Full cast of Romeo and Juliet announced

The full cast of R+J in the park has been announced, and it's pretty exciting on two counts: one, because it's a lot of really rocking actors, and two, because it looks like they're doing full-on colorblind casting. Here's the full list:

Juliet - Lauren Ambrose
Romeo - Oscar Isaac
Nurse - Camryn Manheim
Lady Capulet - Opal Aladdin
Lord Capulet - Michael Cristofer
Lord Montague/Apothecary/Cousin Capulet - George Bartenieff
Paris - Dan Coleman
Lady Montague - Saidah Arrika Ekulonah
Tybalt - Brian Tyree Henry
Benvolio - Owiso Odera
Friar Laurence - Austin Pendleton
Mercutio - Christopher Evan Welch
Prince Escalus - Timothy D. Stickney
Ensemble - Ari Brand, Anthony Carrigan, Tiffany Danielle, Seth Duerr, Quincy Dunn-Baker, Christian Felix, Susan Hyon, Orville Mendoza, Jeff Omura, Lucas Papaelias, Mary Rasmussen, Michael Rossmy, Cornelius Smith, Jr., Alexander Sovronsky.

Awesome! I always love me some Saidah (anyone who was in The Thugs can do no wrong by me), and it's exciting to see so many really typey, charactery actors in one place. I didn't like Orville Mendoza in Adrift in Macao, but that's hardly his fault - I love Chris Durang, but that play was a S.T.I.N.K.E.R. Lucas Papaelias was my favorite part of Essential Self-Defense (besides the rollerskating dream sequence). Mary Rasmussen is a Juilliard grad from a year ago, and I've never seen her work be as good as it was in the showcase, but I hold firm to my belief that girl's got a hell of a lot of talent and potential. Also keep an eye out for Cornelius Smith, Jr, who is fresh out of the NYU grad acting program, and has been blowing me away in all of their shows this year with his knock-out character performances.

For some reason I'm betting that Mercutio was the last to be cast. I like Christopher Evan Welch okay, and he made a lot of lemonade out of Theresa Rebeck's sour lemons in The Scene, but he's doesn't seem like top-of-the-list Mercutio material to me. Here's hoping he proves me wrong.

Photo of patient line-waiters by Epiphany, via Flickr.