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Detroit Public Television to broadcast Interlochen Arts Academy's "Romeo & Juliet" ballet April 24
"A Detroit Performs Special Event: Interlochen Arts Academy presents Romeo & Juliet" will air on Detroit Public Television at 5 p.m. ET on Sunday, April 24—commemorating William Shakespeare’s birthday weekend. The broadcast will also be available on demand at dptv.org and via the PBS Video app, and Detroit Public Television will air it on the Michigan Learning Channel on April 13 and 15.
Detroit Public TV (DPTV) will broadcast Interlochen Arts Academy's Romeo & Juliet ballet to commemorate William Shakespeare's birthday weekend. "A Detroit Performs Special Event: Interlochen Arts Academy presents Romeo & Juliet" will air on DPTV at 5 p.m. ET on Sunday, April 24. The broadcast will also be made available on demand at dptv.org and via the PBS Video app.
Romeo & Juliet will be the third Interlochen Arts Academy production broadcast by DPTV, Michigan's largest and most-watched public television station. (Interlochen's Nutcracker ballet aired in 2020 and 2021). In addition to the April 24 broadcast, DPTV will air Romeo & Juliet on April 13 and 15 on its Michigan Learning Channel, a statewide public television partnership that provides educational resources for teachers and families.
"We're thrilled to build upon our partnership with DPTV and share the beauty of Romeo & Juliet with audiences far and wide," said Interlochen Center for the Arts President Trey Devey. "We're also grateful for the opportunity to reach students across the state through the Michigan Learning Channel."
Interlochen videographers collaborated with Boardman Video to create the broadcast, filming multiple performances with as many as 11 simultaneous cameras to capture the ballet as well as the emotions of the characters, which play a major role in conveying the drama of Romeo & Juliet. Based on William Shakespeare's iconic tragedy and scored by Sergei Prokofiev, the ballet tells the tale of two Veronese teenagers who fall in love despite their families' long-standing feud. As the family rivalry intensifies, the couple pursues a perilous path to be together.
Interlochen Arts Academy is the nation's premier boarding arts high school, where students pursue pre-professional training in music, dance, theatre, visual arts, creative writing, and film alongside a robust academic curriculum, preparing them to excel in the arts and beyond. Interlochen Director of Dance Joseph Morrissey created original choreography for Interlochen's Romeo & Juliet, which showcases the talents of 41 student dancers from 23 U.S. states and Canada. The Academy's acclaimed dance faculty are also featured, with Katie Dorn as Lady Capulet, Jurjis Safonovs as Lord Capulet, and Rachel James as Juliet's nanny. Arts Academy theatre faculty Matt Lindstrom also appears as Friar Lawrence.
"With its universal messages of love—and overcoming social, cultural, and ideological obstacles—Romeo & Juliet is a ballet to which everyone can relate," Morrissey said. He selected a 2008 recording of Prokofiev's score by the London Symphony Orchestra to accompany the live production. "The score, and this recording in particular, has such depth. There's emotion, there's power, there's even humor. It's almost like a soundtrack to a great film you get to experience at a movie theatre."
Morrissey collaborated closely with Interlochen's professional design staff to create sets and costumes to reflect the vibrancy of the story, music, and choreography. The production features 107 different costumes, many of which were purchased from a professional ballet company that previously staged Romeo & Juliet. Interlochen's costume shop customized each piece for Arts Academy dancers, working with rich fabrics including velvets, suedes, and silks, and creating several costumes from scratch.
Set designers Jeff Block and Stephanie Baugher created the production's original sets, making full use of Corson Auditorium's state-of-the-art digital projection system. Each scene of the two-act ballet features unique set pieces and digital backgrounds.
About Detroit Public Television
Serving Southeast Michigan, DPTV is Michigan's largest and most watched television station, with the most diverse public television audience in the country. Each week, more than 2 million viewers across Southeast Michigan and Canada tune in to watch the station's five broadcast channels. DPTV is the state's only community-licensed station, meaning it operates almost exclusively without educational or government institution. Its mission is to educate, engage, entertain and inspire through the power of public media, delivering programming that showcases arts, culture, news and analysis, as well as educational outreach campaigns to broaden knowledge and understanding. It provides open access to trusted, balanced and inspiring content in partnership with the region's diverse communities. To learn more, visit dptv.org.
