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Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Star Cross'd: Dennis O'Brien plays Tybalt, and Shawna Darling is Rosalind in the musical version of 'Romeo and Juliet.'
It's no tragedy
San Jose's newest theater is the brain-child of Willow Glen's Gary De Mattei
By Shari Kaplan
When a stage production combines two such powerful, universal themes as music and love, it's hard to go wrong. And those are just the powers behind San Jose's newest professional theatrical company's production. Theatre on San Pedro Square hopes that will be the case with the June 21 premiere of Romeo and Juliet--A Most Excellent Tragedy, their original musical adaptation of Shakespeare's classic tragedy, Romeo and Juliet.
Created by Willow Glen resident Gary De Mattei and Los Gatan Michael Smythe, Theatre on San Pedro Square is the result of a year of brainstorming, organizing and renovating.
A San Jose native, veteran director and actor for 20 years in California plays and musicals, De Mattei says he'd been thinking of getting a new theatrical project underway. He also had his eye on the downtown San Jose venue that housed the Last Laugh comedy club and more recently the long-running play Tony and Tina's Wedding.
While working out at Los Gatos' Courtside Club a little over a year ago, De Mattei found himself on a treadmill alongside Smythe. The men had known each other for quite some time, but hadn't seen each other in a while. Smythe had recently sold the family business, Smythe European Motors, and, although he enjoyed spending more time with his wife and children, he was also looking for something new to do.
Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Bard Boy: Together with executive producer Michael Smythe (not pictured), director Gary De Mattei, musical director Ed Goldfarb and resident designer Lisa Pontier De Mattei are the "big four" responsible for putting together the show.
"Whatever it was, I knew I wanted to do something fun and creative," he recalls. When De Mattei put the theatrical bug in Smythe's ear, he says he was intrigued but also wary. "Gary and I must have met for coffee 40 times at 40 different coffee shops all over the area, spending hours talking about things," Smythe says, chuckling.
"The coffeehouses became our 'office,'" adds De Mattei, who says the pair engaged in much soul-searching, number-crunching and business-planning before making concrete plans to revamp the San Jose theater and put on a production.
"We were so much on the same page, it was scary!" says Smythe, reflecting on the compatibility they discovered in their partnership.
Their 8- to 9-month renovation project that resulted in the 199-seat Theatre on San Pedro Square in San Jose created an intimate architectural environment versatile enough to have a thrust stage, a proscenium stage, or a stage for theater-in-the-round. Along with state-of-the-art technical sound and lighting facilities, the theater also stocks a full bar as well as desserts procured from the chefs at A.P. Stumps.
Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Therefore Art Thou: Tony Panighetti, center, who plays Romeo Montague in Theatre on San Pedro Square's premiere performance: 'Romeo and Juliet--A Most Excellent Tragedy,' gets ready in the basement makeup room with the other actors.
The choice to set approximately 75 to 80 percent of Shakespeare's text to music--an eclectic, original score written by professional recording artist and former Saratogan Ed Goldfarb--Smythe says is a novel and somewhat chancy concept, but so was building the theater in the first place. And he and De Mattei are nothing if not optimistic.
"If you're a Shakespeare lover, you'll like this. If you're a contemporary musical theater lover, you'll like this," De Mattei asserts.
Along with the 39 numbers in Goldfarb's score, he jokingly says he felt he wrote in collaboration with the Bard himself. The production has another creative local touch--the characters' costumery is designed by De Mattei's wife, Lisa Pontier De Mattei, who holds a bachelor's degree in fashion design. The wardrobe, she says, is based more on the characters than on the period. Costumes will be akin to an "eclectic collection" of periods and styles, from fairytale to modern.
With the publicity garnered from its premier performance of the star-crossed lovers' tale of woe, Theatre on San Pedro Square will leap into an ambitious performance season. De Mattei and crew are already projecting their future together:
"It's my intention to present great theater in its many different forms: drama, musical theater, opera and even dance, staged in innovative productions that are fresh and provocative," he says. "Our full season of eight different productions will begin in September and should be appealing to the entire Silicon Valley community."
"Romeo & Juliet--A Most Excellent Tragedy" opens June 21, at 8 p.m. The regular weekly performance schedule is Wednesday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. The last performance is July 23. Tickets are $25, $35 and $40. For ticket information, call 408.283.0200, or visit www.tickets.com on the Internet.
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
