Andak Stage Company to present The Capulets and the Montagues

Andak Stage Company announces its thirteenth production--and its eighth world premiere in this its fourth season--a modern rhyming verse translation of Lope de Vega's Romeo and Juliet play, The Capulets and the Montagues. The production will be directed by Anne McNaughton and will feature a new translation by four-time-award-winning translator Dakin Matthews.

Lope's version was written approximately 400 years ago and not based on Shakespeare's play, but based on the same source material. Shakespeare saw romance and tragedy, Lope saw comedy and even farce. There's not only a happy ending, but also surprisingly hilarious hi-jinks along the way. In other words, Romeo and Juliet as you've never seen them before.

Lope de Vega was born in 1562, a year and a half before Shakespeare. He was the most prolific writer of plays in the Golden Age of Spanish theatre. His work created the form of the Spanish comedia and set the standard by which all succeeding plays were judged. He was a childhood prodigy and continued writing--plays, novels, poetry, and a vast correspondence--up to his death at 72 in 1635. He lived a scandalous life, sailed with the Armada, took holy orders (in 1614) after the death of his second wife, but continued to carry on an affair with his last mistress and to care for their (and other of his) children. Between 300 and 400 of his full-length plays still survive (the number is vague because of many false attributions) and these may constitute only a fourth of his actual dramatic output. His most familiar plays to the English speaking world are Fuente Ovejuna (The Sheep Well) and The Mayor of Zalamea. He wrote The Capulets and the Montagues more than a decade after Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, and it is unlikely he was aware of the earlier play, though both he and Shakespeare used the same source story.

The Capulets and the Montagues opens at 8:00 PM on Saturday night, January 29, 2011 and 2:00 PM on Sunday afternoon, January 30, 2010. Performances on Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 and Saturdays and Sundays at 2:00 through Sunday, February 27, 2011, at New Place Studio Theatre, 10950 Peach Grove Street., North Hollywood, CA 91601. Tickets are $25. The box office will open for reservations on January 3, 2011; telephone Ovationtix at 866 811-4111 or visit the Andak website www.Andak.org for tickets.