Morris Community High School’s theater program’s fall play begins at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 23, as the students perform “Romeo and Juliet: A Jazz Age Love Story.”

The play takes the classic William Shakespeare play and moves the time period up a few hundred years into the roaring 20s, for a “Great Gatsby”-esque retelling.

Students Sarah Crisman and Kylie Overbeck, who play the nurse and Benvolio, respectively, said they’re excited to put their own spin on “Romeo and Juliet.”

“It’s fun, and if you need things for a reference point, you can watch a movie, or like, there are a lot of things set in the 1920s,” Crisman said. “It’s such a fun vibe. It’s the prohibition era, so there’s a lot of gangs, which correlates well to ‘Romeo and Juliet.’”

Overbeck said the preparation for this play has taken a few months, and it’ll be really special to share the cast and crew’s hard work with the community.

“A lot of the lines are really fun, especially because it’s not the original Shakespeare text,” Chrisman said. “We adapted it with 1920s slang, and personally, some of it’s the funniest thing ever. I can’t wait to see the audience react.”

Director Andrea Gustafson said “Romeo and Juliet” is part of the school’s curriculum for all freshmen to read, and she and the students thought it would be great to do an adaptation. Students in the past have also adapted works like “The Crucible” and “To Kill a Mockingbird”, so it’s not the first time the theater program students have gotten a chance to work on something familiar.

Gustafson said the kids typically like the 1920s theming: the high school’s prom theming last year was the Roaring ‘20s.

“We’ve adapted it to be ‘20s speak, and it’s as much a deep dive into the 1920s as it is Shakespeare,” Gustafson said. “It’s so fun.”

Gustafson said the play contains a lot of jazz music, modern music infused with jazz, and traditional 1920s costumes with things like flappers and the Charleston.

“I’m looking forward to our students performing and seeing a play they’ve read in class and see it come to life in a different way,” Gustafson said. “One of the cool things about Shakespeare is how relevant his stories, themes and characters still are today.”

“Romeo and Juliet: A Jazz Age Love Story” has showings at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 23, 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 25, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 26.

Correction: An earlier version of this article had Sarah Crisman’s name spelled as Chrisman.