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Daily Herald

Suburban Life

There is a Polish theater critic, Jan Kott, who argues in a book called "Shakespeare, Our Contemporary," that William Shakespeare remains so popular because he was the first to capture the modern frame of mind.  American scholar Harold Bloom goes so far to say Shakespeare "invented" the modern individual.  That before Shakespeare, people thought of themselves more as part of a group than as unique people with rights and needs acting as part of a group.

Whether this is true of all Shakespeare's plays, I'm not sure.  But it certainly fits "Romeo and Juliet."  This is a play full of wonderful, powerful, memorable characters: the cocky killer Tybalt, the joking fool Mercutio, the well-meaning Friar Laurence, and, of course, the sweet lovers Romeo and Juliet.

Every production of  "Romeo and Juliet" lives or dies based on how well the director casts her play.

Happily, director Alison Vesely of First Folio Shakespeare Festival, competing this year with no less than three other companies producing outdoor Shakespeare has still been able to fill her production with strong-voiced, vigorous, agile actors.  More importantly, Vesely has found the pace and tempo to bring this highly poetic play to life.

Vesely recognizes this constant potential for violence and fills her version with sword fights,  verbal sparring, and a fierce undercurrent of competition that makes the love scenes between Romeo and Juliet all the more sweet.

Robert Allan Smith and Sean Fortunato...shine in the play.  Fortunato, in particular, handles Mercutio's alarmingly funny death speech with bravado.

At the center of the play, though, is an actress so fine she makes the play wheel around her.  Her name is Jessica Schulte.  She's a recent University of Illinois grad, and her Juliet puts all other Juliets to shame.

Schulte glides through the part with the grace of someone born to play the doomed lover.  Schulte looks the part, but lots of young women, thanks to the cosmetics industry, can do that.  More impressive, though, is how well Schulte speaks the part.

Frm the moment she enters and begins delivering Shakespeare's poetic lines, in her soft, relaxed voice, we know we are in the presence of the woman herself.

Jessica Schulte brings enough passion and fire to her performance of Juliet that her presence illuminates the way for smaller roles and actors in First Folio's "Romeo and Juliet," on the grounds of the Mayslake Forest Preserve (formerly the Peabody Estate) in Oak Brook.

The timeless story of "Romeo and Juliet" involves two lovers from feuding families who fall in love, only to learn their love will never be fully realized.  As this becomes clear, Schulte pulls your heart out with each scene.

Director Alison Vesely chose to cut the prologue from the production, allowing the actors to get right into the thick of things and ignite the raging brawl that leads to the Prince of Verona's decree that death will come to anyone who kills an enemy as a result of this feud.

Enter Benvolio (Christian Anderson) who gets off to a stuttered start but quickly falls into a nice rhythm allowing for the humor to come out at a natural pace.

As Benvolio's nemesis, Tybalt, Robert Allan Smith is strong while remaining agile in Russell Lundberg's choreographed dueling scenes.

Aaron Jose Munoz brings a graceful balletic movement, especially for a big man, to the fight scenes.  With only one viable scene to establish his character, Munoz effectively uses every opportunity to draw the audience into the experience.

Enter Mercutio (Sean Fortunato).  Fortunato is a perfect blend of bravado and compassion as he devises a plan for the Montagues to attend the forbidden Capulet party.  Like Schulte, Fortunato raises the bar whenever he steps onto the stage.

When Romeo and Juliet lay eyes upon each other for the first time, Schulte's passion is as brilliant as a star.

Vesely staged some beautiful moments throughout the production.  The image that lingers the sharpest comes when Romeo and Juliet have a quiet moment on the downstage rake, while partygoers dance in the background.

That the performance done under the stars-the way it was probably done originally-only adds to the surrealistic beauty of the scenes.

Schulte's clear and honest delivery gives a face-lift to standard reading of the well-known balcony scene.  The sweetness of her longing is a refreshing change to the woeful longing that the scene often receives at the hands of less confident actors.  Her proposal of marriage, made to Romeo from the balcony, is worth the price of admission alone.

As Friar Laurence, Tony Dobrowolski moves about with an air of self-importance that wraps tightly around the historical reference of the friars of the time.  

Watching the second act unfold, Schulte maintains her level of excellence.  Juliet's visit to the Friar, and his subsequent solution to her conundrum, are simply more layers for the talented young actress to create.  By the time she was ready to drink the Friar's temporary death elixir, she had the audience on the verge of tears.  When Juliet wakes to see her fiance and her husband dead, she runs herself through with Romeo's knife.  Her understated death scene was Schulte's dignified cap on an elegant performance.

First Folio  presenting Shakespeare in such an organic setting would be reason enough to attend any of its productions.  Schulte's performance makes this play completely compelling.