The Wit’s Shakesbeer Newsletter #4
- The Wit Theatre Company
- Aug 27, 2025
- 6 min read
August, 2025
In this newsletter:
New Merch!
Interview with Romeo & Juliet director Kristin Honiotes
Petty Grievances (a monthly column)
New Merch!
Check it out: Dylan designed a kick-ass new sticker.
Want one?
Stop by the merch booth at our next show, or enter to win a Season 10 Merch Bundle when you take our audience survey.
"Like softest music to attending ears"
An interview with "Romeo and Juliet" director Kristin Honiotes
Dylan Nevergall: (Wit Company Member)
Ok, question number one: So we have never done live music in this project. What made you, Kristin, want to do a Shakesbeer show and add that layer of live music at shows?
Kristin Honiotes: (Director of R&J)
Firstly, music is my first love. I've always made some form of music, playing or singing, and I was in a band since I was young, so part of it was that I've missed making music. Another part is that throughout all the shows that I've directed for Shakesbeer, I've often tried to work in some sort of musical element. There have been splashes of music, Neil coming in and playing the ukulele and Bass; we just have so many musically talented people in the group, too. That's another level of creativity and talent that I think people bring to our community, and I really want to feature that. I've directed Romeo and Juliet now four times, I think, maybe maybe five, and every time I do it, I'm interested in finding something new to create a different picture or bring a different energy, so bringing it back for our 10th anniversary, I really wanted it to be special.
Dylan:
That runs right into my second question perfectly, which was that we have done Romeo and Juliet a lot, I think it's our second most performed show, and I was gonna ask how you approach a show differently when you’ve done it so many times?
Kristin:
I mean, I think what’s easy for me with Romeo and Juliet is that it’s my favorite Shakespeare show, I fell in love with it as a young tween, watching “Romeo + Juliet”,
Dylan:
A pretty unique experience
Kristin:
(laughs) It could be because I was obsessed with Leonardo DiCaprio, and that is what opened the door for me, but I would sit and watch the movie and hold the book at the same time, reading it and watching it like a real nerd. I also don't wanna be bored, right? I think for myself as a creator that requires me to like push and see things differently to dig deeper into the relationships of the people you know? I think the big, universal thing about Romeo and Juliet is it's about love. Everybody has spoken that language, and it's very relatable. Music is a universal language as well. It can reach people in ways that sometimes spoken words can't, and Shakespeare itself can be so hard to digest so by adding this element of music, it sort of can help tell the story a little bit more.
Dylan:
What would you hope that the audience coming to see this run of shows takes away from this version of it?
Kristin:
I just want people to have fun. I want them to come and have an hour and a half of just being able to sit and enjoy. I mean, truly, I think that's what I want from the performers and their performance, and for people coming to see the show, it's an hour where you get to let go and just sit and enjoy.
Dylan:
Some people reading this might not know, but you are a cofounder of the company, you’ve been the closest thing we’ve had to a president in past years, and now you are still a major figure in the company. I wanted to ask you, do you see the company and your role within it, and just like, kind of the scope of things, differently than 10 years ago, when Shakesbeer was like: this is just something fun we could do?
Kristin:
I think 10 years ago, we didn't know what we had. We started this project from a place of… You know, we had two years under our belt of being a theater company, and we were running into all the standard challenges that all theater companies, local theater companies, have which are money, energy and all that stuff, and one of our former board members had this idea, we were like, “This sounds great.” We all loved performing. We loved Shakespeare. We loved beer, and we didn't know what we were starting out on. Our first show, we had 25 people in the audience, and we were like, “Oh, this is great, no big deal,” and then there was so much interest every time we would do a show. Audiences would say, “I never understood Shakespeare until I started coming to this,” or “I really wanna do this. This looks like so much fun,” you know, so it started to grow organically into its own entity, so I think my role in all of it is just sort of like facilitating that growth. Now, inevitably, it's 70, 80, 100+ people coming to see a show, and that just reinvigorates the idea that it's fulfilling something for a community of people.
Dylan:
What is your hope for both the Wit as a company and Shakesbeer? And do you have a dream project in the future for this group of people?
Kristin:
The big thing for me is that the company is a community. Our company is a group of players who get to be together, who get to make art together, to create together. So, you know, my dream is that it continues like that, and from that community will come projects like Shakesbeer, projects like Provisioning, projects like other things that we've done. I hope that we continue to grow the different arms of all the things we do, that we get to play and try new things, and put up new, fun, and exciting pieces of art that make us feel excited to continue. I mean, I'm so hot for The Fast and the Furious: The Musical, it's not even funny, but that's not my--
Dylan:
(laughs) That’s actually my, uh, that’s a huge secret.
Kristin:
I know that, I'm just saying. I just want to say thank you to all the people involved. It's pretty amazing, I think it's pretty special, to have this community, you know, we’ve been doing this a long time, and now people are in their 30s and… late 30s.
Dylan:
and beyond
Kristin:
(laughs) Yeah, to come together as a community like we have, to have the relationships that we have; we have built the thing that we've built over the last 12 years as The Wit, 10 of those years doing Shakesbeer, and I feel lots of gratitude for the people who come and support us and their energy and excitement. Just thanks. Thank you and good night.
Petty Grievances
"My tongue will tell the anger of my heart, / Or else my heart, concealing it, will break"
The Taming of the Shrew, Act 4, Scene 3
Listen, the world is a confusing, overwhelming and often infuriating place. This monthly column will feature a paltry (but legitimate!) complaint from one of our company members to "ease the anguish of a torturing hour" (A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 5, Scene 1).
This month's Petty Grievance comes from company member Jason Laub:
I would like to submit for your consideration a grievance that touches all of our lives. Or, more specifically, the lives of those who use Google Maps. This could absolutely be an issue for the pious and abrasive dozens that inexplicably choose to use Apple maps, but, as per usual, I chose to exclude them for the sake of simplicity.
I was enjoying a leisurely drive to a friend’s new home, jamming to the soothing sounds of early 2000s emo music. I know the streets of Denver well, but on this occasion I required navigational assistance to guide my way. I was ill-prepared to be ripped from my screaming bliss as my Google navigational assistant attempted to pronounce “Buchtel Boulevard”. BOOK-tuhl was the choice that was made by the 4th most valuable corporation on the planet earth. Unsure if I was being thoroughly gaslit, I (very ironically) decided to Google the correct pronunciation. According to Google’s own AI, “The name Buchtel is pronounced "BOOK-tuhl" in Akron, Ohio. However, it is pronounced "BUCK-tel" in Denver, Colorado”.
You mean to tell me that the company that owns 93% of the search market couldn’t figure this one out and match the pronunciation to the city? This is the sort of impersonal customer service that earns you a disgruntled grunt from a random young man in Denver, Colorado.
Concurrently, I have a grievance with the city of Akron, Ohio. Your pronunciations are as incorrect as your opinion on the greatest basketball player of all time. It is clearly Michael Jordan.
That's all, folks!
Check back in with us next month, where we’ll hear from some more of the folks that make up our company, including R&J's musical team: Neil and Sarah
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