Dearborn native Sarah Leahy, a senior Theatre Arts and History major at Eastern Michigan University, is in her second season portraying Juliet in the Michigan Shakespeare Festival’s High School Tour production of The Tragedy of Romeo & Juliet, which will wrap up its 2011 season this week, having visited three dozen high schools and entertaining nearly 10,000 students. She recently took some time to share her thoughts on what has become a very popular extension of 17-year-old Festival.
What do you find to be most challenging in playing Juliet?
It is definitely difficult to play a role that so many people know. I just wanted to do the character justice. So many people think that these characters and situations are so unrealistic, but I think there is a beautiful truth in all of them, and so I want to bring that out in Juliet, and make her relatable to all the kids in the audience (who are around her age).
This is your second season playing the same role. How has it changed?
I had the lucky fortune of working alongside Amanda Reader last summer, who played Juliet in Michigan Shakespeare Festival’s 2010 production of Romeo and Juliet. While watching her rehearse and perform, I saw this amazing innocence and youth in her character that I don’t think I was able to develop the year before, and her work has influenced and inspired me to capture and incorporate that innocence into my portrayal of Juliet this season.
We know the ShortShakes Tour has gotten positive reviews from teachers and students, but what about you individually? What feedback have you received?
Well, I am often asked by the students if I have a Facebook account, and I think I was actually asked if I wanted to get coffee last week (I politely declined). It’s really flattering, but my favorite moment of the season so far happened (earlier this year) at E.A. Johnson High School. After stabbing myself, I actually heard several girls very loudly gasp in reaction to it. There isn’t a better feeling in the world.
Normally when you are cast in a show, you get to work on the same stage for the run of the show. With the Tour going to the schools instead of them coming to us, you have to perform in very different theatre spaces (with different technological possibilities) for every show. How do you handle that?
Working in a different space for every show isn’t easy, but it certainly is a lot of fun. We are called to the school at least an hour before the show, and that time is filled with fight call and a spacing rehearsal. We look at all of the possible entrances and exits, and decide which ones we will be using on that particular day. Teamwork at its finest.
At the end of every show, the Company holds a Question-and-Answer session with the students. What are the most common questions asked (and what are the answers)?
Matt Andersen (Romeo) and I are ALWAYS asked if we are dating (no, we are not), and then the question is always followed with, “is it awkward to have to kiss each other?” We respond with the fact that it is our job, and you’re not going to get away with playing Romeo and Juliet without having to kiss each other.
Another popular question is if the swords we use are real, and how dangerous is it when we are fighting. The cast will always let our fight captain, Jay Donley, answer those questions, but simply put, he explains that yes, the rapiers, although dulled down, are very real, and that the fighting can be extremely dangerous if it is not rehearsed and executed properly (so don’t try this at home!)
What is your favorite question that you have been asked (and what did you answer)?
This is hands down my favorite question, and I will try to quote it as accurately as possible: “Okay, I swear I saw Juliet stab herself with that knife. How are you not dead right now?”
To which I responded by grabbing the dagger and showing them how I “stabbed myself” during the show without them actually noticing that the dagger never made contact with my skin. After I showed them the trick behind it, they all applauded. It was definitely one of my prouder moments.