I think I’m too vain to have ever been starstruck. I haven’t seen very many famous people, and I don’t suppose I’ve ever really tried to, but I’m pretty sure my intellectual vanity would have prevented me from freaking out.
I am however, feeling something very similar; something for which I cannot think of a more accurate word.
I’m working on Romeo & Juliet for the first time. For most theater kids, this is old hat by the time they finish high school, but (other than one bit of scene work in school) I’ve had very little to do with it. I’ve seen maybe three productions and one or two movies (Zeffirelli’s and probably some other one I can’t think of), and I’ve read it maybe twice. I don’t mean to humble brag: I know that might sound like a lot to some, but for an active member of a Shakespeare Company, that’s pretty limited involvement for what is probably his most popular play.
I am currently part of a staged reading of Romeo & Juliet taking place on Shakespeare’s traditional birthday (April 23rd, right at midnight of all things), and it’s the first time I’ve put any real focus into the play. My usual sneers at changes made from the First Folio to contemporary works are being challenged in more than one case (though FF punctuation remains, as ever, a great Actor’s Punctuation).
The old cliche about all the adults being more interesting than Romeo or Juliet certainly seems true (if only because the lovers’ lines are familiar to the point of banality). More than anything, I’m appreciating the opportunity for complexity of interpretation in the text. A simple incident ‘promoted’ me from the Prince (exactly where you’d expect to find me) to Capulet, which is very exciting.
I don’t yet know whom I’ll be playing in Unrehearsed Romeo & Juliet (coming soon), but I am equally excited to see where the Rules do to this play.