West Side Story

West Side Story is the award-winning adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy, Romeo and Juliet. Two teens from rival New York City gangs fall in love, but tensions between their respective gangs build toward tragedy. Toni Butler directed this touching classic with a live, 30 piece orchestra directed by Michelle Willis and music direction by Erin Walker.

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Directors’s Note

West Side Story teaches us to love. I believe West Side Story’s big question is how do we learn to see people, really see them? Tony requests of Maria, “See only me”. Wouldn’t this world be amazing if we could see people as just them and try to see them for all the good they are trying to be? This is the kind of love West Side Story has given to us: what a gift!

West Side Story is amazing and I am thrilled to be directing it now with this incredibly talented cast, crew, orchestra and creative team. I have loved researching and implementing my vision into this beautiful work of art. To my West Side Story family, “You done good, buddy boy” (Action, Act II). To our audiences, “May West Side Story mean as much to the people who see it as it has to us” (Stephen Sondheim in a letter to Leonard Bernstein just before West Side Story opens on Broadway).

~Toni Butler
Director, West Side Story

Performances: June 15, 16, 18, 22, 23, 25, 29 & 30 at 7p, 2018.