PRESS RELEASE: Romeo and Juliet Opens January 23rd

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 5, 2026
Contact: Kira Catanzaro, Marcom Manager
kira@6thstreetplayhouse.com

Romeo & Juliet Opens January 23 at 6th Street Playhouse

It’s So Much More than the Play You Think You Know

SANTA ROSA, CA (January 5, 2026)  – 6th Street Playhouse starts 2026 with a play people believe they know. Director Drew Bolander brings his adaptation of Shakespeare’s romantic tragedy to life in a sumptuous visual world inspired by the Renaissance paintings of Caravaggio, with music by Claudio Monteverdi. Damion Matthews (The Importance of Being Earnest) and Tina Traboulsi (The Hello Girls) play Romeo and Juliet, the awkward young lovers fumbling their way through immense, terrifying and often humorous feelings. Opens Friday, January 23, and runs through February 7, 2026, on the Monroe Stage.

“Love is poison. Love is medicine. Shakespeare gives love in its delicious and painful entirety.” 
—Drew Bolander, Director

Romeo and Juliet is a play many audiences believe they already know. Often remembered as a poetic and sentimental romance, the play reveals something far more immediate when heard closely: young people experiencing love for the first time—awkward, impulsive, and overwhelming in its intensity.

This production centers on emotional reality. Rather than idealizing the lovers, it presents Romeo and Juliet as human beings struggling to name feelings that are thrilling, frightening, and impossible to control.

Set in Shakespeare’s own time, the production is rooted in Verona, Italy, and unfolds within a richly detailed world of gardens and piazzas shaped by wealth, faith, and social tension. The design draws inspiration from the dramatic chiaroscuro of Caravaggio, while music by Claudio Monteverdi—Shakespeare’s contemporary—adds depth and emotional texture to the world of the play.

At its core, Romeo and Juliet explores love as both healing and destructive. It sparks devotion and violence alike, mends wounds and opens new ones. While love ultimately leads to tragedy, the shared grief it creates becomes the catalyst for reconciliation.

Shakespeare presents love in its full complexity—beautiful, dangerous, and transformative. This production embraces that contradiction, revealing why Romeo and Juliet remains one of the most enduring and unsettling love stories ever written.

The Cast of Romeo and Juliet is as follows:

Romeo – Damion Matthews
Juliet – Tina Traboulsi
Mercutio/Prince/Apothecary – Adrian Deane
Benvolio/Paris – Be Wilson
Capulet – Kevin Bordi
Lady Capulet/Gregory – Taylor Diffenderfer
Tybalt/Peter/Balthasar – Sergio Diaz
Montague/Old Capulet/Friar John/Musician – David Noll
Friar Lawrence/Head Servingman/Abraham – Noah Vondralee-Sternhill
Nurse/Sampson/Watchman – Eileen Morris

Showing: Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays at 7:30 pm, Saturdays and Sundays at 2:00 pm, from January 23 through February 15, 2026

Run Time: 2 hours 30 minutes, including intermission

Tickets cost $26.95 – $47.95 (including all applicable fees) and are available online at 6thStreetPlayhouse.com or by calling the Box Office at (707) 523-4185.
boxoffice@6thstreetplayhouse.com