'Romeo and Juliet,' Jane Austen adaptation are featured in Door Shakespeare's 2024 season

SISTER BAY - The Bard of Avon meets Jane Austen when Door Shakespeare holds its 2024 season this summer.

As in the past two years, the season offers one play by William Shakespeare and one by another writer that bears some relation to the Shakespeare work. In this year's case, those plays are the tragic romance "Romeo and Juliet" and a stage adaptation by Joseph Hanreddy of the Jane Austen novel "Emma," playing in repertory on the company's outdoor stage.

It might seem on the surface that the pairing of Shakespeare's eternal tragedy of doomed lovers and intolerance with Austen's comedy of manners and errors about a young woman who thinks she's a terrific matchmaker − but isn't − makes for an odd couple.

But Door Shakespeare producing artistic director Amy Ensign said there's a common thread in the stubbornness of headstrong characters and how their beliefs that they're absolutely right affects those around them, either with terrible or humorous results.

"When I think of the season as a whole, I think of two plays that work together as complementary pieces," Ensign said. "I landed on 'Emma' quite early in the process, and I thought of how Emma the character tries to control the world around her but just can't. And that's what made me think of 'Romeo and Juliet.'"

The company has staged "Romeo and Juliet" twice, but not since 2015; its other production was in 2003. Directing the 2024 production is Dimonte Henning, who has acting, directing and producing credits with theaters in Milwaukee and across the Midwest, including Milwaukee Repertory Theater and Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, and is a founding member of the Milwaukee Black Theater Festival.

Ensign said Henning's version of Shakespeare's star-crossed lovers will follow the original text and setting, but he plans to use various aspects to make the production fresh, such as using a diverse cast and mixing period-correct and modern elements in costuming and design.

"The director is interested in recreating the Verona of the time (the Italian community where it takes place) but juxtaposing it with modern looks," Ensign said. "He wants to really make it timely so we're exploring what draws people together and drives them apart."

"Emma" won't be the first Austen adaptation to come to the Door Shakespeare stage, nor is it their first Austen adaptation by Hanreddy, who was Milwaukee Rep artistic director for 17 years and now lives in Door County.

Hanreddy adapted "Pride and Prejudice" for the stage, which the company produced in 2011. He also co-wrote with J.R. Sullivan a stage adaptation of Austen's "Sense and Sensibility" on commission for the Utah Shakespeare Festival in 2014 that received rave reviews.

Hanreddy also directed Door Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "Twelfth Night" and "Much Ado About Nothing."

Given his lengthy resume as an actor, director and producer, and his past experience with Austen's novels, Ensign said she expects "Emma" will be a big hit this summer.

"With his vast theatrical experience, he can take that book we all know and love and tell that story on stage," Ensign said.

The director for "Emma" is Maggie Kettering, who is known to Door County theater buffs for her work as an actor with Peninsula Players Theatre. Among many other starring roles, she was in the cast of the "Sense and Sensibility" adaptation produced last year by Great Lakes Theater in Cleveland and Idaho Shakespeare Festival.

The season, Door Shakespeare's 28th, is scheduled to run from July 3 to Aug. 17, with "Romeo and Juliet" on stage Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and "Emma" on stage Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Shows take place at 7:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 5 p.m. Saturdays on the outdoor stage in the Garden at Bjōrklunden in Baileys Harbor. Tickets go on sale March 8. For more information, call 920-854-7111 or visit doorshakespeare.com.

Contact Christopher Clough at 920-562-8900 or cclough@doorcountyadvocate.com.

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This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Tragic lovers, Jane Austen meet in Door Shakespeare's 2024 season