CEL, Business of the Arts students create growth roadmap for ‘Romeo & Zooliet’

Last summer, an inventive retelling of “Romeo and Juliet” debuted at the St. Louis Zoo, performed by actors wearing elaborate animal puppets designed by the acclaimed team behind Broadway’s “The Lion King.”

“Romeo & Zooliet,” produced in partnership with the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival, earned wide acclaim — including St. Louis Theater Circle Awards in March for Outstanding New Play and Outstanding Projections or Special Effects. 

It will be back this fall in Forest Park’s Shakespeare Glen. 

The producers, who include Olin National Council member Henry Warshaw, AB 1976, MBA 1979, have plans to expand the show’s reach beyond St. Louis. But where might this funny tale of animal friendship and after-hours zoo hijinks find the most success? 

The team turned to Olin’s Center for Experiential Learning (CEL) to tackle that business challenge in a practicum course. 

“I’m a trustee of WashU, and I’ve done other CEL projects,” Warshaw said. “After the production (last summer), the question was, where do you go from here? And I thought this would be a good project for the students.” 

A versatile cast 

To tackle the challenge, the CEL drew together its own all-star cast, which included Olin BSBA and MBA students, Business of the Arts program undergraduates, a team leader with theater experience, and Film & Media Studies students to help with marketing videos.  

That ability to leverage a variety of WashU talent helped the team make recommendations that reflected strong business insights and a deep understanding of the theater business, said finance professor Tim Solberg, who is the academic director of Olin’s undergraduate Business of the Arts program. 

“The interdisciplinary aspect of this is really unique,” Solberg said. “It’s a complex project in that there’s an accounting aspect of it, and also a creative aspect. And we can bring the whole WashU community to work on it.” 

In addition to mapping out a growth plan, Solberg noted that film and media studies professor Deirdre Maitre led her students in creating a 3-minute “sizzle reel” of highlights from the production, which will be used to showcase “Romeo & Zooliet” to potential partners. 

The team sifted through dozens of U.S. zoos, theaters, Shakespeare companies, and amusement parks to identify several that had the right combination of factors to be successful venues for the show. They also determined which of two models — licensing to local groups or mounting a national tour — would work best in each venue. 

The producers said the student recommendations have given them a great start on how to expand the play nationally. 

“The students did some really impressive work in getting a fairly sophisticated sense of the national zoo scene and the national theater scene and gave us a bit of a cheat sheet of good markets to explore,” said Colin O’Brien, whose Blank Slate production company helped stage the show. 

The St. Louis Shakespeare Festival’s artistic director, Tom Ridgely, said the CEL team identified some venues they hadn’t considered. 

“There are a lot of places that the students found, zoos and theaters, that weren’t on our radar,” Ridgely said. “And we’d been looking at it and had a pretty good sense of where we thought the better fits would be.”

A multi-layered challenge 

For the Olin students on the CEL team, the “Romeo & Zooliet” challenge was an introduction to the intricacies of the theater business. As they assessed potential venues, they had to consider such factors as theater capacity, typical ticket prices, technical infrastructure, and even the weather. (During the show’s inaugural run outdoors at the St. Louis Zoo, excruciatingly hot and muggy weather dampened attendance.) 

Van Nguyen, MBA 2026, said she was drawn to the novelty of the challenge. “When I read the description of the project, the combination of performing arts and growth strategy seemed very interesting,” Nguyen said. “I thought I’d learn something new to me.” 

Sally Kim, BSBA 2025, said the project was challenging on multiple levels. 

“Instead of improving a single process, we were helping evaluate their national expansion outcomes, assessing feasibility and viability, and then the model financial outcomes,” Kim said. “I think the project really stretched our analytical skills and also required working more strategically.” 

Both Kim and Avery Seo, BSBA 2026, had worked on previous CEL projects, but Seo noted that the stakes on this one felt higher. 

“The recommendations that we were delivering would have a big impact down the line on the decisions that will actually be made,” he said. “It was like work I’ve done in the past, but at a higher, higher level.” 

In taking on the “Romeo & Zooliet” challenge, the CEL team was led by Heather Anderson, BA 2025. Anderson, a drama and anthropology major, had actually worked with the Shakespeare Festival previously and jumped at the chance to participate, despite her lack of a business background. 

She credited the structure of the CEL practicum, along with a leadership class she took through the Bauer Leadership Center, with helping her navigate it. 

“Being in the leadership class, you get to see that everyone, whether they’re an MBA or a drama major, was dealing with similar struggles. How do we get the information that we need from clients? How do we maintain the relationship? How do we work with our team, with our faculty advisor, and our CEL Scholar?” 

The experience has helped her see how business principles can support her in her artistic goals. “Before, I thought of business with a capital B — like, I can’t do this, this doesn’t feel like my world,” she said. “But now that I’ve been there, I think this is actually a really good skill set.” 

Ridgely said the producers are talking to several theaters and zoos around the country about runs in 2027 and beyond, based on the team’s recommendations. In the meantime, they’re preparing for this year’s production in Forest Park, which is scheduled from September 24 to October 11 to avoid the summer heat and humidity (one of the CEL team’s recommendations).  

Warshaw said the CEL project for “Romeo & Zooliet” exemplifies WashU’s In St. Louis, For St. Louis commitment to help create lasting impact in the region.  

“I’ve worked with the CEL several times before, but it’s always been for-profit ventures. What’s nice about this is that it’s helping the community.”