ZILKER PARK

'Romeo and Juliet' goes bilingual

Words of the bard mingle with Spanish in Zilker Park production.

By Jeanne Claire van Ryzin
AMERICAN-STATESMAN ARTS WRITER
Saturday, May 23, 2009

Last May, Ann Ciccolella, artistic director of Austin Shakespeare, witnessed something interesting in the audience when the theater company presented its annual monthlong production in Zilker Park.

Ciccolella saw a young girl translating everything she saw on the stage into Spanish for her mother.

That made Ciccolella realize how much she wanted Austin Shakespeare to reach out to the Hispanic community with the company's free play in the park, now in its 24th year.

"I want what we do here to be welcoming," she said. "I want it to be part of our city."

And so Ciccolella conceived of a "Romeo and Juliet" set in 1940s Central Texas where Romeo and his buddies sport zoot suits, Juliet celebrates a quinceañera and at least part of Shakespeare's timeless love story is told in Spanish.

Ciccolella cast Hispanic actors in most of the roles and also worked with the cast to create Spanish-language translations for some minor parts of the dialogue. The famous line "Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art though Romeo" still remains in English, but some of the more casual language that surrounds Shakespeare's dialogue has been translated into Spanish.

Thursday night, more than 200 people lounged on the lawn of the Sheffield Hillside Theater in Zilker Park. A concession stand from Evita's Botanitas sold roasted corn on the cob, tamales and agua fresca. The stage was adorned with papel picado, traditional Mexican paper decorations.

Sandivel Trinidad, 24, sat on a blanket with her mother, Elizabeth, and her 9-year-old sister, Emilce. "I heard they were giving a Mexican twist to it; I was very interested. I love the poetry (of Shakespeare). And this is just a great place to be with my family."

A Spanish literature student at the University of Texas, Trinidad gave the show a thumbs-up at intermission.

"It's great, I love it," she said. "I'm a Spanish speaker, and the way (the actors) go back and forth in English and Spanish is just like how me and my friends talk."

The monthlong production cost Austin Shakespeare $100,000. Actors roam the hillside at intermission to collect donations.

Ciccolella said that she hoped the current production would serve as something of a pilot for Austin Shakespeare to add to its youth programs in the schools.

"We'd like Shakespeare to be relevant to everyone in our community," she said.

jvanryzin@statesman.com; 445-3699