Throughout her senior year of college, Emily developed an extensive research-based Capstone project as the culminating work of her undergraduate studies. Centered on the enduring popularity of theatrical revivals, her research sought to uncover why audiences continue to return to stories they already know. Using Romeo and Juliet as a case study, Emily spent her first semester immersed in Elizabethan texts, historical and contemporary performance reviews, and countless stage and screen adaptations in order to better understand the evolving relationship between familiarity, nostalgia, and reinvention in performance.

During her second semester, Emily collaborated with artists from a variety of disciplines to devise an original performance work inspired by her findings. The final presentation guided audiences through four distinct interpretations of the final scene of Romeo and Juliet, tracing the ways in which classic works are continually reshaped across generations. Beginning with Shakespeare’s original text, the performance then explored the influence of the Lavrovsky Ballet, MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet, and Bernstein’s West Side Story through movement and live music. The project ultimately culminated in Emily’s own contemporary reimagining of the scene, blending modern music, multimedia performance elements, and interdisciplinary storytelling to examine how timeless narratives continue to resonate with present-day audiences.