Play vs. Production

• William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a play, published in 1597, that has been performed thousands of times around the world since its first production.

• The play, like any play (Shakespeare or otherwise), exists only as words on a page until those words are brought to life onstage, which is obviously the playwright’s purpose.

• How are these classic plays made interesting or new? In production!

ROMEO AND JULIET – THE PLAY

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• The Director of a theatrical production (or film) is responsible for the creative direction of the play.

• The Director makes decisions for how to best approach the play and bring it to life. These decisions include:

• Casting

• Time Period/Setting

• Costumes/Wardrobe

• Set Design/Lighting

• Creative Approach to the text

Romeo and Juliet – The Production

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• Most people visualize Shakespeare’s plays with swords, doublets, big dresses, and cod pieces. This is referred to as being “period specific”.

• Due to Shakespeare’s language being synonymous with the Elizabethan Period, people feel that the rest of the production needs to be as well.

• While this can still be done very effectively; limiting your appreciation of Shakespeare to this is a dangerous (and boring!) way to approach Shakespeare’s work in production.

PERIOD SPECIFIC(?)

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• Shakespeare’s plays have survived, and are still performed and studied in High Schools around the world, because the themes and ideas explored within them are timeless.

• Romeo and Juliet alone explores numerous themes, including the impulsiveness of love, inevitability of fate, dangers of pride and rivalry, and adolescent rebellion, which everyone can relate to in some way.

• Shakespeare’s work and ideas are not limited to just the Elizabethan Era, so why should it be when it is performed?

WHY IS SHAKESPEARE STILL RELEVANT?

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INTERESTING APPROACHES TO SHAKESPEARE

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Stratford Festival’s 2014 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream was set in a Stratford backyard and was framed around a same-sex marriage, and included cross gender casting of Lysander and Titania.

• Most productions of Romeo and Juliet seem to centre around and attempt to enhance one key plot point: the CONFLICT!

• What would cause these “two households” to have such an “ancient grudge”? Why would they not want their children together?

• Consider some of these options:

• Race

• Gender

• Historical Cultural Differences

• Corporations (Baz Luhrmann)

• Other approaches focus on symbolism, themes and motifs, or specific lines of dialogue that shape the entire production.

CREATIVE APPROACHES TO ROMEO AND JULIET

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MODERNIZING SHAKESPEARE

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• Costumes

• Modern clothes (casual or formal)

• Setting

• Gritty, interesting locations

• Weapons

• Guns, knives, found weapons

• Transportation

• Cars, motorcycles, bicycles

• Language

• Shakespeare’s Text!!

• Costumes

• Doublets, dresses, etc.

• Setting

• Elegant, classical, bare stage

• Weapons

• Swords/rapiers, bucklers, daggers

• Transportation

• Horses, carriages

• Language

• Shakespeare’s Text

PERIOD SPECIFIC VS. MODERN SHAKESPEARE

Period Specific Elements Modern Elements

• Students struggle with the concept of a modern design and approach to Shakespeare with the classical language. Keep an open mind!

• What’s the issue with modernizing Shakespeare? It’s no longer Shakespeare!

• You can’t call Romeo and Juliet Romeo and Juliet if Romeo says “Whoa, check her out! I like what I see!” instead of “Did my heart love til now? forswear it, sight! / For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night” (I.v.51-52).

• That is an adaptation, not a production! We have been looking at various adaptations of the play throughout this Unit; consider some of the decisions that you have seen.

MODERN PRODUCTION MODERN LANGUAGE?

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• For example, consider the effectiveness of Luhrmann’s modern and highly-stylized production as we viewed Act One.

• Recall how the characters were portrayed, design choices that were made (costumes and sets), the approach to the central conflict, the delivery of the Prologue, changes to characters/the script, effectiveness of casting, and anything else you notice!

• We have also compared the wedding scene with the 1968 and 2013 productions. How were the characters portrayed, what design choices were selected, what lines were omitted in the film when compared with the play?

• What else have you noticed?

VARIOUS PRODUCTIONS OF ROMEO AND JULIET

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