How We Got This Idea

Uhhhhhh...

We, uh...

Okay. So in June 2007, David Z., Heather, Todd and I were sitting around discussing potential shows to collaborate with Italian artists on. For some reason, Shakespeare kept coming up in general discussions prior to that, with Italians and amongst ourselves. Romeo & Juliet in particular, actually. I wrote a little bit about why here.

I've been trying to remember who brought up a clown version, but I have no idea. No doubt it was related to the clown work Heather and I had been doing so much of late in some way. It tickled us, though. I remember David saying we should take a promo picture a la La Dolce Vita in Fontana di Trevi. We also got very excited about returning to that format, and tackling Shakespeare.

So essentially, the reasons we thought it was a perfect show to begin with had to do with the idea of finding something on which we collaborate with Italian theatre artists whilst in Italy. Someone told us Shakespeare productions were a very mixed bag there (as we saw in the contrast between productions of Othello [so bad] and Much Ado About Nothing [so good] there), and got to thinking about how language was going to be a constant issue in the collaboration. What better story than one set in Italy, to which we could add the original English language to at points, and one that pretty much everyone knows to one degree or another.

Because we kept trying to figure out how to bring Silent Lives to Italy, too, the appeal of clown work and how it can be very effective when silent (thus transcending all language issues) was great as well. Since then, as we've incorporated the idea into TNT's season and continued our informal explorations of the show, I think the main thing that has kept us going on the idea is how effectively it has gathered Zuppa del Giorno alumni. That's another thing we've been craving since Silent Lives: a reunion show. We kept trying to make space for it in other productions, but Romeo & Juliet seems to lend itself to that better than any before.

Finally, there's a lot about the show that resonates with themes Zuppa naturally inclines toward. Innocence and its loss, re-appreciation of old forms, passionate motivations and appetite-driven scenarios, and the more operatic side of comedy. In many ways, it was impossible that, once the idea was raised, we could let it go. So here we are, asking, "Now what?" Which is a place we can get pretty excited about.