A new play reading
BY SUNNY DRAKE
MAY 15th, 2026* | GREEN THUMB THEATRE REHEARSAL HALL
*by invitation only
Leaning into audience’s unquenchable thirst for this iconic story, Romeo & Jewels is a timely
trans-inspired adaptation, with a cisgender Romeo and a trans Jewels. In this free
adaptation, Drake uses the original story as a jumping off point and reimagines the feuding families to explore how trans people have been propelled onto the frontlines of the culture wars.
Leveraging this story of potent first love, Romeo & Jewels also investigates the connection to
our climate crisis.
The script uses contemporary “everyday” English, with occasional use of the
original text, for both an adult audience and a 14+ audience.
In a politically polarized fictional town in contemporary North America, right-wing Sarah
Montague is running for office against liberal Delilah Capulet. Despite their political differences,
something they have in common is that their eighteen-year-olds are depressed. Romeo
(cisgender) is grieving the recent suicide of his best friend, Mercury. He spends a lot his time
talking to Mercury’s ghost. Jewels (trans) has finally started on hormones and wants to get on
with the rest of her life. She befriends Queen Mab, an older trans woman who works at the
hospital’s gender clinic.
Romeo and Jewels meet and are totally smitten. They are caught in the crossfire when the
political candidates devolve into campaigns about trans youth. Jewels starts to suspect that
Queen Mab is more than she seems. And something strange is happening with Mercury’s ghost.
All the while, the town– still recovering from a spate of climate disasters– is ignoring the severe
storm forecast later in the week.