23 Mar 2009 Romeo and Juliet: The story everybody knows and everybody loves; it is the most famous love story in the world. Why has it lasted the test of time? How come it still moves audiences the world over? The essence of a great story is in how it is told and with Shakespeare's beautiful language you have a perfect storytelling mechanism to bring the human conditions of love and hate to life on stage - live. Romeo and Juliet are any two people who have ever wanted love to prevail over adversity. We all want them to keep fighting the good fight and so the story lives on. Come and watch and listen to the greatest love story ever told.


Nina Lucy Wylde
Having trained at Rhodes University in Grahamstown (BA HONS), the Central School of Speech and Drama in London (MA) and with Ivana Chubbuck from Los Angeles (Actors Centre, London), Nina Lucy Wylde has been performing and directing ever since. She has lived and worked in Grahamstown, Cape Town, London, Oxford and Johannesburg. She has extensive experience with verse text performance, specifically Shakespeare, but has also spent her fair share of time being an all-singing, all-dancing Red Riding Hood as well as a coelacanth fish.

Film and Television includes, Land of Thirst (SABC2), Perplex City, Secret of Whales, Safe, Grievances, and Bad Boy Racers (Channel 5).

Theatre includes, Macbeth, Much Ado about Nothing, The Tempest, The Seagull, Little Eyolf, The Bear, Son of Man and On the Lake. She has also had prosthetic hair attached to her chest for a Channel 4 commercial on embarrassing illnesses!
The WSOA’s production of Romeo and Juliet has three legs to it:

The first phase of the Shakespeare Project at Wits University is a TIE (Theatre in Education) production of the show aimed at assisting learners and teachers with the text and consists of a fast-paced 80 minute version of the play including an audience interactive 10minute talk.

This version is compiled by Nina Lucy Wylde and features a cast of Wits University students, and will be staged at the Wits Downstairs Theatre, Wednesday 1 April to Friday 3 April at 11am and 3pm
The mission of the TIE Programme is to search for issues to be questioned and present them in a theatrical form for the purpose of creating change in understanding. The TIE team, often described as actor-teachers, are in essence, peer educators who devise and bring their performance to schools as their primary target audience. The programme sets out to examine the world in which we live by raising questions about that world and the individual’s place within it. Our TIE team will present an 80 minute performance; concluding with a 10 minute interactive discussion on the relevance of Shakespeare’s works in the present day in 4 different languages.

The second leg of the project is a tour to schools between Monday 20 April and Friday 24 April with performances available twice a day at 10am and 3pm (no performances on Wednesday 22 April)

Thirdly, a full-length, large-scale production is to be performed later in the year. The same company continues with this second production to find new and further ways of communicating Shakespeare’s story to audiences; the Wits Theatre, Wednesday 22 July until Saturday 8 August at 7:30pm (matinée on Saturday 25 July and 1 August at 14h30)

For bookings to attend 1-3 April in the Wits Downstairs Theatre and to arrange a tour, contact Althea Karools 083 271 2821/ This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ; bookings for the second semester’s full-scale production will open in July 2009.  
      
Tickets are very reasonably priced at R 20,00 per person for the Downstairs Theatre and the tours.

Light meals and a full cash bar can be enjoyed in Café Dulce, situated in the Wits Theatre Foyer.

PRODUCTION:  Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
VENUE:  Wits Downstairs Theatre (April) and Wits Theatre (July/August)
SEASON: 1 – 3 April @ 11h00 and 15h00; 22 July – 08 August @ 19h30
RUNNING TIME: 90 minutes (April) and 2 ½ hours including interval (July/August)
BOOKING:   This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.                                             
ENQUIRIES: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. / 011 717-1376    
                                                                          
WSOA and the Wits Theatre present
Romeo and Juliet
By William Shakespeare; directed by Nina Lucy Wylde