Nadia Stoyanova
There is a new Romeo and Juliet in town and they wear metal, fight with swords, and love their Victorian clothing.

Starting Nov. 2, English teacher Molly Meacham is bringing steampunk to Shakespeare and Shakespeare to Lane. This production, she said, is nothing short of amazing for the students, especially the actors.

“I have studied Shakespeare professionally, but I don’t just choose it because I love it,” Meacham said. “It’s also good college prep for actors. Any actor who wants to go off and study this in college is given the best challenge to acquire the widest variety of skills, like language, emotion, fight choreography, and dance choreography. This production just really goes across the board.”

This “Romeo and Juliet” rendition involves steampunk, which is a mixture of steam-powered machinery and the Victorian era. With the spunk from the sword fights, Meacham said she hopes that it will be one of her best.

“This is not an easy play,” Meacham said. “And it’s expensive. Some of it I pay out of pocket because if it’s a weapon, I cannot be reimbursed by CPS. But I truly love and believe in the process. There are things that if I believe they are really and truly important, I want to make an investment in terms of time and in terms of everything else.”

Her actors, specifically Conrad Espino, Div. 769, who plays the starring lead of Romeo, said he is trying his best to keep the balance between keeping the story traditional and making Shakespeare brand new.

“Steampunk definitely affects Romeo’s stance,” Espino said. “Italian Romeo, Renaissance Romeo is very more romantic and colorful. Steampunk Romeo is different — he’s stoic, regal, and darker. He’s full of colors like brown and gray, and is more bleak.”

With darker colors come darker scenes, such as the action scenes that have been choreographed professionally. The fight captain, Eryk Markiewicz, Div. 961, said he brought his prior experiences to the task.

“I originally auditioned for one part and I got the part of Friar Lawrence,” he said. “Eventually, I was recognized for my fencing skills and listed that I have had nine years of experience. She [Meacham] also asked me if I could be the fight captain.”

As fight captain, Markiewicz supervises all of the fight choreography, where students use swords, and also puts pressure on himself to be confident that no real violence takes place.

“Fight choreography is really intense because you have to know what comes up next constantly,” Espino said. “It’s hard because we can’t actually hit a person, obviously, but we have to really sell the move and keep it intense but safe. To do this and stay in character is a bit of a struggle.”

Again, all of the acting skills, fight choreography, handmade costumes, and steampunk elements will take place in first week of November. A play such as this one only happens once in a while as Meacham only directs Shakespearean plays every three years to give all students an opportunity to perform Shakespeare.

“I really believe that this is worth the amount of time and focus that it takes for the actors and for me,” Meacham said. “I believe that their artistic processes are miraculous.”