GIRLS WILL BE BOYS, AND BOYS WILL BE GIRLS (REVIEW)

Angelina Tomasini (Kymberly Shipman), the drama teacher at St. Jude Middle School, has returned from her honeymoon determined to stage a production of "Romeo and Juliet" the way Shakespeare did -- with males playing all the parts. Unhappy about being relegated to working behind the scenes, the girls in the class enlist their teacher's new husband, Jim (David Koeller) to direct them in an all-girl production of the same play.

Girls dress as boys, boys dress as girls. Something unusual is bound to happen and does when the two plays cross paths in the River City Players children's theater production "Wherefore Art Thou Juliet?"

The pun-filled comedy will be presented tonight in a dinner theater to begin at 6 p.m., Saturday in at 2 p.m. matinee and Saturday evening at 7 p.m. The production will be staged in the Centenary United Methodist Church Family Life Center.

This is a script that puts the spotlight on the ensemble rather than just a few roles. Everyone gets a chance to act, even Jessica Palmer as the exceedingly silent Rose.

Jeremy Dillon is screamingly funny as Chuck, the middle school student drafted to don a dress and play Juliet. Dillon's Juliet is not an embarrassed jock fumbling with his undergarments but rather a boy who invites the audience in on the joke while he explores his feminine side.

Ultimately, all the boys in the cast wind up in dresses and fancy hairdos. Director Marty Koeller said none of them had trouble putting the dresses on but one male member of the cast locked himself in a closet when the time came to put on makeup.

Aleda Phillips of Style Stop Impact has done a masterful job of making these boys look like girls.

As Romeo, Stacy Dohogne has to make less of a transformation but she is appealing in the role. She and the other girls learn to fence by parrying with curtain rods.

Kymberly Shipman gives the suspicious Ms. Tomasini a lot of attitude, and David Koeller gets a chance to flex his muscles and his dance moves as her husband.

Becky Koeller as Cheri/Benvolia and Chris Palmer, who plays her brother Chet and Petrucio, put charm into their scene as bickering siblings.

Majhon Phillips has fire in her eyes as Tybalt in the play within a play.

Murielle Wyman as Amy and Elizabeth Johnson as Bea are engaging in their roles. Good, too, are Kristen Hinton as Robin/Mercutio, Jennifer Miller as Lillian, Jessica Palmer as Rose, Ben Caughlan as Sean/Romeo, James "Cricket" Shipman as Anthony/Tybalt, Jory Rapps as Rocky/Capulet and Blaine Smith as Larry/Nurse.

Marty Koeller has done well to pull all the mayhem of duplicate roles into a pleasing production. Her assistant is Kelly Shipman. Stan Koeller is in charge of lighting and sound, with Candy Johnson handling makeup.