by Ethan Walshe
Staff Writer

This year, Westford Academy Theater Arts will be undertaking the production of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar as their competition play. Director and theater arts teacher Michael Towers has made the executive decision to make several alterations to the play, for varying reasons.

“[With] every play I produce, my central focus, my audience, is the Westford Academy community…so Julius Caesar to me is a story about nobility, a quest for nobility… I take it and I try to make that story relevant and for me, I took a huge risk in layering on the concept, the lens that we have, and that is a hip-hop lens.” said Towers.

Towers felt that whether we are aware of it or not, this sort of hip-hop mentality has affected many members of our community and our school culture. It influences students in how they dress, what kind of music they listen to, the way we talk and the people that we look up to. This kind of mentality, as well as a sort of gang mentality, can also be seen in Julius Caesar.

“It’s an easy leap to make to say that Julius Caesar exempts gang mentality of human beings, the mob mentality.. and that is infused in our story.” Towers said

In addition to the hip-hop atmosphere, Julius Caesar is being played by a female, senior Hannah Caldwell.

The concept of changing the setting of such a play in such a drastic way may astound some people. But it is also important to note that Mr. Towers has not at all altered the script of the play except to stay within the forty minute time limit set by the state festival.

“It’s important to know that we haven’t made changes as much as we’ve made decisions that will yield the truth behind the script, and hopefully that’s what we do.” said Towers

As this is Westford Academy’s competition play for the year, it is safe to say that the Theater Arts program wants this play to be a great success. Towers says that he likes to give much of the process of building a play to his students. He wants to give the responsibilities of putting this play together to his students, which he says loosens up the grip of directing. This is very different to how he might approach directing a musical or a full length play, because with those types of scenarios, there are far too many elements that need to be addressed.

“Typically a director has the concept and it’s more about saying ‘this is where we’re going and we drive through this’ and every singe contributor on board is following that through line.” says Towers.

Towers hopes that anyone, be they a “traditionalist” or not, will be able to see past the new style put on the play and be able to see the true heart of the story. While a traditionalist may have their individual appreciation for the piece, Towers hopes to be able to reach out to a much larger audience. It is also important to note that Shakespeare is rarely produced “traditionally”. People would often ask themselves, “How is this relevant to me?” Towers strives to answer that question.

WATA’s production of Julius Caesar is sure to be an interesting and incredible performance to say the least. The play opens on Thursday, March 3rd.