'Rodeo and Juliet' puts spotlight on cultural myopia

The friction that may result when families stop getting along has comedic results in the Shakespeare-inspired musical "Rodeo and Juliet," with closing performances at 8:30 and 10 a.m. and 4 and 6 p.m. today at Crossroads Fellowship at 4400 E. Jackson Blvd. in Jackson.

"It has a great message for people who get overwhelmed with things during the Christmas season," Josh Lukefahr, who portrays Rodeo Rural, said at the 35-member cast's Monday night rehearsal. "My family is battling Juliet Styles' family, and I've lost my faith.

"It takes Juliet (Jessica Roberts) and me coming together to make them realize what Christmas is all about. She helps me, and seeing the families come together at the end brings me back."

Josh's duet with Jessica on the Taylor Swift-Ed Sheeran song "Everything Has Changed" is one of the hourlong show's high points. Edward and Cynthia Styles (Sheldon Roston and Kayleen Shaw) are a mixed race couple who once liked Hunter and Bambi Rural (Rowe Ahrends and Gina Crowe) but have become more like the Hatfields and McCoys since their children fell in love.

Shaw said the show, employing 28,600 red, blue, yellow and white lights coordinated to 14 songs, "reaches out to lots of people.

Josh Lukefarh, right, and Jessica Roberts play Rodeo Rural and Juliet Styles in the Crossroads Fellowship production of “Rodeo and Juliet.” Here they rehearse the Christmas play inspired by William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.” (Adam Vogler)

"They can connect with many different people on stage whether it's child actors who just want to be friends or Rodeo, who has watched all this happen and doubted God," she said.

Recently having moved to Jackson from Wisconsin, Roston joined the Crossroads Fellowship choir and was surprised to be asked to be in "Rodeo and Juliet," he said.

Roston said his favorite of the play's seven scenes is the sixth, "where Juliet snaps" and upbraids the families for their cultural myopia.

Church music director-guitarist Andy Cutrell leads the stage band, which consists of drummer Zack Morgan, keyboardist Shani Ladd, fiddler Kody Neighbors and guitarist Dustin Sitzes.

The play was written in March 2012 by pastor Brian Anderson, who is directing it with assistant Calvina Cutrell. Anderson said it drew 2,000 people to three shows last year in the 700-seat auditorium, where donations may be made in baskets but are not required. Trent Forester helped design the set, on which the families' houses face each other, and Rodeo, like Shakespeare's Romeo, asks Juliet to come down and join him for a moonlight walk.

ADAM VOGLER ~ avogler@semissourian.comThe cast of "Rodeo and Juliet," rehearse the Christmas play inspired by William Shakespeare's "Romeo and JulietTuesday, Dec. 3, at Crossroads Fellowship in Jackson.

A particularly amusing segment of the lively, tuneful production has student pastor Donnie Shaw as "DJ Donnie" and Andy Cutrell as "DJ Andy" in a "battling DJs" clash of urban music versus the country variety.

It closes with performances of "Angels We Have Heard on High" and "Silent Night." Most of the music was prerecorded by the cast.

"Anytime anybody goes to a church, when they start to belong is when they become involved in service projects," Shaw said. "Like Jesus said, 'I came to serve, not to be served.'

"It gives my children a sense of ownership when they wash the congregation's feet. I make sure they have definitely got the service mentality."

Pertinent address: 4400 E. Jackson Blvd., Jackson