“The Godfather” meets Shakespeare in PICT Classic Theatre’s “Romeo & Juliet.”

The era is the 1930s, in the Little Italy section of New York City, where warring families are a distinct possibility and, as in Victorian times, theater’s best-known young lovers are star-crossed and doomed.

“It was the height of immigration into that area of lower Manhattan,” explained PICT’s Juliet, Adrianne Knapp. “Block by block could be a different part of Italy — people from Napoli lived here, people from Sicily lived here … It was the birth of the Italian mob.”

Just as “West Side Story” transported “Romeo and Juliet” into the midst of gang conflicts in the early 1960s, PICT leader Alan Stanford decided that “Romeo and Juliet” is a story that “can happen anywhere, at any time” as he settled on where and when to reset the story, Ms. Knapp said.

Brett Sullivan Santry, dramaturg for the production, has worked with the cast on understanding where and when they have landed as PICT moves the feuding Montagues and Capulets from 1590s Verona to 1930s New York.

The company itself is on the move, too. After a season at the Union Project in Highland Park, “Romeo and Juliet” will take place in a new neighborhood — Mister Rogers’ neighborhood.

The Fred Rogers Studio at WQED in Oakland is hosting the production and has been transformed to an urban landscape by set designer Jonmichael Bohach.

“Textures and colors … panels of brick and brownstone .... along with the suggestion of an elevated train overhead” are some of the ways Mr. Bohach has re-created the 1930s.

“High metal arches and sweeping staircases give our 'fair Verona' an urban modernity with a Renaissance feel,” he said.

Ms. Knapp noted that within the environment, the famous balcony scene will spare her Romeo, Dylan Meyers, a big climb for their first tryst.

The 23-year-old actress has grown up on our stages, notably with Pittsburgh Musical Theater, including teen drama “Spring Awakening” six years ago. She also was seen in Prime Stage’s “1984” and in productions for Point Park University’s conservatory program.

Ms. Knapp recently moved to Washington, D.C., to be with family and try the theater scene there. Then came the call back for her biggest role yet.

Mr. Meyers, who will turn 26 during the run of the show, is from Somerset and has worked with the company before, while this is Ms. Knapp’s first time in a PICT production.

Her Juliet takes some inspiration from the Franco Zefferelli film that starred Olivia Hussey, who has 16 when she took on the role.

“What I am hoping to bring to Juliet, which hopefully is a fresher take than people are used to, is that modern young woman flair to it, where she is very smart. She uses her resources to get exactly what she wants — which is Romeo,” Ms. Knapp said.

The text gives her license to illuminate Juliet as a young woman who “has a little playbook in her mind at all time,” Ms. Knapp said. “She even says in her first meeting with Romeo, ‘You kiss by the book.’ She knows what it is going to be like, and he is it. He motivates her to use her pretty extreme intellect for her age.”

In all of Shakespeare there are words and passages that have become inescapable in everyday speech or as familiar as a favorite song lyric.

One of those lines is Juliet’s: “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo?”

“Wherefore” meaning why — why does he have to be Montague, the family despised by Juliet’s Capulet crew?

“I want to make sure that is not to cliche or too close to what people are expecting but also honoring it and making it understandable,” Ms. Knapp said. “As an actor, you yourself have to understand what everything means to make it so that the audience understands it, even if they have heard it all before.”

Ms. Knapp’s musical theater background is a plus because of the rhythms of Shakespeare’s language and her conservatory training on acting a song.

She will be calling upon all of her experience for this monster role.

“Juliet is like the female Hamlet, honestly,” Ms. Knapp said. “She manipulates her surroundings just like he does. She’s really complex, and I think that is what I am bringing to this character. Juliet is not just a teenage girl. She’s very smart.”

Martin Giles to receive PICT’s Dagda Award

Martin Giles

Actor and director Martin Giles will be honored by PICT with the Dagda Award for Excellence in the Arts following the opening night performance of “Romeo and Juliet.”.

The award is named for the god of art in Celtic folklore and is presented to “one who demonstrates their dedication to supporting an environment in which arts and culture can thrive.”

“At PICT, we have a family that maintains a vibrancy – reaching and transforming so many, over many years,” said PICT artistic and dxecutive director Alan Stanford. “Marty encapsulates every fiber of the meaning of this award.”.

Since 2001, Mr. Giles has participated in 57 productions with the original Pittsburgh Irish & Classic Theatre and then PICT Classic Theatre. 

Sharon Eberson: seberson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1960. Twitter: @SEberson_pg.

First Published: October 17, 2017, 7:26 p.m.