Re: Kids today!

Kate Dicey wrote:


Romeo & Juliet
Start with bits of script on paper... The fight where Mercutio is killed is a good one! Have a lively drama lesson with teams playing with rolled up newspaper swords and lines from all different characters. Discuss how effective the words and directions are. Write a report of the lesson.

Show them the SAME DIALOGUE in scenes from the film. Discuss how effectively they are used in that order, etc. Discuss the performance of the actors. Compare what the kids did with the film.

LOOK at the same dialogue in script form. Play with editing the scene for a modern audiences: what would they cut and why? How would they stage it/light it/costume it? Do a few design sketches (nice cross curricular activity with art/CDT here!) and lighting diagrams (get physics involved with the causes and effects of coloured lighting and the use of gels).

Read the script: start the process of character analysis and development, story development, use and effectiveness of imagery, etc. Look at where the story came from. Examine the structure of the play (did you know that most of the main dialogue is written in sonnet form?), and the meaning of the imagery. Why is it set in Italy? (There are lOTS of reasons for this, and some of them surprise these kids used to foreign holidays, multi-cultural Britain, and images from all over the world.)
This is a great approach. I used the Baz Luhrmann version of Romeo + Juliet, and you can also use West Side Story, which is essentially the same plot but with different words. What I like about Luhrmann is that the dialogue is taken from the original play. Very exciting, as I am sure Shakespeare's plays were when written and performed for the ordinary residents of the town where the play was done.

The thing with the "classics" is that so many cultural references come from them, and those who have not even a passing acquaintance are left out. The DH teaches Western Traditions at the local U, and part of that 2-year program is to fill in all the gaps so that the students should at least recognize classical references.
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Joanne
stitches @ singerlady.reno.nv.us.earth
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