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Love story on stage blossoms in real life
(by Bob Abelman - April 07, 2010)
Love story on stage blossoms in real life
By BOB ABELMAN
"For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo."
So ends the greatest love story the world has ever known, and, from it, comes another romance. This one is between Mercutio, Romeo's closest friend, and Benvolio, Romeo's cousin and confidant, albeit 500 years later and just west of Verona, in Chardon, Ohio.
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose,
By any other word would smell as sweet."
Mercutio and Benvolio are both men in Shakespeare's original telling of the story. However, in last year's Geauga Lyric Theater Guild production of "Romeo and Juliet," Mercutio was cast as female. "I had too many outstanding young women auditioning for Juliet," admitted director Mark Cipra. "I had to find a way to use more of them, and Angela Miloro combined the grace, language skill and acting chops to pull off the tomboyish result needed for Mercutio, this traditionally male role."
"O, I am fortune's fool."
As it happens in tales of romance, Mr. Cipra's folly was Randy Hansen's good fortune. Upon graduating from the Colorado School of Mines with a degree in electrical engineering, Mr. Hansen moved to Cleveland after being offered a job with Lincoln Electric. A stranger in a strange land, he sought out some activity far from engineering and happened upon an audition notice for GLTG's production of "Romeo and Juliet." He read for Mr. Cipra and landed the role of Benvolio, a character that frequently shares the stage with Mercutio.
You had me at "wherefore art thou."
"We met during auditions, reading the 'morning after' scene," recalled Ms. Miloro. "I was deeply entrenched in the competition of the moment and oblivious to the person reading opposite me. In fact, for the first few hectic weeks of rehearsal, I was pretty oblivious to Randy in general. Apparently, he attempted to ask me out about three times. By the time I actually paid attention, it was tech week." They ended up going out the day after opening night and immediately fell in love.
"Good-night, good-night! Parting is such sweet sorrow."
Just before the show's closing weekend, several weeks into their romance and a few days before Valentine's Day, Mr. Hansen was laid off. A month after that he was gone, forced to move back to Colorado after a job opened up. The day after he moved back, he was informed that the company had initiated a hiring freeze and his job no longer existed.
"Star-cross'd lovers."
For nine months, the two were apart. "I spent my days searching for work and finishing a second college degree. The two-hour time difference between us and our busy schedules made it nearly impossible to talk at night," said Mr. Hansen.
"I distracted myself by doing as many shows as I could," added Ms. Miloro.
"O fortune, fortune! all men call thee fickle:
If thou art fickle, what dost thou with him.
That is renown'd for faith? Be fickle, fortune;
For then, I hope, thou wilt not keep him long,
But send him back."
Unable to remain apart and fighting the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Mr. Hansen returned to Cleveland in January to be with Ms. Miloro. He found employment, contentment and an engagement ring.
Shakespeare wrote that life is "a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more."
In Ms. Miloro and Mr. Hansen's case, life is a community player whose hour upon the stage led to a life of strutting and fretting, but no more.
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