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Que pasa, Romeo?

Romeo (Rámon de Ocampo) and Juliet (Nikki SooHoo) in a scene from "Romeo and Juliet," by Shakespeare Orange County.
(Jordan Kubat / Daily Pilot)
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The guy playing Romeo is half Filipino and half Spanish. His parents onstage are Korean. Juliet is Chinese American, the Montagues and Capulets are multicultural, and a Mexican American folklórico group dances between scenes.

Sounds like your typical stroll through Verona, doesn’t it?

The recently revamped Shakespeare Orange County is opening its summer Shakespeare season with the bard’s classic “Romeo and Juliet,” which runs Thursdays through Saturdays until Aug. 1 at the Festival Amphitheater in Garden Grove. John Walcutt, artistic director for the company and co-director of “Romeo and Juliet,” is betting that a large, diverse cast that reflects the surrounding communities will draw audiences from across the region.

“There’s a huge population here of Vietnamese, Hispanics, Koreans, Polynesians,” said Walcutt, who’s in his second year leading the 36-year-old company. “More than 70 languages are spoken in Garden Grove. In the past, most of our audience came in from Orange and Newport. It was a smaller audience that was all Caucasian. We thought, ‘Why doesn’t anyone from around here come to the theater?’”

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So Shakespeare Orange County made a conscious effort to get various groups involved. “Romeo and Juliet” is co-produced by the Vietnamese American Arts and Letters Assn. Relámpago del Cielo, a 40-year-old folklórico group from Santa Ana, plays a prominent role in the show. Additional support comes from the 2-year-old Korean Social Club of Orange County and the Orange County School of the Arts, based in Santa Ana.

All these organizations make for a populous cast, and in some scenes, up to 85 people are onstage at once. The first-act party that Romeo and his buddies crash is actually a quinceañera for Juliet, complete with costumes, her court and Relámpago del Cielo performing a traditional dance.

“The story I believe Shakespeare intended happening to the community around him is actually happening to the community around us,” said Ramón de Ocampo, who plays Romeo. He replaced Vietnamese American actor Trieu Tran midway through rehearsals because of a medical emergency.

“Shakespeare is accessible through the blood of the makeup of the people around who are performing it,” said de Ocampo, an Obie Award winner for his performance in “The Romance of Magno Rubio” by Lonnie Carter.

In this production, de Ocampo raps some of Romeo’s lines and plays the character with a vigor and physicality that literally causes perspiration onstage.

“It’s actually perfectly accessible because of the way Shakespeare wrote the lines,” he said of his rapping. “It’s rhythmic verbal sparring.”

For Nikki SooHoo, who plays Juliet, this production is her first experience performing in live theater. The film and TV actress (“The Lovely Bones,” “Stick It”) grew up in Buena Park and graduated from the Orange County School of the Arts.

“I’ve really grown to love the art of theater,” SooHoo said. “It’s a big cast, and I feel very honored because I think I’m able to learn from every single person. These actors are phenomenal. It feels so great to be a part of it.”

Though the language in the 420-year-old play took some getting used to, SooHoo, 26, could still relate to its meaning.

“There are so many different parts of it that you can relate to no matter what,” she said. “Love and hope and fighting for something you truly believe in. Just trying to make it in general.”

The production features two Korean actors, Peter Gil Chang and Young Hye Sohn, who play the patriarch and matriarch of the house of Montague. They speak their initial lines in Korean and a few lines in English at the end.

Perhaps the most groundbreaking aspect of this “Romeo and Juliet” is the folklórico dancing interspersed throughout. Marlene Peña-Marin, artistic director of Relámpago del Cielo (“lightning from the sky”), did some research and found “Corridos Mexicanos,” a dance from the 1960s that fit the play’s themes perfectly. She got permission from the University of Guadalajara, and her group is the first in the U.S. to re-create and stage the piece.

“Any time you delve into something like this, you have to make sure you’re representing the cultures respectfully and correctly and that it makes sense within the play,” Peña-Marin said. “I think it really works well together. It’s just been phenomenal to watch. It looks very magical.”

To make the performances even more accessible, the company is offering two “rush ticket” programs: “pay what you want” on Thursdays, half an hour before curtain; and $7 for remaining seats after 7 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Macy’s is underwriting those deals.

Themed nights with $5 tickets are also in the works. VAALA night is July 18; Korean night is July 24; and Fiesta Night is July 31.

“We’re serious about becoming community partners,” Walcutt said. “We want to give people something they can relate to, something they feel invested in, with a lot of entertainment value. Our hope is they would want to come back.”

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IF YOU GO

What: “Romeo and Juliet” by Shakespeare Orange County

Where: Festival Amphitheater, 12762 Main St., Garden Grove

When: 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays until Aug. 1

Cost: $15, $25 and $40, with select discounts

Information: (714) 636-3729 or shakespeareoc.org

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