Behind the WAUD doors, junior Kevin Grant and freshman Nathan Liu are engaged in a fight to the death. After Grant falls to the ground in agony, senior director Lucas Amorelli Ribeiro Kornexl critics their performance.

Amorelli Ribeiro Kornexl is directing the Shakespeare Club’s performance of “Romeo and Juliet” this year.

In the past the club used modern interpretations of Shakespeare’s classics, but “Romeo and Juliet” will be set in its original time period, fourteenth century Verona. Other aspects of the play will remain similar to the original.

“We’re true to the intention of Shakespeare in the acting and the implications he intended,” sophomore Ali Foreman said. “We’re trying to play Juliet as she was played, not her motivation as a flapper in the 1920s.”

But staging a performance set in Elizabethan times has its challenges. Finding convincing Shakespearian costumes can be expensive, Amorelli Ribeiro Kornexl said. And because the club is student-run and directed, its performances don’t have the same budget as school musicals and plays.  But Amorelli Ribeiro Kornexl has found some ways to minimize costs, like using costumes from previous club performances.

Scheduling has also been an issue. Senior Luis Alvarado, who plays Romeo, sophomore Ali Foreman, who plays Juliet, and sophomore Fox Williams, who plays Friar Lawrence, are all also part of the cast of “Side Show,” the school musical scheduled for this week, just a few weeks before “Romeo and Juliet” hits the stage.  Alvarado plays the main character in both plays. Amorelli Ribeiro Kornex has had to schedule rehearsals around the schedules and commitments of those three cast members.

The Shakespeare Club was founded in the late 1990s to help students prepare performances for the Shakespeare Festival.  Club sponsor Orion Hyson recently expanded the club, which now puts on multiple other independent performances, like “Taming of the Shrew.”

The club is gaining popularity, said junior assistant director Katie Myers.  Out of the 21 cast members, 11 are freshman: the highest level of freshman participation in Shakespeare club history.

“A lot of the freshmen are really experienced, they understand Shakespeare and his language,” Amorelli Ribeiro Kornexl said. “They’re very good at getting into a character.”

Freshman Marcela Falck Bados said she believes the club will allow her to gain vital acting experience.

“Shakespearian language is more romantic, and you really need to say it right when you are acting,” she said. “You have to act out the lines so that it makes sense universally and so that everyone can understand it.”

The story of “Romeo and Juliet” is consistent with many elements of the club, Amorelli Ribeiro Kornexl said.

“This show is really about bonding and the club members support each other onstage and offstage,” he said.

The performance is scheduled for Dec. 9, 10 and 11 in the WAUD.  Tickets are $5 and will be sold at the entrance.