Aria Shaghasemi and Anita Pomario will co-star in “Romeo & Juliet” in Jersey City.
The Jersey City-based theater company Shakespeare@ is relaunching as The Curtain and will present its first production under that name, a new adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Romeo & Juliet” by Sean Hagerty, at the Nimbus Arts Center in Jersey City. Previews will begin on Sept. 28, the official opening night will be on Sept. 30, and the last show will be on Oct. 22.
Aria Shaghasemi of the TV series “The Originals” and “Legacies” will play Romeo, and Italian actress Anita Pomario, who co-starred in the 2020 movie “The Macaluso Sisters,” will make her American stage debut as Juliet.
Hagerty is The Curtain’s producing artistic director and also will direct this production. He said in a press release that Shakespeare’s iconic tragedy “strikes me as the perfect story for our time — and setting it at the dawn of the Jazz Age in 1920 makes absolute sense with its inherent themes of the age-old conflict between the young and the old, new movements vs. the old establishment, and the societal divides that can stifle beauty and destroy love.”
In partnership with Nimbus Dance, this production also will feature “a rollicking ‘20s dance number,” according to a press release.
Other cast members will include Andrew Sellon as Friar Laurence, Mark Torres as Capulet, Thia Stephan as Lady Capulet and Christianna Nelson as The Nurse.
For information and tickets, visit TheCurtain.org.
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