{"id":325,"date":"2026-06-01T17:05:39","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T17:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=325"},"modified":"2026-06-01T17:05:39","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T17:05:39","slug":"the-happy-ending-romeo-and-juliet-didnt-get","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=325","title":{"rendered":"The Happy Ending Romeo and Juliet Didn\u2019t Get"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Wedding season has begun, doubly so in Central Park, where the Public Theatre\u2019s Shakespeare in the Park season is kicking off with \u201cRomeo and Juliet.\u201d The star-crossed lovers have a wedding, of course, but their marriage is clandestine and tragically brief. Saheem Ali, who directs the Park production, wants to send the audience out with a little hope. So, each night, the play will end with a real couple tying the knot onstage after the performance. \u201cLet\u2019s demonstrate that we have the capacity to overcome tragedy, to overcome our worst impulses,\u201d Ali said the other day. \u201cAnd what better way than to end the first half of the show with the fictional marriage and the second half with an actual marriage?\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Leo Woodall Gets a Tune Up<\/a><\/p>\n

Ali\u2019s production is set at the U.S.-Mexico border, with a Latino Romeo and a gringa Juliet; the stage at the Delacorte is dominated by an ominous slab of border wall. Before rehearsals, Ali took a research trip to Laredo, Texas, to see the actual wall nearby. At a coffee shop, he met an artist who makes collages out of paper money, including a dollar-bill Jesus. The artist and his fianc\u00e9e showed him videos of border marriages, and Ali invited the pair to New York to get married onstage one night. \u201cThen we decided to expand the idea and do it every night,\u201d he said at the theatre, just before the first preview.<\/p>\n

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The production had already booked couples for thirty of the thirty-two performances\u2014mostly weddings, with a few vow renewals, including for the actors playing Benvolio and Pedro. The Public didn\u2019t want to advertise online, fearing a deluge, so it found couples by word of mouth. Francis Jue, the actor playing Friar Lawrence, became an ordained officiant through the Universal Life Church. (So did his understudy, just in case.) Like any good wedding planner, the theatre has a rainy-day backup\u2014a backstage area where the weddings can go on even if the show doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

The Public also hired a wedding co\u00f6rdinator, Carla Perez, who ushered in the inaugural couple, Kay Wasil and Teague Hollister. Both are trans, and they wore matching suits\u2014Wasil\u2019s white, Hollister\u2019s jade\u2014which they\u2019d spent the week embroidering. Wasil, who has a neon-green mullet, adjusted the beaded boutonni\u00e8re on Hollister\u2019s lapel. Both perform as drag kings, Wasil under the name Chevy Lace and Hollister as Hugh Mann Race. They met at a drag show in Brooklyn in 2021. \u201cI was, like, Wow, this person\u2019s so cute,\u201d Hollister recalled. \u201cWe started hanging out, and Kay gave an impassioned speech about how you should never date within the drag community. I was, like, Heard<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But they grew close on subway rides home from shows\u2014\u201cA lot of late nights taking the Q from Manhattan all the way to deep Flatbush, me half in drag makeup,\u201d Wasil said\u2014and started dating. They got engaged last fall, lakeside, in Prospect Park. \u201cI kept waiting to propose to you, and boaters kept getting stuck in the algae,\u201d Hollister recalled. Wasil counter-proposed during a weekend upstate, and they celebrated with a trip to a haunted house. They were thinking City Hall, but then Hollister, who\u2019s done crew work at the Public, got Perez\u2019s e-mail looking for couples. The play\u2019s tragic ending didn\u2019t deter them. \u201cI hope that\u2019s not an omen,\u201d Wasil said.<\/p>\n

Read more Dusty Baker Plays the Long Game<\/a><\/p>\n

Growing up on opposite ends of Pennsylvania, both had read \u201cRomeo and Juliet\u201d as teens. \u201cWhen I was in eighth grade, my mom looked at me and went, \u2018True love is for thirteen-year-olds and mental patients,\u2019\u00a0\u201d Hollister said. \u201cI\u2019ve always thought of \u2018Romeo and Juliet\u2019 in that light, until I started re\u00ebvaluating it more recently. It\u2019s not just, like, \u2018Look at these crazy kids!\u2019 It\u2019s \u2018Look at these systemic forces that are making two people choose to die rather than love and exist.\u2019\u00a0\u201d<\/p>\n

At seven o\u2019clock, Perez and Jue walked the couple through a \u201cwedding call\u201d: they\u2019d sit separately, get miked at intermission, and come onstage before curtain call. \u201cI\u2019m not using any binary terms like \u2018husband\u2019 or \u2018wife,\u2019\u00a0\u201d Jue told them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the ideal,\u201d Wasil said.<\/p>\n

Hours later, the show was over, and Jue, in his friar costume, turned to the audience and announced, \u201cRomeo and Juliet didn\u2019t get their lifetime together, but tonight there is a couple here who would like to commit to their lifetime together, with all of you as their witnesses.\u201d The crowd gasped, then erupted in cheers. Jue brought up Wasil and Hollister, who knelt facing each other, as Romeo and Juliet had in Act II. Repeating after Jue, they pledged their love \u201cfor all the risings and settings of the sun\u201d and exchanged rings.<\/p>\n

They bowed with the cast and exited stage right, where they signed the marriage license beneath a trellis overlooking Turtle Pond. Ecstatic friends greeted them backstage. (The Public had set aside seats, but some had waited in line for free tickets that day.) \u201cFucking betrothed!\u201d one yelled. The group formed a tunnel with their arms for the couple to run through, and they took photos outside the theatre, in front of a statue of Romeo and Juliet leaning in for a kiss.\u00a0\u2666<\/p>\n

Read more Love Omen<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year\u2019s Shakespeare in the Park production puts the star-crossed lovers on the U.S.-Mexico border. And there\u2019s another twist\u2014each performance ends with a real-life wedding. Michael Schulman writes. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dept-of-matrimony"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Happy Ending Romeo and Juliet Didn\u2019t Get - City Relocation News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=325\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Happy Ending Romeo and Juliet Didn\u2019t Get - City Relocation News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This year\u2019s Shakespeare in the Park production puts the star-crossed lovers on the U.S.-Mexico border. 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