This weekend at Glenbrook North, students will put on a classical staging of the iconic play Romeo and Juliet, complete with swords and tights. It is GBN's first staging of Shakespeare's classic play since the 1970s.

"I wanted it in the original time period because I wanted the swordfights," said Theater Director Julie Ann Robinson. "I was really suprised with how cool the kids have been with things like tights."

The production includes a cast of 75 students, making for a relatively large fall play.  

"It's a beast of a show with all the moving parts, swordfights, and the number of kids," said Robinson. GBN's Romeo and Juliet also uses several student musicians to provide live accompaniment for the play.

"People always talk about updating Shakespeare to make it more clever.  They want to be avant-garde and set it in Iraq or something," said Robinson. "It doesn't have to be upgraded to be awesome and it's good for the kids to have a period piece to learn about the times as well."

Shows will be held Friday and Saturday night at 7:30pm in the Sheely Center for the Performing Arts at Glenbrook North. Tickets are $7 and can be purchased in advance at http://www.seatyourself.biz/gbn.