Graffiti will be an integral -- and authentic -- part of the upcoming set for "Romeo and Juliet" at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts, as area high school and Cornell students leave their marks on the set, said Kent Goetz, professor of theatre, film and dance and scenic designer.

Although the production will be staged in Shakespeare's language, its setting will be a contemporary, stalled urban construction site.

"What's left is an open space in which the youth of the rival families hang out," Goetz said. "Naturally the inhabitants quickly fill the surfaces with graffiti art and tagging (signatures) as an expression of both their affiliation and individual pride."

First, Goetz met with local graffiti artist Jay Stooks to envision a graffiti mural as the base painting for an 8-foot by 40-foot plywood construction wall on the set. And to give the wall an authentic layered look with many generations of marks, Goetz and director Melanie Dreyer have reached out to the wider community for assistance.

On Nov. 2, members of the Ithaca High School Graffiti Club added their graffiti designs to the wall under the direction of art teacher Jocelyn Lutter Carver. And on Nov. 7 from 1-3 p.m., Cornell students are invited to an Open Tagging Party on the Kiplinger Stage at the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts "during which the entire 'Romeo and Juliet' set will be available as a surface on which students can put their individual tags," Goetz said. Later, the cast will add their designs.

By the time the set is fully decorated, "so many hands, from so many different constituencies, will have played a part in realizing this design," Goetz said.

The play, one of Shakespeare's great tragedies that explores eternal questions of revenge, love and forgiveness, will be staged Nov. 19-21 and Dec. 3-5 at 7:30 p.m. and Dec. 5 at 2 p.m. in the Kiplinger Theatre.

For tickets call 607-254-ARTS, visit our box office in the Schwartz Center, or reserve online at http://www.schwartztickets.com.