Welcome to the fourth of our weekly interviews with cast and crew! Check back every week for another behind-the-scenes look at Romeo and Juliet and Mercutio and His Brother Valentine (RJMV)

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Who are you? - Renata Colwell, publicity head for RJMV. I’m a fourth-year history student at Queen’s, a member of the Impromptu board, and one of the founding members of Impromptu Productions. I grew up in Mississauga, but I have a lot of family in Kingston and now consider it home.

What’s your theatre background? – I grew up attending a Waldorf School, which promotes whole child education, so the curriculum was very diverse, and it included a lot of theatre. I did a lot of acting there: I played Robin Hood in grade six, and Cecily in The Importance of Being Earnest in grade eight. I then went on to the Peel Regional Arts Program, which was similar to the focus programs in Kingston schools, so I did theatre all through high school and also got involved in the production side of things. I was the artistic director for a one-act festival in grade 11, and continued to act in various things. When I came to Queen’s, I wanted to keep doing theatre, so I’ve been involved with some local groups.

How and why did you get involved with Impromptu Productions? – In the summer of 2011, I returned to Kingston in June, hoping to get involved in a show, but unfortunately all of the shows I knew of had already been cast. But then I got an audition notice from Blue Canoe for an independent outdoor production of Much Ado About Nothing, so I auditioned and indicated that I might also be interested in helping with the production side of things. Nobody else had volunteered at that point, so director Bonnie MacLeod made me stage manager AND cast me as Borachio, which ultimately worked because we had no set to speak of in the park, and no tech.  (We also had no name until Carl Jackson, who was playing Don Pedro, came up with ‘Impromptu Productions’ in time for us to put it on the posters.) I was doing about 45 percent of the organizational work, but I only found out that Bonnie considered me a co-founder of the company when she identified herself to the Kingston EMC and I asked her who the other one was… Once Much Ado was over, we decided we wanted to keep Shakespeare in the Park going, so seven members of the cast formed a board to keep things running, and two years later, here we are!

What has been the best part of RJMV so far? – It’s been nice being able to be involved in the production side of the shows without having to dedicate quite as much time to them as I did when stage-managing Shakespeare in the Park these past two summers. I’m still in the middle of the action, but at the end of the day, I have more time to focus on school and my undergrad thesis. These will be my last productions with Impromptu, so I hope they will be our best publicized shows to date, and that we draw our biggest audience yet.

What is something that most people don’t know about you? –  My undergrad thesis is a history of heterosexuality and dating culture at Queen’s in the early 20th century, so I spend a lot of time going through old yearbooks, scrapbooks, letters, and dance cards in the Queen’s Archives. My favourite is a scrapbook left by a girl who graduated in 1914, which chronicles her tragic romance with an Engineering student who died of blood poisoning two weeks before their wedding after he cut himself shaving.

Are you a big Shakespeare fan? What’s your favourite Shakespearean play? – I am a big Shakespeare fan! My favourite show is probably A Midsummer Night’s Dream because it’s so very delightful, and I grew up with it. It was my first Shakespeare – I saw a production at the Grand when I was about 9 and I’ve probably seen it about 11 times since then. I would love to see Impromptu Productions do an outdoor production someday!

What does your future hold? – A year of work in Australia, and then law school in B.C. – and maybe a bit of theatre on the side!

Why should people come and see RJMV? – I really encourage people to see both shows because they’re going to be good alone, but better together. The way Mercutio and his Brother Valentine is written, it’s very much in dialogue with Shakespeare’s original text, and audience members will get a little something extra out of the plays by seeing the interplay of tensions and overlaps between them. Because the two shows fit together so well, we’re making it easier for audience members who see one show to see both by offering two-show ticket packages and upgrades at the door: adults can see a second show for only $10 more than the single ticket price, and students and seniors pay only $7 for the second show. Single tickets go on sale at Novel Idea and Tricolour Outlet this Monday, March 11th, so go ahead and pick the show you want to see most, and if you decide later that you want to see the other one too, just show us your ticket stub at the door and you’ll get the discount. Students who want to plan ahead for exam period can also get the two-show package in advance at Tricolour Outlet.