KJ Sanchez, director and co-adapter (with Karen Zacarias) of “Romeo y Juliet” at Cal Shakes, California Shakespeare Theatre, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded via zencastr on May 20, 2022.
Playwright, actor and director, KJ Sanchez is the head of the MFA Directing Program at the University of Texas in Austin. She is founder and CEO of American Records, a theatre company founded “to make plays that chronicle our time,” focusing on documentary plays based on interviews. She is the director and co-author of “RE-ENTRY,” based on conversations with soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Romeo y Juliet” is an bilingual adaptation of the Shakespeare play set in 1848 Alta California, with the gender of Romeo changed. It plays at California Shakespeare Theatre, the Bruns, in Orinda, May 25 – June 19, 2022.
In the interview, she discusses the origins of the adaptation, how she teaches directors, and the political situation where she works, in the state of Texas.