Shakespeare as much as we can in a comedic way.”
If You Go
WHAT: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged
WHERE: Harlingen Community Theater
1209 Fair Park Blvd.
WHEN: Today 7:30 p.m.
Saturday 7:30 p.m.
Sunday 3 p.m.
ADMISSION: Adults – $10
Children under 18 – $5
Tickets sold at the door.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: 956-412-7529
https://www.harlingencommunitytheatre.org/
