Lehman Stages celebrates its twentieth anniversary season with the inaugural production of "BronxShakes" - The Bronx Shakespeare Festival at Lehman College, with the premiere of  William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” in the new outdoor amphitheater at Lehman College.

This fun, fast, and ferocious production of “Romeo and Juliet” is adapted and directed by special guest artist Rick DesRochers, professor and director of the Theatre Program at Lehman. A "perpetual motion machine," this production features a cast of all Lehman alumni including Natasha Collado, Alexa Downing, Hemanuel Damis, Emily Garcia, Simran Pal-Kaur, Andrew Moeller, Jahdiel Rodriguez, and Bethany Rondon. The stage manager is Julie Peteani and the assistant director and fight coordinator is Alyssa Van Gorder. Running time is approximately 90 minutes.

"Our goal at Lehman Stages is to bring our community together and improve the quality of life in The Bronx," said Dante Albertie, director of Lehman Stages. "We believe BronxShakes will join our long list of much-loved events and community traditions that help make Lehman College essential to the vibrancy of the borough."

The festival begins Wednesday, Sept. 13 and runs through Saturday. Performances on Wednesday Sept. 13, Thursday, Sept. 14, and Friday, Sept.15  are at 7 p.m. The final performance on Saturday, Sept. 16 is at 3 p.m.

Admission is free and reservations are required. Tickets are available at bronxshakes.brownpapertickets.com

Founded in 2003, Lehman Stages entertains and educates thousands of Bronxites every year with cultural arts programming and initiatives like SUMMERWORX, The Kids Rule Weekend, Breakfast with Santa, The Summer Stagecraft Intensive and others.

For more information, contact lehmanstages.org.