SoDA Productions opens inaugural season with “Romeo and Juliet”

Fourth-year acting students Asia Sinkovic (left) and Emma Pace (right) play the titular star-crossed lovers in SoDA Productions’ Romeo and Juliet.
| Photo courtesy of SoDA Productions.

The newly formed SoDA Productions is taking UWindsor to fair Verona in their upcoming staging of Romeo and Juliet.

The cast is comprised of students in the Modern/Contemporary Work in Progress class; Romeo and Juliet will be the first show they perform as SoDA Productions.

“These actors have been training now for four years in a lot of different facets,” director Laura Quigley told the Lance.

“You’ll get to see actors who are really starting to hone their craft and have a sense of what they’re doing on stage.”

For Asia Sinkovic (“Romeo”) and Emma Pace (“Juliet”), starring in the titular roles was like something out of a dream.

“I love this play, and it’s one of my favourite plays.” said Pace. “I think I just like the idea of divided love like that, and with everything going on in the world right now, I think we need more love in life.”

The tragedy’s conflict centres on the centuries-long blood feud between two noble families: the Montagues and the Capulets. The actual reason for the feud is never explicitly stated.

Despite their aristocratic titles, the warring houses often engage in intense, brutally violent, and sometimes even fatal fights with one another.

When Romeo, son of Lord Montague, meets and falls in love with Juliet, daughter of Lord Capulet, the pair struggle to navigate a society that has raised them to hate the other.

Abbey Aitken (Sampson), Hadassah Ward (Gregory), and Maddison Williams (Abram, Balthasar) rehearse the opening scene of Romeo and Juliet.
| Photo courtesy of SoDA Productions.

Sinkovic and Pace said that they emphasized their characters’ tenderness, playfulness, and devotion to each other despite their tragic circumstances.

“Juliet is a very soft character, but she can be very strong, and I tend to gravitate toward characters like that,” said Pace. “I think I also like the young love, like how naïve they are in thinking that love should just be enough, but it’s not.”

Sinkovic similarly saw themself in Romeo, describing their take on the character as focused on his “boyish” behaviours and deep devotion to the people he loves.

Exploring those traits in relation to traditional masculinity and their own gender experience, they said, was a highlight of playing the role.

“Especially as a young queer kid, I wanted to be Romeo, to outwardly love a woman so loudly and deeply, and to have the audience just like go and watch me do it, even though they can tell I’m not a cis man,” they said.

“(Romeo and Juliet’s love is) tragic, but it is undying and unyielding, because I think a lot of queer love is. It’s like, to the ends of the earth and nothing will stop me. Even if they die, they get to be together.”

Sinkovic (Romeo) and Pace (Juliet) rehearse for Romeo and Juliet.
| Photo courtesy of SoDA Productions.

SoDA Productions said that their main focus for the year will be sharing and promoting the value of theatre to the greater community.

“We’re training professionals, we’re sustaining culture, and I think that’s hugely important,” said Quigley.

“People see that really good work is continuing to happen, despite a culture that is trimming away what I think is most essential, which is how we be human. I think that’s what theatre does.

Fourth-year drama in education and community theatre student Ayslin Downhill, who helps with publicity for SoDA Productions, said that social media has been essential in reaching and engaging people who may not know that theatre is an option for them.

“Before I got into theatre, I felt like oh I could go see plays, but that’s it,” she said. “But you don’t have to be on stage. You could be behind, or you could be publicity or lighting.”

“There’s something for everyone in the theatre or dramatic arts world. It’s for anyone.”

Romeo and Juliet is playing at the Hatch Studio Theatre on Oct. 25 at 2:00 p.m., and Oct. 27 at 7:00 p.m. Admission is free, and seating is first come, first served.