Student Study Guide
Hello Educators! Welcome to the Theatre LILA production of R & J: A Theatre LILA Invention. This study guide is specifically designed to help you and your students deepen the theatre-going experience and explore the history and themes of the play. Topics explored in this study guide are curriculum-based to ensure a tie-in to the work you already do in the classroom. Lastly, your feedback is important to us. Please let us know how this study guide, the performance, and the experience of seeing a Theatre LILA show has impacted your students. Thank you, Jessica Lanius Artistic Director, Theatre LILA 608-381-5510 theatrelila@gmail.com www.theatrelila.com
On Stage and Behind the Scenes Who Makes Theatre Happen? Actor a person who performs in a show. How do you think the actors felt today while they were performing this story? Cast/Company the group of actors who performed in this show. Being part of a play or musical can be like a team sport or a big family. Everyone has a job to do and works hard, but the work they do is fun and rewarding. Have you ever been part of a group like this? How does it feel to work together to create or accomplish something you can share with others? Crew the people who work behind the scenes during a show. The crew is very important! They make sure lights and sound change when they are supposed to and that the actors have everything they need when they go onstage. What parts of today s show do you think happened because of the crew? Director the person who provides the vision of how a show should be presented, works with the actors on their roles, develops the staging, and is in charge of the rehearsals. Can you think of a time when you were the person in charge of a big event? Designers the people who plan the set, costumes, lights, sound, and props to help bring the director s vision to life. How did the set, costumes, lights, sound, and props help you to understand the story or setting of the play? Stage Manager the person who runs the show and is in charge of everything onstage and backstage. The stage manager also assists with rehearsals and keeps everyone on track. Who is the stage manager in your class? How about in your home? Audience the people who come to watch the show...that s YOU! You play a very important part of the performance. Audiences sit in the house of the theatre. Sometimes actors will say to one another great house! when audiences are attentive and polite. Check out the next page to see how YOU can be a stellar audience member and help create a great house! Spotlight on Students! Separate into small groups and talk about the questions above. What role you would like best and why? Work as a class to choose who would play what role in an imaginary show you would create. Write to a person of the theatre and ask them questions about the show and their process.
Attending a Live Performance When you go to a movie theatre, you can eat food in your seats and leave if you need to. When you go to a big sports stadium, no one minds if you chat with your friends during the game. Watching live theater is different than watching a movie or a sporting event. As an audience member, you have a role to play! How you play that role will have an effect on the experience the actors and your fellow audience members have. The performers onstage can see and hear you. How you behave and how you react to the show will affect the artists performances. That is why each performance is a unique experience. Here are some tips on how to play the important role of an audience member! Do: Be respectful of the artists performing on stage. Listen quietly to the performance. Sit on your seat properly. React (appropriately) to what you are seeing. Some things may make you laugh or gasp out loud and that s okay! Also, the performers might ask you questions after the show and you may respond by raising your hand. Be attentive and be open to enjoying the performance. Show your enthusiastic appreciation by applause at the end of the performance. Don t: Talk to your neighbor. Send text messages or use your cell phone for any reason. Kick the seat in front of your or put your feet on the seats.
R & J: A Theatre LILA Invention R & J: A Theatre LILA Invention will be presented as a world premiere at the Overture Center for the Arts in March, 2019. To create this adaptation, Theatre LILA Artistic Director, Jessica Lanius began with the classic love story told through Shakespeare s poetry and deconstructed it, re-imagining the drama unfolding through music and dance. The Script Lanius worked with Miguel Garcia-Dove and Melisa Pereyra to adapt the text and to include translations of some passages into Spanish. The adaptation will serve Theatre LILA s aesthetic and we hope the dual language component will encourage meaningful interactions between Spanish-speaking audience members and Shakespeare s timeless story. The Style Theatre LILA s signature sense of inventive storytelling, ensemble acting, and physicality has completely transformed how the story is told. Finding new ways to embody Shakespeare s text by playing with the poetry has resulted in a multi-disciplinary tale that will be engaging on many levels. The Warring Families There are many tantalizing artistic opportunities for presenting Romeo and Juliet s historically opposed families. In our production they are from two different cultures the Capulets are an affluent, raciallyblended Afro-Latino family, while the Montagues are a middle-class white family. For the past decade these two communities have been at war on the streets of Verona. Using current culture clashes to highlight themes in the play, we pose important questions about prejudice, intolerance, and the often unfounded hatred of the other. The Star-Crossed Lovers The roles of Romeo and Juliet are both played by women, so the story revolves around two teen girls who fall in love, not only with someone from the wrong family, but also the wrong gender. Still forbidden in many of today s families and cultures, their unstoppable love and passion collide with a long history of hate. Can these two young people navigate their way forward in their relationship, even as they are torn apart by racial, ethnic, and class distinctions? Topics of tolerance, forgiveness, love, violence, racism, and homophobia are at the core of this adaptation. The Cast Traditionally, Romeo & Juliet is presented with more than 25 actors, but we perform the entire play with a small company of 10 actors. Our stellar ensemble of diverse professional actors each portrays multiple roles and add to the narrative in both English and Spanish, in addition to movement and dance. The Set Scenic designer Jessica Lanius created a set in the thrust, placing the audience on all sides of the action in Promenade Hall. The concept lends itself well to our full immersion style of theatre and brings intimacy and immediacy to the play. Actors enter using four aisles and the center set pieces. We use only ladders, lanterns and bodies to transform the playing space from location to location, in a simple but dynamic way. Costume pieces are pulled off of coat racks while metal and ladders are carried, dropped, and set in various ways to build walls, party spaces, a balcony, a bedroom, and the streets of Verona.
Who s Who? A Character List for R & J, A Theatre LILA Invention Romeo The daughter and heir of Montague and Lady Montague. A young woman of about seventeen, Romeo is beautiful, intelligent, and sensitive. Though impulsive and immature, her idealism and passion make her an extremely likable character. She lives in the middle of a violent feud between her family and the Capulets, but she is not at all interested in violence. Her only interest is love and she goes to extremes to prove the seriousness of her feelings. She secretly marries Juliet, the daughter of her father s worst enemy; she happily takes abuse from Tybalt; and she would rather die than live without her beloved. Romeo is also an affectionate and devoted friend to her relative Benvolio, Mercutio, and Friar Lawrence. Juliet The daughter of Capulet and Lady Capulet. A smart and willful thirteen-year-old girl, Juliet begins the play as a naïve child who has thought little about love and marriage, but she grows up quickly upon falling in love with Romeo, the daughter of her family s great enemy. She shows amazing courage in trusting her entire life and future to Romeo, even refusing to believe the worst reports about her after she gets involved in a fight with her cousin. Juliet s closest friend and confidant is her Nurse, though she s willing to shut the Nurse out of her life the moment the Nurse turns against Romeo. Friar Lawrence A Franciscan friar, friend to both Romeo and Juliet. Kind, civic-minded, a proponent of moderation, and always ready with a plan, Friar Lawrence secretly marries the impassioned lovers in hopes that the union might eventually bring peace to Verona. As well as being a Catholic holy man, Friar Lawrence is also an expert in the use of seemingly mystical potions and herbs. Mercutio A kinsman to the Prince, and Romeo s close friend. Mercutio overflows with imagination, wit, and, at times, a strange, biting satire and brooding fervor. Mercutio loves wordplay, especially sexual double entendres. He can be quite hotheaded, and hates people who are affected, pretentious, or obsessed with the latest fashions. He finds Romeo s romanticized ideas about love tiresome, and tries to convince Romeo to view love as a simple matter of sexual appetite. The Nurse Juliet s nurse, the woman who breast-fed Juliet when she was a baby and has cared for Juliet her entire life. A vulgar, long-winded, and sentimental character, the Nurse provides comic relief with her frequently inappropriate remarks and speeches. But, until a disagreement near the play s end, the Nurse is Juliet s faithful confidante and loyal intermediary in Juliet s affair with Romeo. She provides a contrast with Juliet, given that her view of love is earthy and sexual, whereas Juliet is idealistic and intense. The Nurse believes in love and wants Juliet to have a nice-looking spouse, but the idea that Juliet would want to sacrifice herself for love is incomprehensible to her. Tybalt A Capulet, Juliet s cousin on her mother s side. Vain, fashionable, supremely aware of courtesy and the lack of it, she becomes aggressive, violent, and quick to draw her sword when she feels his pride has been injured. Once drawn, his sword is something to be feared. She loathes Montagues. Capulet The patriarch of the Capulet family, father of Juliet, husband of Lady Capulet, and enemy, for unexplained reasons, of Montague. He truly loves his daughter, though he is not well acquainted with Juliet s thoughts or feelings, and seems to think that what is best for her is a good match with
Paris. Often prudent, he commands respect and propriety, but he is liable to fly into a rage when either is lacking. Lady Capulet Juliet s mother, Capulet s wife. A woman who herself married young (by her own estimation she gave birth to Juliet at close to the age of fourteen), she is eager to see her daughter marry Paris. She is an ineffectual mother, relying on the Nurse for moral and pragmatic support. Montague Romeo s brother, the patriarch of the Montague clan and bitter enemy of Capulet. At the beginning of the play, he is chiefly concerned about Romeo s melancholy. Lady Montague Romeo s mother, Montague s wife. She dies of grief after Romeo is exiled from Verona. Paris A kinsman of the Prince, and the suitor of Juliet most preferred by Capulet. Once Capulet has promised him he can marry Juliet, he behaves very presumptuous toward, acting as if they are already married. Benvolia Montague s niece, Romeo s cousin and thoughtful friend, she makes a genuine effort to defuse violent scenes in public places, though Mercutio accuses her of having a nasty temper in private. He spends most of the play trying to help Romeo get her mind off another love interest, even after Romeo has fallen in love with Juliet. Friar John A Franciscan friar charged by Friar Lawrence with taking the news of Juliet s false death to Romeo in Mantua. Friar John is held up in a quarantined house, and the message never reaches Romeo. The Apothecary An apothecary in Mantua. Had he been wealthier, he might have been able to afford to value his morals more than money, and refused to sell poison to Romeo. Rosaline The woman with whom Romeo is infatuated at the beginning of the play. Rosaline never appears onstage, but it is said by other characters that she is very beautiful and has sworn to live a life of chastity.
Notable Adaptations of Romeo & Juliet Theatre LILA s adaptation of Shakespeare s Romeo & Juliet continues a long tradition of taking inspiration from the source material and changing it slightly to fit a new time period, medium, or social struggle. Here are some of the twists on Shakespeare s doomed lovers that have graced stage and screen over the last four centuries. There are at least 24 operas and 6 classical ballets based on Romeo & Juliet. Romeo & Juliet was parodied in Shakespeare s own lifetime: Henry Porter s Two Angry Women of Abingdon (1598) and Thomas Dekker s Blurt, Master Constable (1607) both contain balcony scenes in which a virginal heroine engages in bawdy wordplay. The play is sometimes given a different historical setting, enabling audiences to reflect on the underlying conflicts. For example, adaptations have been set: In the midst of the Israeli Palestinian conflict In the apartheid era in South Africa In the aftermath of the Pueblo Revolt Peter Ustinov s 1956 comic adaptation, Romanoff and Juliet, is set in a fictional mid-european country in the depths of the Cold War. A mock-victorian revisionist version of Romeo and Juliet s final scene (with a happy ending, Romeo, Juliet, Mercutio, and Paris restored to life, and Benvolio revealing that he is Paris s love, Benvolia, in disguise) forms part of the 1980 stage-play The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. Shakespeare s R & J, by Joe Calarco, spins the classic in a modern tale of gay teenage awakening. A recent comedic musical adaptation was produced by The Second City s: Romeo and Juliet Musical: The People vs. Friar Laurence, the Man Who Killed Romeo and Juliet.
Romeo & Juliet At the Movies And of course there have been many movie versions of Romeo & Juliet, from the award-winning 1968 Franco Zeffirelli film, to the very loose adaptation in the animated feature, Lion King II: Simba s Pride. Here are some strange and wonderful films that used Romeo & Juliet as source material. Warm Bodies (2013) In this story of forbidden love a zombie falls in love with a living, breathing girl. Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times deemed the film a well-paced, nicely directed, post-apocalyptic love story with a terrific sense of humor and the, um, guts to be unabashedly romantic and unapologetically optimistic. Pizza My Heart (2005) This film tells the story of a son and daughter of two rival pizzeria owners who fall in love, much to the disapproval of both families. It is set in modern-day Verona, New Jersey. Gnomeo & Juliet (2011) British-American 3D computer-animated fantasy set in Stratford-Upon-Avon, Miss. Montague (blue) and Mr. Capulet (red) are two elderly neighbors who despise each other. When they leave their respective gardens, their garden gnomes and other lawn ornaments come alive and hold the same hatred for one another. Of course a red gnome falls in love with a blue one, but this story has a happy ending. Gnomeo and Juliet are married on a purple lawnmower, which symbolizes the new union of both gnome clans. West Side Story (1961) With its still-relevant commentary on race and class in America, West Side Story might still be the most timeless adaptation of Shakespeare s story. The choreography by Jerome Robbins and orchestration by Leonard Bernstein s made it a classic. And Rita Moreno, who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Anita, is still tapping out Anita s unforgettable rhythms from America. Shakespeare in Love (1998) This American romantic period comedy-drama film, directed by John Madden, was written by Marc Norman and legendary British playwright Tom Stoppard. The film depicts an imaginary love affair involving playwright William Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) and Viola de Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow) while Shakespeare was writing Romeo & Juliet. Several characters are based on historical figures, and many of the characters, lines, and plot devices allude to Shakespeare's plays. Shakespeare in Love won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Original Screenplay. William Shakespeare s Romeo + Juliet (1996) Baz Luhrmann s interpretation was a riveting post-modern melodrama that replaced swords with guns and set the title characters in Verona Beach, California. As usually with Luhrmann s films, critics were divided over his frenetic visual interpretation of the story but, ultimately, it was redeemed by strong performances from its leads. Quiz: Who Are You In Romeo & Juliet?
1) The people in your life would describe you as: A. Sweet and thoughtful. B. The center of attention, and a little crazy. C. Reserved and quiet, but deeply passionate within. D. A worrier, always fretting about something. E. Someone not to mess with. 2. It s Friday night. You can be found: A. Stuck in your room. Your parents keep you on a tight leash. B. Cruising around town with a group of friends. Anyone know a good party to crash? C. In a quiet place, alone with your thoughts. You ve been thinking about your crush a lot lately, and your friends don t understand how you feel. D. Reading, gardening, and working on other private projects. E. Settling a score with an enemy...nothing like a little revenge and intimidation to kick off the weekend. 3. What would you say is your best quality? A. Your imagination. B. Your sense of humor. C. Your capacity for love. D. Your compassion. E. Your fearlessness. 4. A friend calls you up, asking for a huge favor. If you help them, you ll be putting yourself in harm s way. You: A. Are surprised. Still, you agree to help - you can be pretty brave if you have to be. B. Tease them for a while, but agree to help them out. C. Reluctantly agree. You care about your friends, but you don t want to get into trouble. D. Create an elaborate plan to help your friend, complete with disguises and lies. E. Sharpen your set of knives. Nobody messes with your friends. 5. If you could change one thing about your life, what would it be? A. It would be nice if your parents would let you make your own decisions. B. You d make sure your group of friends stayed together, no matter what. C. All you want in the world is to be with the person you love! D. You re pretty content, actually. Doesn t take too much to make you happy. E. You d want to see all of your enemies destroyed, one by one. 6. How do you react when you re in a difficult situation or fight with someone? A. Appeal to their compassion, and beg them to see things your way but if that doesn t work, you might resort to desperate measures. B. Taunt them; mess with their head; get under their skin. C. You avoid conflict at all costs, but when you re really worked up, you tend to act without considering the consequences. D. You offer them a few wise words. E. You never back down. Fighting is what you do best. 7. If you could have one superhuman power or ability, which would you choose? A. Telekinesis. It would be amazing to be able to communicate without words.
B. The ability to fly! Your friends would be so jealous... C. Invisibility. Imagine being able to go wherever you wanted without anyone else knowing! D. Precognition - being able to foresee the future. E. You know how Darth Vader can choke people from a distance? That. If you answered mostly: A. You are Juliet B. You are Mercutio C. You are Romeo D. You are Friar Laurence E. You are Tybalt
What To Watch For... Questions and Themes to Consider Family Feud How does this particular production depict the Capulet/Montague feud? Are the two families distinguished from one another, and if so, how? Where and when might this version of Verona be situated? Do you think that these directorial choices are effective? Humor in the Play Many scholars have commented that Romeo and Juliet seems like it could be a comedy up until Act III Scene 1, when Mercutio is killed. It is certainly true that the first half of this play has many opportunities for humor. Which scene or character did you find the funniest, and why? Why do you think that Shakespeare included funny moments in his tragedy? Fate and Death Were Romeo and Juliet really star-crossed and fated to die, or could their deaths have been prevented? Do you think that their loss will be a wake-up call to their families, and end the violence, or did they die entirely in vain? Trusted Adults What do you think of the actions of Friar Laurence and the Nurse, Romeo and Juliet s closest advisors? Were they more hurtful, or more helpful to the young couple? What could they have done differently to help? Do they deserve any blame for what happened? Love and Poetry Listen closely to the play s love scenes: when Romeo and Juliet meet at the ball, declare their love on the balcony, and part at daybreak. Is their love for one another reflected in the way they use language? Can you tell that they are attracted to one another by how they speak?
NOTES ON THE PLAY Fate and Tragic Timing The tragic events of this play often seem like matters of bad timing. Romeo steps in front of Mercutio at the exact second that Tybalt lunges; the Friar s explanatory letter to Romeo is delayed, so Benvolia s misinformation reaches him first; Romeo drinks the poison mere moments before Juliet opens her eyes. These instances of close timing make the play even sadder than it otherwise would be, because we can see that the difference between life and death was just a few seconds. A moment earlier, or a moment later, and everything would have been okay. Individually, these moments of tragic timing look like awful accidents, but when taken all together, they seem more like the work of fate. The theme of fate and foreboding turns up repeatedly in the play s language. On the way to the Capulet ball, Romeo uneasily senses the approach of Some consequence yet hanging in the stars he has a premonition of doom. After avenging Mercutio s death by killing Tybalt, Romeo calls himself fortune s fool he feels that he has been cheated by fate. As the lovers part at daybreak, Juliet envisions Romeo dead in the bottom of a tomb, although she has no reason to think that she will soon die. When Romeo hears from Benvolia that Juliet has died, she shouts her defiance to the stars, demonstrating that she blames fate for the tragedy. In the play s prologue, Romeo and Juliet are called star-crossed, and their love is referred to as death-marked. These terms indicate that the lovers were destined to die tragically. But are the play s events really the result of fate? Do you think that the teens from Verona were doomed from the start, or could this tragedy have been prevented? What factors stopped Romeo and Juliet from living happily ever after? Warring Families, Warring Generations The most obvious impediment to Romeo and Juliet s love is the feud between their parents. The bad blood between the Capulets and the Montagues makes any romance between their heirs dangerous and forbidden. We know that the two families hold an ancient grudge a hate so strong and deep-rooted that they fight in the streets. What the play doesn t tell us is why this feud exists. What happened? Who started it? The audience isn t given any of these details. It is as though the two households have been fighting for so long that they have forgotten why the fight started in the first place. This ambiguity makes the play s feudal violence and eventual loss of life seem all the more unfair and pointless. Why should the young people of Verona kill each other over an argument begun by their ancestors? Why should two young people in love be kept apart because of a war that they had nothing to do with? These questions point to another conflict in the play: that between youth and age. Romeo and Juliet are stuck in the midst of warring families, but they are also two young people forced to live under the rules and values of their parents generation. Romeo and Juliet s love must be kept secret because it would not be understood or tolerated by the rest of society. Even the adults whom the teenagers trust for advice (Friar Laurence and the Nurse) don t fully understand the intensity of their feelings. The adults of the play are weaker, slower, and less impassioned than their younger counterparts. Juliet comments that old folks are unwieldy, slow, heavy, and her dawdling Nurse exemplifies this behavior. In contrast, the young people of the play move fast and feel deeply. Their tempers ignite in an instant, and so do their feelings of love. These Violent Delights Have Violent Ends: Youth, Love, and Violence
Romeo and Juliet fall deeply in love at first sight, and make plans to marry each other mere hours after they meet. This is a fast-moving relationship by any standards! Just like the violent encounters between the Capulets and the Montagues, their love fires up immediately. Although it seems incredibly romantic to fall for someone instantly, Friar Laurence warns Romeo that this kind of speed can be dangerous. He cautions him to love moderately and to act wisely and slow. Do you think that this advice is helpful, or does Friar Laurence just not understand what Romeo is going through? Does Friar Laurence actually do anything to try to slow down the young couple s relationship, or does he ignore his own advice? Later in the play, when Romeo and Juliet are faced with the prospect of a life without one another, their extreme love turns into extreme grief. Their intense feelings drive them to commit suicide. Do you believe that violent delights always have violent ends and that people who run fast necessarily stumble? Are these intense emotions and extreme feelings an accurate representation of what it s really like to be a teen? Have you ever felt like your love for someone else was the only thing in the world that mattered? Have you ever been so sad that you felt like things would never get better? But soft, what light through younger window breaks? Light and Darkness in Romeo & Juliet This play is filled with references to light and darkness. When we first hear about Romeo, he is described as shutting fair daylight out of his room, and making himself an artificial night in which to sulk about his unrequited love for Rosaline. Here, darkness is described as the ideal environment for a lover. Darkness continues to serve this role throughout the play, as Romeo and Juliet meet in the dark of night to conceal their relationship. They cannot parade their forbidden love around town in the light of day instead, they must be together at nighttime, and Romeo must leave Juliet s bedroom before the sun comes up. But although Romeo and Juliet interact under the cover of black-browed night, their love is a source of metaphorical light. When Romeo first sees Juliet at the ball, she exclaims that she doth teach the torches to burn bright. She compares her to other shining sources of illumination: a rich jewel, stars, and the sun. Even when Juliet is lying entombed in the dark Capulet crypt, Romeo says that her presence creates a feasting presence full of light. Her beauty makes a grave look like a lantern to her. This moment in the play emphasizes another theme traditionally associated with darkness: death. Think of the creepiest scenes you ve read and seen in books and movies: lots of them are probably set in the darkness can be scary! In this play, though, darkness is associated with death and with love two themes that seem very different until we see how they are pulled together by the storyline. The cruel circumstances of Romeo and Juliet mean that for them, death is the only place that they can be together. While they are alive, they will be forced to be apart: Romeo banished to Mantua, and Juliet married to Paris. In Romeo & Juliet, Shakespeare deliberately weaves together themes of light and dark and day and night in ways which emphasize the play s other opposing themes: life and death, love and hate.