Shakespeare's classic tragedy "Romeo and Juliet" usually takes more than 2 hours to perform. But a condensed version of the play opens on the stage of Tallahassee State College's Turner Auditorium this Friday evening, January 7.
The local Southern Shakespeare troupe is putting on a 55-minute Romeo and Juliet. And Director James Alexander Bond said the cast list is also shorter than normal.
"With 5 actors in the play, sometimes you have actors changing costumes on stage, right in front of you. Sometimes you have characters playing more than one character in a single scene."
Bond said it's a fast-paced presentation that still keeps to the essence of the original. And it's a story that everyone, especially young people, can understand.
"The fights with the parents, falling in love as a teenager, kids relate to those things. So I think it's a really accessible story for them."
Over the next few weeks, school kids in Leon County and even Thomasville will get to see the Southern Shakespeare rendition of Romeo and Juliet.
