“We have no idea at this point how this production is going to turn out,”

Chris Hanna, Artistic Director of the Virginia Stage Company, said at the first cast and crew meeting of their modern take on Romeo and Juliet. “And God forbid we should.”

Hearing these words in the ornately styled lobby of the VSC, they came off as somewhat false. Busts of Venus and the Greek chorus stare with slack and judgmental eyes. The golden dustbins–they’re not trashcans, trust me–spot a floral-patterned carpet that wouldn’t exactly match Versailles, but at least the guest’s quarters. Even the requisite exit signs glow shades of amber and rose under stained glass.

In a place like this, everything can feel premeditated.

“I will disagree,” joked Associate Artistic Director Patrick Mullins. “We have some idea of where we’re going.”

All of this almost perfectly speaks to the nature of putting on Shakespeare: You need to do it old school enough to serve the language and story, but not so old school that it flashes back to mandatory high school reading lists. It’s about splitting time between classic and cool, between poise and unpredictability.

To these actors, directors, set design artists, and all the rest, it’s about finding just the landing place between manuscript and madness.

“Everybody in this play is trying to fight or fuck someone,” Mullins explained. “It’s about that search for connection.”

VSC is calling their production //romeo&juliet/ as a bellwether of sorts to the youthful modernity of the production. Mullins tried out his vision of Romeo and Juliet before high schools throughout the state, and even had the cojones to ask the teenagers for their notes. And he listened to them. Some characters have been cut, or merged with others; Juliet is now raised by a single mother, for example. The posters even feature the dialogue from the balcony scene in textspeak on an iPhone.

“The costumes are a little bohemian, a little rock and roll, a little Prep, and a little sex,” said Tory DePew, costume designer.

There were catcalls from the 50-some cast, crew and staff gathered in the long, air-conditioned room full of, quite frankly, good-looking people.

“You heard me,” DePew said. “Sex.”

The understudy for Julia, Emily Osborne of Kansas, blushed lightly and gave a headshot-quality smile.

“Everybody here looks pretty sane,” she said later. “But we’re actors, so there’s no promises.”

After the group meeting, the out-of-town actors–who make up the majority of the cast and are largely from New York–were given their first view of the house.

“Holy shit,” blurted Jeff Barry, who plays Mercutio, upon entering VSC’s sublime performance space. “Going around regional shows you don’t see theatres like this.”

The actors were led through the maze that is the back of the house. They made jokes about how many times they’re going to get lost along the way, and offered to tie a string to the man who’ll play Paris. They all shoved into an elevator far too small for the group. (“I’ve seen bigger casts in here,” their tour guide grumbled.) The actors were given the code for the back door that leads to Tazewell.

“You’ve got to jiggle and pull at it a little,” they were warned.

“I don’t know if you’ve ever been in love,” Mullins told the group, “but it’s a really screwed up thing. One minute you’re soaring, and then you don’t get a text…”

The director’s boyfriend, who stood undiscovered at the back of this group of strangers, looked on proudly.

Nancy Lemenager, who plays Lady Capulet, glowed as she walked off the stage for the first time. The curtain goes up in exactly three weeks. But today, she said, “it’s like the first day of school.”

//romeo&juliet/ runs Oct 20 to Nov 8. Here’s their website for more info and how to buy tickets.

View a gallery of original illustrations by costume designer Tory DePew for //romeo&juliet/.