Spread the Love: Drop Dead, Juliet! – a spoof of Romeo and Juliet by Allison Williams.

This week we spread the love for Drop Dead, Juliet!, an hilarious spoof by Allison Williams. Recorded live at the 2009 Florida State Thespian Conference in Tampa, Florida.

Transcript

Hi! Welcome to this week’s Spread the Love. This week we are talking about Drop Dead Juliet an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, where Juliet decides she is tired of dying, she wants more love and less death. Because when you die every day for 400 years it’s gets a little tiring. And of course, this wonderful play is by Allison Williams and we have Allison Williams right here.

Hi ya.

Allison, we love this play a lot. It’s not just your wacky spoof. The character of Juliet is just fantastically written.

Thanks.

And such a strong piece for a young girl to play. We love that that’s available. What do you like about this play?

I agree with you. I like that it transcends being just a spoof. I have written two other Shakespeare spoofs before, Mmmbeth and Hamlette,

Which we also love.

And what I really like about Drop Dead Juliet is that it’s it’s own play. It’s not just a take off on the original play and if you didn’t even know the story of Romeo and Juliet, this is a story about a girl who wants to change her life and has to accept her destiny.

I’ll tell you this too. I saw a production of this in Virginia. It was pretty clear that the audience was filled with people who had no idea what Romeo and Juliet was and all I heard was people laughing. People enjoying this play. So I think that’s a testament to the writing.

Thanks.

You’re welcome.

And I have to say I really look forward to the day that I can come and see this play because I’ve seen Hamlette done and I’ve seen Mmmbeth done both of them a couple of times. I have never seen a performance of Drop Dead Juliet and I would really like to sometime because I think that would be really cool.

It’s one of the things that I enjoy most about coming to conferences is because I get to hear all the time about people’s experiences, student’s experiences, and teacher’s experiences. And it’s just, I don’t want to go so far, well I do want to go so far as to say it’s a life changing experience. It really solidifies what we do and why we need to keep doing it.

I agree. I agree. The last play I directed one of the young men who auditioned for the play had played Romeo –

That’s right, that’s right.

– and I looked and ‘Oh you were in Drop Dead Juliet.’ And he said,

‘Yeah I was Romeo.’

‘Oh that’s lovely, I wrote that play.’ And he was like ‘Oh My God that’s great!’

And you know it’s so flattering and amazing that people actually like my work. I mean, Cause it’s like, I’m not some random playwright sitting in a loft somewhere typing out what ever I want to type. I really care what the audience thinks and what the performers think about doing the play. And it really makes me happy and it makes me know that I’m doing what I’m supposed to do with my life.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Ok, That’s it for Spread the Love. Thanks guys!