Aria Shaghasemi and Anita Pomario to Star in Jazz Age Romeo & Juliet

The Jersey City classical theater Shakespeare@ relaunches next month as “The Curtain” with a new production of William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet reframed in the Jazz Age. Directed and Adapted by Sean Hagerty, Romeo & Juliet is set to begin previews at the Nimbus Arts Center on September 28 ahead of an official opening night on September 30. Performances are scheduled through October 22.

Aria Shaghasemi (series regular on CW’s The Originals) and Anita Pomario (The Macaluso Sisters) will star as the star-crossed lovers, the latter in her US stage debut.

They are joined by Andrew Sellon (Mr. Penn, recurring on FOX’s Gotham) as ‘Friar Laurence’, Mark Torres (Amadeus on Broadway) as ‘Capulet’, Thia Stephan (Shakespeare@’s Hamlet and Julius Caesar) as ‘Lady Capulet’, and Christianna Nelson (Shakespeare & Co. member) as ‘The Nurse’.

Completing the cast are Joshua T. Crockett, Jonathan Dauermann, Ariel Diaz-Beato, Ido Gal, Tucker Lewis, Francis Mateo, Jomack Miranda, Abel Santiago, Miles Segura, and Mark Torres.

The creative team for The Curtain’s Romeo & Juliet features William Ward (costume design), Olivia Loverde (lighting design), the Emmy-winning team Sonic Designs (sound design), Nora Leonhardt (voice and speech coach), and Brad Lemons (fight director & intimacy coordinator). The production will be stage managed by Allison Hohman.