Illinois State University ISU ReD: Research and eData Illinois Shakespeare Festival Fine Arts Summer 1994 1994 Illinois Shakespeare Festival Program School of Theatre and Dance Illinois State University Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/isf Part of the Theatre and Performance Studies Commons Recommended Citation School of Theatre and Dance, "1994 Illinois Shakespeare Festival Program" (1994). Illinois Shakespeare Festival. 13. https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/isf/13 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Fine Arts at ISU ReD: Research and eData. It has been accepted for inclusion in Illinois Shakespeare Festival by an authorized administrator of ISU ReD: Research and eData. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 19 RoN11Eo AND J1Li1JDET July I, 5, 14, 16, 20, 22, 24, 26, 31 August 2, 4, 6, 7 • HJENJRY T]H[]E JFoURTH9 PART I July 2, 6, 8, 12, 17, 21, 23, 27, 29, 31 August 3 • T]H[]E Two GJENTJLJENJIEN OF VJERONA July 3, 7, 9, 13, 15, 17, 19, 24, 28, 30 August 5 E WllNG MANOR, lB LfWMINGTON • WJE§Tll[r()]ff THEATRE, Nrrm.MAL The 1994 Illinois Shakespeare Festival is made possible in part by funding and support provided by the Illinois State University Foundation; the Illinois Arts Council - a state agency; the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs, Bureau of Tourism; the town of Normal; State Farm Insurance Companies; and Illinois State University, the College of Fine Arts, the Department of Theatre; as well as through individual memberships in the Illinois Shakespeare Society. ROMEO AND JULIET CONSUMED BY flRE by Scott Walters For a love story, Romeo and Juliet very hot in summer" and that Rose This second book pointed out that there has more violence and bloodshed than recommends that the smart traveler are times when Scirocco winds "sweep most TV mini-series. The play begins should "avoid August if you can" be­ Saharan conditions northward"; winds with a riot, ends with a double suicide, cause it is the "hottest month." Check­ which, by the time they reach Italy, and in between has three murders. And ing another book, I discovered that Rose, bring "humid, stifling weather" with all this takes place in the span of four was understating the severity of the temperatures commonly topping the 100 short days. summer weather rather considerably. degree mark. Of course, whenyou'redealingwith After reading this, a great deal of the love and hate, you're operating on an violence in Romeo and Juliet became elemental level. The funny thing is that more understandable: they're all short­ they have their roots in the same soil. tempered because of the heat! This is How many times have you seen love even noted by Benvolio when he warns turn to hate, and vice versa, in the blink Mercutio that "The day is hot, and of an eye? Capulet's abroad,/ And if we meet we Love and hate are twin sons of dif­ shall not scape a brawl,/ For now, these ferent mothers, separated at birth. They hot days, is the mad blood stirring." have a doubleness. This ambiguity is Unfortunately, he warns too late, and reflected throughout Romeo and Juliet, the brawl he seeks to avoid is met in the whose language is riddled with form of Tybalt. oxymorons. "O brawling love, 0 loving The mad blood is stirring ... hate," Romeo cries in the play's very Think back a few summers to the first scene, using a figure of speech and drought that plagued Illinois: after days setting up a theme that will be played and days of humid, 90+ temperatures, out during the next five acts. didn't you want to kill somebody?Tem­ Like the poles of an electrical circuit pers explode when it's hot. At the end of between which runs the high voltage of a ten-day heat wave, one newspaper emotions, love and hate create a dia­ reported that a knife fight broke out logue and a dialectic, a dynamic tension when one man asked another, "Hot which powers the action and generates enough for you?" heat. The connection between heat and Hot Enough for You? violence is well-known and docu­ When I noticed that two of the plays mented. In 1968, the United States Riot this season had settings in Verona, I Commission, investigating the ghetto decided to find out a thing or two about riots that had taken place the previous the place. Reading the section on "cli­ year found that "In most instances, the mate" in Harold Rose's book Your Guide temperature during the day on which to Northern Italy, I noted that "Italy is the violence first erupted was quite high." In fact, in 9 of 18 riots, the 2 • BILFINGER ASBURY AND ABELS -A DIVISION OF SHIVE HAITERY ENGINEERS AND ARCHITECTS, INC. temperature reached 90 degrees or more overheated, were asked to detect light tions of extreme heat, conflict becomes during the day, and in all but one of the signals flashed in a random manner. almost inevitable. remaining cases, the temperature had A second group of men exercised at In addition, Kavaler notes, exces­ been in the 80s. The "long, hot summer" 75 degrees. More light flashes were sive heat calls forth the "fight or flight" of 1967 was just that. reported by the men who were hotter, reaction in which all body systems mo­ Perhaps it is not too great a stretch to which at first seemed to indicate that bilize to meet a threat. Given the code of postulate that Verona is experiencing this state increased their alertness and honor which views flight as cowardice, just such a long, hot summer. Some­ competence. But when their detec­ the men of Verona have little choice: thing must have happened to have tion reports were compared with the they must fight. And they must fight in touched off the feud between the number of true signals, it was found response to any perceived signal of ag­ Montagues and the Capulets. that the increase was in false reports. gression. By the time Romeo and Juliet be­ Their judgment was not as sound as Interestingly, the physiological re­ gins, the violence is already under way. that of cooler men. They had become actions of the body to heat is similar to The play opens with a riot, after which more willing to take a risk and insist its reaction to the onset of rage: the heart the Prince angrily notes that "Three that they saw a signal when in fact beats faster, breathing quickens, the civil brawls ... have thrice disturbed the there was none." blood vessels in the skin dilate, and quiet of our streets." Obviously, this Applying this to interpersonal com­ there is an increase in blood flow, mak­ violence has not been continual, for it is munication, it might be reasonable to ing the skin flush. still young enough for people to keep assume that human beings who are hot If the blood vessels remain dilated count of the fights. No, this is a new might see a signal of aggression in an­ for long, some liquid leaks into the outbreak of an older conflict, as the other person -- particularly if that per­ tissues and the face looks swollen. Capulets and Montagues "from ancient son were regarded as the enemy -- when So the face of heat is also the face of grudge break to new mutiny." in fact there was none. The slightest rage. What brings on this conflict? The wrong move might be perceived as an Prince blames it on "an airy word/ By affront, an insult, a challenge.Under the Welcome to Verona. thee, old Capulet, and Montague." But best circumstances, communication if this airy word provided the spark, the between hostile forces is difficult; un- conditions must have been ripe for fire. And surely the flame, once lit, has been .-0: .✓-,-: fanned by a kind of fever that has /:cf/ swept the city. //.Y '. Passion is a Fever in the / 2 .. , I ~ Mind / . Heat, whether internal or external, has a bad effect on judgment. The U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine once undertook a study to determine how soldiers would perform in hot cli­ mates. As Lucy Kavalerde­ scribes in her book A Mat­ ter of Degree: Heat, Life and Death: "Soldiers were required to exercise in heat of 103 degrees at high humid­ ity, which caused a rise in body temperature. They were allowed to rest for a while and then, still THE PEOPLES BANK • 3 ROMEO AND JULIET SYNOPSIS An "ancient grudge" between the house they attend the masked ball being given by their enemies the of Montague and the house of Capulet Capulets. At the ball Romeo meets Juliet and falls instantly in causes a brawl in the streets of Verona. love. Later he scales the wall of the Capulets' orchard, over­ Prince Escalus arrives and declares that hears Juliet pronouncing her love for him and declares his love. such disturbances will be henceforth The next day through the help of Juliet's Nurse they make plans punished by death. Romeo arrives on to be secretly married by Friar Lawrence, who agrees in the the scene bemoaning his unrequited hope that their alliance will turn their "households' rancour to love for Rosalind. Benvolio suggests that pure love." After the wedding ceremony, Mercutio, Romeo, and Benvolio encounter Tybalt and several other Capulets. They fight and Mercutio is killed by Tybalt. Enraged by the death of his friend, Romeo kills Tybalt and flees to Friar Lawrence.