AILSA CHANG, HOST:
"Romeo And Juliet" maybe isn't the most obvious play to adapt for kids because it's got R-rated scenes and everybody dies at the end. But what if you turned the characters into animals and perform it in a zoo? That is what the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival is doing with the help of a famous puppet designer. St. Louis Public Radio's Jeremy Goodwin reports.
JEREMY GOODWIN, BYLINE: Night falls at the St. Louis Zoo, and out come the animals to put on a play.
(SOUNDBITE OF ANIMALS CALLING)
GOODWIN: Even the cranky sea lions.
(SOUNDBITE OF SEA LION GROWLING)
GOODWIN: That's the concept behind "Romeo & Zooliet." It translates Shakespeare's themes into something kids can relate to. The story details are different, but the emotions are similar. Take the famous balcony scene.
RICKI FRANKLIN: (As Juliet Capulet) Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
GOODWIN: Playwright Jennifer Joan Thompson says the two star-crossed mammals - Juliet's a bear, Romeo's a prairie dog - they pledge not to love each other and marry but to share their toys and be best friends.
JENNIFER JOAN THOMPSON: That significance of those early relationships is as deep and as profound. And those kids have such massive, tragic emotions sometimes. It's fun to call on that.
FRANKLIN: (As Juliet Capulet) Do you want to be best friends?
JORDAN MOORE: (As Romeo Montague) Yes.
FRANKLIN: (As Juliet Capulet) But wait. Are you ready to be best friends forever?
MOORE: (As Romeo Montague) I promise.
FRANKLIN: (As Juliet Capulet) Oh, don't promise. Promises are just words.
GOODWIN: Prairie dog Romeo is a 2-foot tall hand puppet who walks on his hind legs with the help of actor Jordan Moore. The Juliet puppet is a 5-foot tall bear cub in a red Elizabethan-style dress. Actor Ricki Franklin straps into it with a harness and moves it around the stage.
FRANKLIN: (As Juliet Capulet) And we can play and play and play. Come, gentle night. Give me my Romeo.
GOODWIN: OK, but what about "Romeo And Juliet's" whole everyone dies at the end issue? Director Tom Ridgely says there's a route to a powerful but less lethal climax when you make Juliet a bear.
TOM RIDGELY: That allows Juliet, instead of dying, to go into hibernation. So it's still sad. She still doesn't get to play with Romeo for a very, very, very long time. But it keeps all of the eight characters alive at the end of the play.
GOODWIN: The playwright, Thompson, adapted the story from a 2015 children's book. She knew that to make it work on stage, the team would need some great animal puppets. Enter Michael Curry. He earned fame by designing the life-size puppets in "The Lion King" musical. His team once made a 20-foot-tall lion for pop star Katy Perry to ride into her Super Bowl halftime show. The request to help take Shakespeare to the zoo made Curry purr.
MICHAEL CURRY: I'm this animal - you know, I'm "The Lion King." You know, I'm an animal expert. So you can imagine when somebody said, we're going to do Shakespeare with animal puppets, and the animals are 500 feet away, I just thought this is the greatest idea ever.
RYAN OMAR STACK: (As Prince of Zoorona) Retract thy claws.
GOODWIN: On a recent humid evening, actor Ryan Omar Stack stands on a newly built stage in St. Louis Zoo, near the sea lion habitat. He holds a 4-foot-tall sea lion puppet...
STACK: (As Prince of Zoorona, imitating sea lion barking).
GOODWIN: ...Moving it fluidly around the stage with both hands. As the Prince of Zoorona, he reprimands feuding members of rival families.
STACK: (As Prince of Zoorona) Three civil brawls between you carnivores and herbivores have thrice disturbed the quiet of our zoo. Remind your lords that they are keystone species whose loss could well undo an ecosystem.
GOODWIN: So yeah, the play sneaks in lots of zoological education too. Despite the changes to the text, director Ridgely says the show still gets Shakespeare's point across.
RIDGELY: It's a shame that this story keeps having to get told. But guess what? Hating people is still a bad idea. We can't stop teaching that.
GOODWIN: And if a grizzly bear and a prairie dog can put aside their differences, perhaps there's hope for some of the other species inhabiting the planet.
For NPR News, wherefore art thou Jeremy Goodwin in St. Louis?
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.