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It’s been said every story has been told. Matt Pfeiffer does not agree.
The Montrose-and-Ninth-streets resident took it as a challenge to retell what may be the most popular story of all time.
“The story first started to emerge [centuries ago] and it’s made its way to us here now. It means generations and generations of human beings have decided that this story is worth telling,” “Romeo and Juliet” director Pfeiffer said. “It holds hate to its consequences.”
Though shying from the initial proposal issued him by the Arden Theater’s producing artistic director Terry Nolen because he was never captivated by productions of the star-crossed lovers, Pfeiffer reread the timeless script and a new opportunity presented itself.
“I had never seen it work in a compelling way. When I went back and read it — and I hadn’t read it in maybe 10 years — I rediscovered how great it was,” Pfeiffer said. “There were a lot of things I’d never heard in the performances I’d seen. So I went back and said I’d be interested in doing it.
“I wanted to strip it down and focus on the actors and the story.”
His modern interpretation of the play speculated to have been written in the late 1500s is at the Arden Theatre, 40 N. Second St., through April 11. Approaching the work the way he believes Shakespeare’s company would have, Pfeiffer is using a contemporary setting and story-telling technique to amplify the relevance of its meaning.
“[Shakespeare’s Company] would have done it on their stage and would have done it with their costumes,” Pfeiffer said. “It’s [Shakespeare’s] Verona; he made up this Verona. Everything he says about this culture and these people I could determine based on what I think Shakespeare invented.”
Borrowing the great playwright’s methodology, Pfeiffer believes he’s concocted a 21st Century version of what Shakespeare would have staged. To do so, Pfeiffer used what was available to the production to organically shape the direction, look and feel — akin to how Shakespeare’s Company would have allowed Southwark, London’s, Globe Theatre and popular fashion to become an integral part of its staging.
“I wanted the concept and the clothing and setting to dictate everything. I wanted the story to dictate our choices,” Pfeiffer said.
Further modernizing the script, Pfeiffer looked to contemporary storytelling methods to appeal to young audiences.
“I used intercutting, borrowing from the filmic style,” Pfeiffer said of scenes that unfold side-by-side on a split stage. “I’ll take two of Shakespeare’s scenes that happen sequentially and have them intercut with each other.
“Younger audiences, it’s their aesthetic. I was keeping in line with that kind of pace.”
With the performance schedule filled with student matinees sold to capacity, Pfeiffer believes his key demographic is getting the picture — and perhaps learning a whole new way to interpret a hallowed text.
“In the Second Act you can hear a pin drop in the theater. They get really invested by that point,” Pfeiffer, who chose hand knives and collapsible police batons as the show’s weapons, said. “It feels like people are really staying with it.”
Growing up in the Northeast, Pfeiffer moved into his Italian Market home five-and-a-half years ago.
“We love our neighborhood. It’s a great neighborhood right off the Italian Market,” Pfeiffer, who shares his home with wife Kim, said. “One of the great things for me is that I can walk anywhere I want to be.”
One of those places is his resident company, Theater Exile, headquartered for just over a year at 1340 S. 13th St.
“We do a lot of theater that people consider edgy, but I deem it immediate, very theatrical and asks a lot of questions,” the company’s associate artistic director said.
Getting his bachelor’s in theater from DeSales University in 1999, Pfeiffer attributes much of his style to an eye-opening summer following his freshman year. The break in schooling gave the blossoming actor and director time to travel to Vermont and study with the Atlantic Theater Company, a New York-based group founded by playwright David Mamet and actor William H. Macy that focuses on the story and playwright’s intentions for producing creative theater.
“It definitely fostered a very deep love for the work of David Mamet,” Pfeiffer said. “That kind of theater was the kind of theater I was most excited by in college.”
His time with Atlantic was a departure, as Pfeiffer spent 13 seasons interning at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival. His long-standing connection with the official Shakespeare festival of Pennsylvania is what lead Nolen to approach him about “Romeo and Juliet.”
“I feel like we are doing the production that I wanted to do. It’s the production that’s very immediate, very useful and fun to me in the first act,” Pfeiffer said. “And the second, well … I feel like we are earning the tragedy of the play.”
Working with a like-minded team has allowed the director the artistic freedom to create a thought-provoking version of the classic.
“[The production team is] only interested in creating theater that excites a new generation of theater-goers. The cast is all under 40 and at a burgeoning point in their careers,” the 32-year-old said.
Though playing two miles north of South Philly, Pfeiffer encourages locals to make the trip to the Arden — but it won’t be long until some of his provocative theater is just around the corner.
“In [Theater Exile’s] space we had a public reading and we did a big flea market cookout. Our hope certainly is to perform more in South Philly,” Pfeiffer, who had lived on Carpenter Street and Sixth and Catharine streets, said. “Our rehearsal space can double as a performance space. Our mission going forward is to use our space as a performance venue.”
Whether in the comfort of his own home or around the area, Pfeiffer always has felt free to perform his own way in the City of Brotherly Love.
“In Philadelphia, we really put the arts first and produce challenging material,” Pfeiffer said. “You can make a living here and you can offer theater to all audiences.
“It’s great working on Shakespeare because, you know, it’s a constant reminder: In his day, theater was produced for the common people.”
Feeling he’s accomplished just that, the director hopes people will come to the production and give themselves the chance to shift their perspective.
“Grudges can cost people their lives. I hope people talk about that and think about that and don’t let the question die out,” Pfeiffer said. “We are constantly asking, ‘What is enough? What is enough sacrifice?’”
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