By Nicholas Blair
After two years of pandemic-related prohibitions for both the UC Santa Barbara Theater and Dance Program and the world at large, the Naked Shakes company returned indoors this fall with its production of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
The UCSB Studio Theater was abuzz last week, with audience members brimming from the aisles, filling every seat. The anticipation was palpable for this timeless classic, as UCSB students had clearly missed the communal experience of watching a performance in a theater, just as director and department chair Irwin Appel had missed directing one.
“As this play was the first time I returned to the Studio Theater—this being my 24th year at UCSB, every step of the way having been in this theater—coming back I had a sense of excitement at seeing the venue in a fresh way,” Appel said.
Through compromise and technical ingenuity, Naked Shakes had been able to continue performing over Zoom in recent years. But returning indoors provided an opportunity for the cast to fully connect with the audience in the way that makes performing in person so captivating. Both Nicholas Enea and Ahlora Smith—who played Romeo and Juliet—made the characters their own with empathic, soul-bearing performances, supported by the rest of an impeccable cast.
“Often my goal in picking a traditional title is to upend people’s expectations.”
In the UC Santa Barbara Naked Shakes production, Romeo (Nicholas Enea) and Juliet (Ahlora Smith) say their wedding vows. Photo courtesy of UCSB Theater and Dance.
“From the moment we decided to do Romeo & Juliet, I wanted an in-your-face experience,” Appel explained. “Rather than the idea of Shakespeare feeling removed or having a barrier of entry, I wanted the audience to be immersed in it. I love when the action happens surrounding the audience, creating the feeling of a completely multi-dimensional space.”
And immersed they were. Rather than being inches from a computer screen, theater-goers were inches from the performers, with their pew-like seats having become part of the stage. Actors ran up and down the stairs, sat on railings, and, for the lucky few in the front row, offered audience members a smell of freshly-picked flowers. The back row formed the balcony from which Juliet famously beckons for Romeo. And it became a front-row seat for Tybalt slamming Romeo’s head into the theater walls.
The cast of Naked Shakes’s Romeo and Juliet dances at the Capulet house party. Photo courtesy of UCSB Theater and Dance.
Everything from the blocking to the minimalist stage design served to revitalize what is perhaps the most performed tale of all time, Appel said.
“My hope in choosing Romeo and Juliet—since for many audiences it’s so well known it’s almost like a cliché in itself—was for people who think they know it, to all of a sudden see it as a completely new play, finding a freshness and relevance that would immerse the audience in its images,” he said. “Often my goal in picking a traditional title is to upend people’s expectations.”
Though he celebrates the return to a sense of normalcy, Appel stressed that the heart of the company’s performances had never changed over of the past few years.
“Whether it was Immortal Longings online, or Twelfth Night outside, or Romeo & Juliet inside, it all stems from the same desire to communicate a story and have the audience to feel absorbed in it,” he said. “As creative artists, we should use our limitations as creative launching points. Different shows have different needs and demands, and the artist’s job is to make that work no matter what it is.”
Naked Shakes’ Romeo and Juliet leads the charge for a steady line-up of in-person presentations from the Theater & Dance Program throughout the Fall season, which include student-directed one-act plays from November 10th-13th as well as faculty director Michael Bernard’s version of Nicolai Gogol’s “The Government Inspector,” from November 16th-20th. Appel and Naked Shakes will return with another Shakespeare performance in 2023.
Nicholas Blair is a third-year UC Santa Barbara student, majoring in Film & Media Studies and minoring in English. He is a web and social media intern for the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts.