Shakespeare-In-The-Park’s West Side Story cast and crew will participate in discussion on anti-gun violence.

Syracuse’s Shakespeare-In-The-Park (SSITP) will tackle the musical West Side Story and hold a talkback after the show to discuss the dangers of gun violence.

Executive director Ronnie Bell has felt close to this musical as an activist against gun violence. After witnessing the shooting death of a young woman in his kitchen as a teen, Bell made it his mission to include activism in all his work. Now, after 23 years at SSITP, Bell will be retiring and is closing out with a show near to his heart.

This will be SSITP’s first musical in this space, and the first time they use the main level of the amphitheater as an extended stage. “A musical is so much more complicated,” Bell says, “we have 66 rehearsals for this show, I’ve never had a show that had more than 32.” Despite the dedication of the cast, production attendance remains smaller than it should be. The closing show of their 2003 production had 1,000 total attendees. They have never had that large of a turnout again.

West Side Story adapts Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The musical, set in mid-20th century America, tells a story about a Puerto Rican woman and a white man falling in love even though their families were part of rival gangs. The story’s tragic ending shows audiences the harm xenophobia and gang violence creates. Bell began casting in January and searched for Puerto Rican actors to play the Sharks. He hoped to stay true to the characters’ ethnicities in the story, but his search proved unfruitful. He committed to only casting Hispanic actors as Sharks to stay as close to identity in this musical as possible. “I wish I had more of the people who should be in the show. There should only be Puerto Ricans as Sharks,” Bell says. 

In Bell’s proposal for a $10,000 grant from Central New York Community Foundation, he wrote about anti-gun violence inspired by a national program, Advance Peace, whose mission is to stop gun violence in urban neighborhoods by identifying members of gangs to whom they can provide financial assistance. The goal of the program is to help get members out of their current circumstances. 

The City of Syracuse is piloting an intervention plan that pays younger members of gangs to encourage them to participate in anti-violence programming. SSITP will cite this initiative in their production program. A talkback between audience and actors after the show will focus on the harm gun violence does. Bell says these companies have inspired his work and he feels they deserve more spotlight because of their strong mission and work to better some of Syracuse’s own communities. 

West Side Story opens in the Thornden Park amphitheater on August 4 at 5:30 p.m. It will only show for two weekends and general admission is free.