Emilia Suárez Sees her Juliet at the ART as 'Sharp' and 'a Little Zany'

Emilia Suárez chats with EDGE via Zoom on her cell phone as she makes her way across Boston to rehearsal – a thoroughly Gen Z technological hack that prompts EDGE to ask Suárez whether the American Repertory Theater's production of "Romeo and Juliet" (directed by the company's Artistic Director Diane Paulus) might be something of a Gen Z take on the four-century-old, but timeless, play.

"Gen Z?" Suárez, who identifies as queer, asks from the street corner where she awaits her Uber. "How so?"

Perhaps, EDGE suggests, along the lines of the youth-oriented upcoming Broadway production starring Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler that is reportedly intended to address – though, perhaps, obliquely – how today's younger set are faced with an increasingly difficult set of existential problems.

"That's a really lovely way of capturing the idea of a Gen Z production," Suárez exclaims. "I think we underestimate how every generation, once it hits their early 20s, comes into consciousness with their perspective on the world."

Suárez is no stranger to inventive takes on the lives of young people, having starred in the Hulu romantic series "Up Here," a musical confection that ran for a single season in 2023. Looking back at her time on the show, Suárez characterizes it as "a musical comedy series I did with May Whitman and Carlos Valdez and a lot of wonderful people who make musicals to try to make a TV show. And it was a very fun, wonderful time."

Given that she's working with director Diane Paulus and sharing the stage with "Outer Banks" star Rudy Pankow, who plays Romeo, it seems certain that Suárez is having more fun, wonderful times. EDGE heard all about it.

EDGE: Speaking of Gen Z, according to surveys, it's the most openly queer generation of Americans ever. What does that mean to you as a theater maker in general, and for this production in particular?

Emilia Suárez: I think that's a great, great question. [Looking both ways before looking back into the camera] Let me not get hit by a bus while I answer it....

[Laughter]

Emilia Suárez: There's nothing in the text that indicates characters being particularly queer or not. The idea that Mercutio is earnestly in love with Romeo or Benvolio is a very common take on that character. I think there is something so inherently and obviously queer about him, but I think that the idea that he is a gay man in love with Romeo is so off the mark. In this production, it feels like Mercutio gets to be who he is, whatever that is, and there's no commentary on whether or not he's queer. This is just my personal take on what I'm seeing in front of me – the things he says, and the way he says them, and the way he talks with his male friends, things like that.

In relationship to what you're saying with Gen Z being the most openly queer generation, I think a lot of what my generation really wants is to start creating a world where you don't tell your children about being queer, being gay, or anything. It's not, "Here's what people are doing in the world, and if you do that, I will also be okay with it." It's more, "So, you're a person, and someday you're gonna start having feelings for some person that makes them special, and you just pay attention to who starts making you feel those feelings." A character doesn't have to exist [solely in relation to] their queerness; that is just a part of who they are.

I find the most successful criticism of performances that are inauthentic to queerness [focuses on how] the performance might be very nuanced and lovely, but they're performances of queerness, as opposed to being a person who is also queer. I'm grateful that this production doesn't impose anything on what any character might be.

EDGE: How about your take on Juliet? Could she be a modern Gen Z teenager who might say she's queer and otherwise reject labels?

Emilia Suárez: I was thinking about this, and I think there's absolutely room for that, in that she just hasn't thought about a relationship, or cared about romance or sex, or any of that – and that's because the right person hasn't come her way.

Romeo is the right person. I don't think he's the right boy. She feels very set aflame by him. She doesn't seem sexually or romantically interested in anyone, until someone shows her who they are, and she feels like she sees them.