By V.A. MUSETTO
Last updated: 8:02 am
July 24, 2008
Posted: 3:46 am
July 24, 2008
"O, Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou, Romeo?"
On the No. 1 train, of course.
Most mornings this summer, Peter Vack and Troian Bellisario board the No. 1 train outside Vack's Upper West Side apartment and spend hours riding it downtown and uptown - performing the balcony scene from Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet."
They're drama students at the University of Southern California who have decided to spend the summer in New York bringing Shakespeare to the sweltering masses.
Despite its setting, their act is far from haphazard. Vack, 21, and Bellisario, 22, always perform the same scene ("That's the one people really know") and have the performance timed to last from one stop to another.
Vack said they chose to perform on the subway rather than, say, in a park because "you have a different captive audience every 30 seconds."
Sometimes, their efforts garner applause; other times, they're ignored. Tips range from pennies to five bucks. Their biggest single donation was $20.
"We try to figure out what factors affect tips," Vack said, "but it's really random. Sometimes we've had cars burst into applause, but give you no money. Sometimes you'll get $10 on a silent car."
Added Bellisario, who's a bundle of nervous energy, "The tourists are so effusive and will clap, but they're afraid of us. The locals are more apt to strike up a conversation."
On a recent hot and humid afternoon, the thespians caught the attention of Tom Crouse, an acting teacher at the famed Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute on East 15th Street, who was showing the West Village to relatives from Maryland.
"Shakespeare would love this," Crouse reasoned. "He created for the masses."
Cris Tanner, of Turbotville, Pa. - in town for a day of shopping - was taking her first-ever subway ride when she encountered the pair. "It's great!" she gushed. "I saw 'Romeo and Juliet' in the park last year, but this is fun."
Vack and Bellisario aren't newcomers to acting. Each has performed on the stage and TV, and they recently finished an indie movie directed and written by Vack's dad, Ron Farrar Brown.
It's called "Consent," and they portray a brother and sister dealing with the suicide of an elder sibling.
Sounds like something Shakespeare would have related to.
vam@nypost.com
