Roving Reporter: Shakespeare

Packed into a darkened room in John Harvard’s Brewery sat two opposing households: the Montagues and the Capulets. Their ancient grudge, having lain dormant for a whole year, is about to break to new mutiny in the yearly celebration of Shakespeare’s birthday. The Actors’ Shakespeare Project, the Orfeo Group, the American Repertory Theater, the Central Square Theatre, the Cambridge Arts Council, multiple other Cambridge-based drama groups, and the Harvard Square Business Association have joined together for the last three years to commemorate the birth of the prolific English playwright. Thus, on April 17 at 3 pm in the afternoon, around 60 Shakespeare fanatics turned the crowded bar of John Harvard into 17th century Verona, as they performed a group rendition of the balcony scene from “Romeo and Juliet”. Our Roving Reporter investigates.

Trent Mills, Member of the Actors’ Shakespeare Project

RR: Would you describe yourself as a Shakespeare fanatic?

TM: I mean, I don’t think I would be here if I wasn’t.

RR: You have valiantly chosen to perform as a Juliet for the occasion.

TM: I love playing girls.

RR: You do? Wow, I wasn’t really asking for an insight into your personal life, but thanks.

TM: No, I just had to decide at the door and on the spur of the moment decided Juliet.

RR: Okay. So what would you say your favorite Shakespeare play is?

TM: Um, if I had to say any it would probably be “A Winter’s Tale.”

Elderly man, who did not wish to be named

RR: How do you feel about Shakespeare?

EM: Well...I feel pretty good.

RR: No, I mean are you a fan?

EM: I’ve seen a couple of plays, they’re pretty good.

RR: So, to sum up, Shakespeare is ‘pretty good.’

EM: Urgh, yeah. He’s done a lot for our society.

RR: I agree. Okay, Montague or Capulet?

EM: Excuse me?

RR: Montague or Capulet? Which side are you going to take?

EM: ...Are you swearing at me?

Doug Lockwood, Member of the Actors’ Shakespeare Project

RR: Huge Shakespeare fan?

DL: I think that’s true.

RR: Okay, so, favorite play?

DL: I like the dark comedies.

RR: Always satisfying. Although I am most definitely a tragedy fan myself.

DL: You like the drama?

RR: Oh, I am all about the drama. Favorite line from a play? I am a fan of “This above all: To thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.”

DL: “Hamlet.” Very nice. I’m pretty fond of Edgar’s last line of “King Lear”, ‘Speak what we feel not what we ought to play’.

RR: So is that your favorite part to play?

DL: It would be Edgar, yes.