INTERVIEW: Sean Hagerty raises the ‘Curtain’ on ‘Romeo & Juliet’
Photo: Sean Hagerty, the producing artistic director of The Curtain, adapted William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet for the theater company. He also serves as the director. Photo courtesy of the artist / Provided by Jorgensen PR with permission.
Shakespeare@, the successful classic theater company based in Jersey City, New Jersey, has rebranded and relaunched as The Curtain, and its inaugural production is Romeo & Juliet, playing at the Nimbus Arts Center through Sunday, Oct. 22. At the helm of the show is director and adaptor Sean Hagerty, who also serves as producing artistic director for the company.
The experience of directing Romeo & Juliet, starring Aria Shaghasemi and Anita Pomario, has been a welcome one for Hagerty. The theatrical company allows first-rate actors the chance to dig deep into a classic work and present their artistry on an intimate stage right across the river from Broadway.
Recently Hagerty talked with Hollywood Soapbox about the opportunities and challenges of staging Shakespeare after the COVID-19 pandemic. Here’s what he had to say …
On the importance of staging Romeo & Juliet now …
“There are a number of reasons. This was the show we were going to do in 2020. We were two weeks out when COVID hit, had signed contracts, money going out, posters, the whole thing. So I don’t know if you remember back in those early days, where it was all going to be over in like two weeks. It had always been in my mind to come back with that.”
On the decision to stage the show in the 1920s …
“We set it circa 1920, and I really wanted to explore the themes of the young vs. old, new generations, new movements vs. old establishment and things like that. And I thought that was really relevant to today. The ‘20s was a time when you had this inflection point in American history, American culture where you had, almost for the first time, a real youth movement that permeated everything — the arts, the music. You had the new women’s movement. Women had just gotten the vote, and there was this real sense of liberation. I don’t find it a coincidence that the decade that followed was a decade of fascism, so I just wanted to explore that theme a bit.”
On what it’s like to work with this ensemble of actors …
“Every single one of them is just bringing it every night. Anita and Aria are just powerhouses, and I couldn’t be more thrilled and honored to work with them.”
On why the company rebranded to The Curtain …
“It just seemed like a fitting time. It was our first in-person production since before the pandemic. During the pandemic, we partnered with Sonic Designs to sort of recapture this 1930s-1940s heyday of the serial radio drama, and we did a number of radio plays that we serialized with some really great actors, like Patrick Page, Jamie Ballard and all kinds of people from all over the globe. So it seemed like the right time to do a relaunch. We’re coming in fresh. We’re coming back new.”
On what it’s like to be based in Jersey City, across the river from New York City …
“It’s a funny thing, isn’t it? New York sucks all the air out of the room, so I feel like Jersey City, especially, there’s some great stuff happening here. I feel like we band together and really try to support each other. There’s this really great arts scene, food scene, music scene. It’s all happening here in Jersey City.”
On how The Curtain measures success …
“I don’t think financial success is always the best measure, but unfortunately in the arts that’s also your bottom line. You need to make money to continue, so, of course, that’s part of it. Another part of it is we’re doing really great work. One of our missions from the beginning has been to bring accessible theater to Jersey City, and by accessible I don’t just mean high-quality production. I also mean affordable. … We’ve got these outstanding actors from Broadway, Hollywood, West End, and our creatives and designers as well. We have Tony winners, Emmy winners. We brought together the kind of people that you just will not see anywhere else for $25. For example, the next time you’re going to see Aria is in November on Broadway co-starring with Anthony Edwards, so, to me, that’s something that is important, to bring that here and keep theater affordable and accessible. And that to me is success. Hopefully the financial success comes with it because we’d like to continue.”
On being dedicated to large-cast productions on an intimate scale …
“One of the things we wanted to do was to have this epic, large cast classical theater in intimate and unique spaces. That’s nothing against, say, two- or three- or four-handers or say five-person deconstructions of a Shakespeare play. That’s all well and good, but the kind of theater I wanted to do was the kind of theater that I saw a lot of when I was training and working in England, which was large casts in intimate spaces. When you were in the audience, you felt like were right there. You could literally reach out and touch the actors.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Romeo & Juliet, starring Anita Pomario and Aria Shaghasemi, continues through Sunday, Oct. 22 at the Nimbus Arts Center in Jersey City, New Jersey. The production, presented by The Curtain, is directed by Sean Hagerty, who also adapted the play. Click here for more information and tickets.
