Troian Bellisario stars as one of two Juliets who fall in love in Still A Rose, an LGBT reimagining of Romeo and Juliet.
Hazart Films’ Still A Rose, produced by Elizabeth Collins and Nav Singh, first premiered last year at various LGBT film festivals.
Now it’s finally on iTunes and Vimeo, available to buy for only $2.99. Check out the trailer below:
The reimagining of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet features two Juliets and two Romeos, and sees the foursome fall in love and blur the lines of gender and sexuality.
Troian Bellisario from Pretty Little Liars and Will Branske play the two Juliets, while Tinuke Oyefule and Brandon Crowder play the Romeos.
Speaking to Pride.com, Troian Bellisario says, “To me, making it a woman and a woman or making it a man and a man within a very wealthy family that brought back that there are a lot of places where that would be hidden.”
In the queer version of Shakespeare’s classic tale, “The danger became immediately real again. Suddenly you look at these two lovers and you say, ‘I know this story. I love this story.’ And it suddenly doesn’t seem fair that just because they’re now a same-sex couple,” says Bellisario.
Here’s the full synopsis for Still A Rose:
“Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona, where we lay our scene. Through the modern lens of equality, Romeo and Juliet change on screen. A classic tale is reimagined as Romeo (Brandon Crowder, Tinuke Oyefule) and Juliet (Troian Bellisario, Will Branske) transform Shakespeare’s celebrated words to give them new life and new love. Employing Shakespeare and Cinema, two great artistic languages come together to re-introduce a timeless tale of young love and tragedy to a brand new audience. Refocusing literature’s most iconic young lovers, ’Still A Rose’ weaves through couplings of mixed-race and same-gender within the arc of the famous balcony scene (Act II, Scene II) from ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Illustrating equal love in unequaled prose, because Love, by any other name is still Love.”
Buy it on iTunes or Vimeo now!