This fall and winter, Virus Theater held a theater performance and tech workshop for our community’s teens, which will culminate in a performance of Romeo & Juliet at the theater company’s home, the El Sol Theater, located at 406 N Bullard St in downtown Silver City, in late January and early February 2023.

Involved teens gave input and elbow grease to the processes of designing and constructing the play’s sets and costumes, using and developing an aesthetic design mashup of the Renaissance meets the 1980s. 

The performing team of teens and a few adults worked together to make sense of the Shakespearean language and themes of the story, aiming to make the classical language understandable and to find physical and emotional ways to express the themes so that the story speaks to universal human experiences.

As always in its productions, Virus Theater strives to make Romeo & Juliet accessible, relevant, interesting, and fun, “fun in a Shakespearean tragedy sort of way,” notes Assistant Director Jessa Tumposky.

Virus Theater’s production of William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet opens on Friday, January 27, 2023, and advance tickets are now available Monday through Friday, 11-4pm at the Little Toad Creek Brewery and Distillery at 200 N Bullard St in Silver City.

Romeo & Juliet will be performed January 27, 28, and 29, and February 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, and 12, 2023. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday shows are at 7pm, and Sunday shows are at 2pm. El Sol Theater doors open half an hour before showtime. 

Tickets can also be purchased at the El Sol Theater door for that performance of the play or for a future performance. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students. 

This Romeo & Juliet workshop and performance project was supported by a generous grant from the New Mexico Humanities Council and funding from the Town of Silver City.