LGBTQ+ Excellence

Can you imagine Characters in Romeo and Juliet having gender roles switched? Because in Romeo y Julieta, the male actors played female roles, and the women did some male roles. As a part of the Lgbtq+ community I was surprised and excited when they did that in the play; mainly due to the diversity. I highly recommend this play as it encourages that you do not have to be a different gender to play one specific role just because you are that gender.

In the play of Romeo y Julieta, I saw the role of Romeo being played by someone other than a man. And the mother of Julieta was a male and done wonderfully. All of this plus how they played inside of a school, meaning they had to use little resources to make sets/props/costumes/etc showed a great use of resource management, and diverse ways to play a role as it does not matter if you were a girl/boy because you got the role either way.

Romeo being played as a female really shows that it does not matter what gender you are. Because being in the play does matter, and the performance was astonishing. Though something did catch my attention; the background. If seen close enough you are able to see through it which is a bit distracting but the play makes up for it. The play itself showed how well thought it was made throughout the entire play, as the costumes showed how each character is unique. I highly recommend this to you, the reader, but it is better if you did watch it in a real theater instead in a school, because the play is well thought, and planned greatly.

Lead photo credit: Romeo y Julieta by Seattle Shakespeare Company. Photo by Christian Zumbado.

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This review was written as part of an Arts Criticism workshop at Glacier Middle School in Mrs. Fishman’s Language Arts classes, taught by Press Corps teaching artist Jordi Montes.