Romeo and Juliet.pdf

7/29/2019 Romeo and Juliet.pdf

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Romeo and Julietstudy guide for classes attending the

Mass Theater matinee

MAS

theater


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By Lauryn Sasso, Outreach Assistant

The process of bringing a playfrom the text on the page to whataudiences see on the stage is complex,and one of the most important elementsof this process is the creation of thedesign concept. This term refers to theoverall plan created by the director incollaboration with the dramaturg andthe scenic, costume, sound, and lightingdesigners; this group is called the designteam. Each member of the design

team contributes to discussions aboutthe plays themes and messages; out of these discussions come ideas as to whatthe world of the play looks, sounds, andfeels like. Generally, the ideas generatedby these collaborative discussions aredeveloped along a central theme that isselected from one of the themes of theplay that everyone on the design teamfinds important; this central themein turn influences the way that theproduction is designed, becoming itsdesign concept. The design conceptfor UMass production of Romeo andJuliet was inspired by the type of gamesdescribed below.

Role-playing games (RPGs)have been around for several decades,dating back to before personalcomputers were a common fixture

in almost every home. One of thefirst, and most enduringly popular,was Dungeons and Dragons. Groupsof gamers would gather to playthis game, taking on the personasof wizards, warriors, and mythicalcreatures; character progress wascharted with pen and paper. When theformat was adapted to the computermedium, beginning in 1975, the

possibilities for visually creating entirefantasy worlds were endless, and the

games became more elaborate andinvolved. RPGs generally involve aquest, and take place across severallocations; characters have to fightenemies and complete challenges inorder to score points and advance tothe next part of the game.

Most RPGs are set in afictional high fantasy world. Othersfeature elements from space operaand pulp science fiction; most merge

elements from all these genres.Characters are developed in a varietyof ways, with some games allowingplayers to choose their race, gender,and occupation; other games requirethat players take on the roles of pre-determined characters. The moreintricately plotted games also allowcharacters to develop personalities

in relation to other charactersdepending on choices that the players

make during the game.Almost every RPG featurescombat as one of the main challengesto the player. A good portion of thesegames are spent avoiding, preparingfor, or carrying out fights. Combat iscarried out in either turn-based or real-time modes. In a turn-based systemonly one character may act at a timell other characters remain still, withfew exceptions that involve the use

of special abilities. Another featureof these games is the differences inthe portrayals of the male and femalecharacters. While female characterin fighting games (i.e. games that aresolely focused on combat encountersnd do not have an involved story

line) are notorious for being faster

Romeo an Ju iet:The Design Concept Behind the Production

A character from inal Fantasy one of the main inspirations behind UMass Amhersts production

f omeo and Juliet.

Continued on next page


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than males but less powerful, women in most RPGsregularly have the potential to become just as capablet offense as their counterparts; limitations regarding a

characters performance are usually determined by theirclass/profession and race, not their gender.

Much of the design concept for Romeo and Juliethas been influenced by several of these games, includingFinal Fantasy, Path of Radiance, nd Tales of Legendia.

Echoes of the fantastical worlds found in such gamescan be seen in everything from the costume and scenicdesigns to the fighting style adopted by the charactersin the play. While the text remains the classic words ofhakespeare, the production team has used the idea ofn RPG inspired world to help make the story moreccessible to a 21st century audience.

Some information in this paragraph taken from: http://n.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_role-playing_game

By Bethany Marx, Costume Designer

The costume designs for Romeo and Julietare part of a larger design concept intended to createa parallel between the audience/actor relationship inShakespeares time and the audience/actor relationshipof today. In Shakespeares day, plays and otheractivities such as cock fighting and bear baitingprovided entertainment similar to what sporting events,television, and video games offer today.

Director Jeannie-Marie Brown chose touse video games such as Final Fantasy, Path of Radianceand Tales of Legendia (all games with high tech, artisticcharacter renderings and complex fantastical worlds),to create our concept of Romeo and Julie because they

require their audiences to be engaged in the action. Theviolent, warfare-based plots of many of these games alsoreflect the feuding world in which Romeo and Julie findthemselves in love.

I used research from the games mentioned aboveand many others to create clothing and weapons thatinspire a world which reminds us of these games, but whichis also a completely new place and time, a new game, inwhich the events of the plays story can take place. My goalwas to create a world clearly not our own, without being

so far removed from what we know that we cannot relateto what we see. I wanted something visually stimulatingnd beautiful, though inherently dangerous. No character

is shown without a weapon or the protection of a guard,not even a servant. It was also necessary, in my mind, thatthe differentiation between families be an artifice.

When one looks at the stage, there is nopparent difference between the members of one

family and the other except the facial tattoos, whichlike a label on a piece of brand name clothing, arepplied after birth and create a superficial illusion of

quality. The feud is only in their minds, just as the tattoosre only ink under the skin. There is no difference between

one and the other that has not been created by the familiesthemselves.

Design Concept, continued

Designing costumes for Romeo and Juliet

ontinued from previous page

A drawing of Bethany Marxs design for Juliets costume


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More costume renderings by costume designer Bethany

Marx: (clockwise from top left) Tybalt, Lady Capulet and

Friar Lawrence.

Class Exercise

Create your own images of the main characters in

Romeo and Julietby drawing or collaging.

How are you signifying which family they belong

to? How about their social standing; what about

the costumes helps define their status? What oth-

er character traits are you providing clues to with

your costume choice?


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Star-crossed lovers:Sources for the Romeo and Juliet story

By Maryanne Olson, Production Dramaturg

Did you know that Shakespeare drew his story from avariety of sources, and his play has inspired countless

remakes and updates? This concept appealed to us asartists because we were curious to see which elements havestayed intact, and which have faded away throughout thevarious adaptations. Here is a history ofRomeo and Julietfrom ancient Greece to contemporary times.

1st Century A.D. Ovid includes the story of Pyramusand Thisbe in his bookMetamorphoses, but the story ofPyramus and Thisbe is even older than this since Ovidtook it from the ancient Greeks who took it from MiddleEastern folklore.

Ovids Pyramus and Thisbe is about two over-protectedBabylonian teens who fall in love through a hole in thegarden wall that separates their neighboring yards. Theyagree to meet in secret one night. Thisbe, the girl, isfrightened by a lioness and hides, dropping her veil asshe runs. Pyramus, who arrives later, finds the veil and,believing that Thisbe is dead, kills himself. Thisbe returnsand discovers Pyramus and in turn kills herself. This mythprovides the blueprint for all versions of Romeo and Julietsince and was even performed as a play within a play inShakespeares comedy,A Midsummer Nights Dream.

th Century A.D. Greek novelist Xenophon writesEphesiaca. In it, a wife is separated from her husband. Toavoid marrying another man, she takes a sleeping potion.She wakes up in a tomb and has many further adventures,including being captured by pirates. This appears to bethe first recorded evidence of the action that Juliet latertakes.

147 Masuccio of Salerno writes Il Novellino In it,Mariotto and Giannozza, two Italian citizens, fall in loveand are secretly married. Mariotto is exiled and Giannozzatakes a sleeping potion so that she can avoid the man sheis supposed to marry and join Mariotto. Mariotto believesher dead, returns home, and is killed. Giannozza findshim dead and instantly dies herself.

1530 Luigi da Porta publishes his Historia NovellamenteRitrovata di due Nobili Amanti His is basically the same asMasuccios story, but he is the first to set the play in Verona

with feuding families, the Montecchi and CappellettiHe actually took these names from real historic familieswhich caused the rumor to be spread that the tragic talewas a true story. His story is the closest structurally to

hakespeares play.

1562 Arthur Brooke publishes Tragedie of Romeus &uliet This is considered the main source for Shakespeares

play. Scholars often consider Brookes poem dull andemotionless and many believe that Shakespeare was ableto revitalize the characters with his beautiful language andthe addition of themes like lightness and dark and the roleof fate in peoples lives.

1830 Bellinis famed opera I Capuletti I Montecchi (The

apulets and the Montagues)opens in Venice.

1938 Sergei Prokofievs ballet Romeo and Julie opens inCzechoslovakia.

1957 West Side Story a musical about rival gangs setin 1950s New York that is based on Romeo and Julietpremieres on Broadway. It is followed by a film versionin 1961 that wins seven Academy Awards including BestPicture. This is probably the most famous adaptation ofRomeo and Julie post-Shakespeare.

1968 Franco Zefferellis acclaimed version ofRomeo andulie premieres.

199 Premiere of Baz Luhrmanns modern film versionofRomeo + Juliet set in Verona Beach. Leonardo DiCapriond Claire Danes play the title characters.

1998 Shakespeare in Love, a movie based (very) looselyon Shakespeares life and the writing ofRomeo and Juliet

opens and goes on to win several Academy Awards.

Exercise

Imagine that youre the director. How would you mount a

production of omeo and Juliet?

Would you play it straight in historical dress? Go futur-

istic? Add dance? Create a design concept and explain

why you think its appropriate to this production.


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In this day and age, its rare for Shakespeare texts to be performed in their entirety. Usually the director and dramaturgan artist who is trained to provide research and script analysis support to the director, work together to cut the script(literally take lines, or passages out of the play). Tis process can involve anything from eliminating entire characterand scenes to merely removing a few extraneous lines from the text.

For this production, weve cut about 30% of the piece (roughly 1000 lines out of 3000). We started with the ideahow do we tell the primary story of Romeo and Juliets relationship and its influence on Verona society, with the leastamount of words? Sometimes this has meant just cutting lines out of some of the longer speeches. Other times wevetaken out entire scenes. Weve tried not to lose any the major characters, but weve focused attention primarily onthe younger characters and their relationships with each other. Weve cut allusions to Renaissance culture that couldconfuse the audience and tried to keep only those moments that are essential in telling the story and understandingthe relationship between Romeo and Juliet. Te one exception to this is Mercutios Queen Mab speech, which nobodyhad the heart to meddle with (its just so great!)

Cutting the text ofRomeo and Juliet

Class Exercise

Most of the time nowadays, Shakespeares plays are cut in some fashion by the groups who mount productions of them.

Some cut a lot, some cut a little. Some cut whole characters, other eliminate subplots.

As you read omeo and Juliet think about the following questions. What parts of the play would you cut? Which parts do

you think you cant do without? At what point does cutting the text alter the basic essence of the play and are you no longer

performing omeo and Juliet but some adaptation thereof?

In some ways, going to atheater performance feels like going toa movie. After all, you, the audiencemember, sit in a darkened theaterand watch as a group of actors bringwritten words to life.

However, in a movie, everyoneinvolved in the production finishedtheir work months ago. For better orfor worse, no matter how many times

you watch it, the film will always bethe same.In contrast, theater is rarely

ever the same. Any number of things,good and bad, can make a workchange from night to night: Theactors understanding of his or her roledeepens and changes; a light or soundcue might come in at the wrong time;something that happened offstagemight affect the way two actors relate

to each other.One of the biggest variables

is the audience. A bad audience canthrow actors off, whereas an engagedand respectful audience can boost theactors energy and raise the level ofthe play.

There are a few things youcan do to make a performance betterfor you and for the actors.

1. Open your mind. Havingnew experiences is part of broadeningyour horizons, so sit back and letthe story and the experience unfold and enjoy it!

2. Please react respectfully.Actors love an audience that is attentiveand reacting to what happens onstage.Laugh when something funnyhappens, cry when something touchesyou, and clap if youre impressed. But

if you are annoyed with a characteror you think an actors performance isterrible, please do not yell. You couldwreck an actors concentration andruin the show.

3. Cell phones and pagersmust be turned off during a showNothing is worse for actors andudiences than to hear that annoying

beeping during a moving scene.

4. Even if you think its theworst thing youve ever seen, keepin mind that the people onstagepoured their heart and soul into thisproduction, and that there are othersin the audience who disagree withyou. Please remain respectful. Do nottalk, try not to fidget, and unless its amedical emergency, do not leave yourseat.

Anna-Maria Goossen

he role of the audience


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By Maryanne Olson, Production Dramaturg

We all know that the common Elizabethan citizendidnt have television, movies, or radios to entertain them,but despite what 17th century Puritans would have wished,

Elizabethan audiences certainly didnt want to sit aroundt home and pray. On the contrary, Renaissance audiences

spent their days roving the city from one entertainmentspectacle to another.

Here are some typical entertainment options forRenaissance audiences:

Lazar-houses homes where lepers were keptvirtually on display for commoners to view

Public executions it may seem gross to ustoday, but during the Renaissance, peopleloved going to see hangings and beheadings

Bear-baiting contests - exactly what it soundslike: bears were tied to a stake and teased bydogs. Audiences would cheer this on untileither the bear or dog was killed.

Exhibitions of the exotic including wonder-cabinets (rooms owned by wealthy Londonerswhich contained curiosities from around theworld) and visits by people from far-awaylands (for example, two Eskimos who werebrought to London from Nova Scotia and

could be seen ice-fishing on the Thames).Playhouses (Theaters)

Theaters, or Playhouses as they were commonly

referred to in Elizabethan England, were far from the loftyplaces of academic esteem that theyre often consideredtoday. They were the chief form of entertainment andspectacle for Elizabethan audiences. They drew fromll the other forms of entertainment existing in the city,

most notably by drawing on the violence that fascinatedudiences enough to draw them to public executions

Theaters also examined the unknown, using foreignlocales as settings or introducing foreign characterswhich appealed to both the growing cosmopolitanism ofLondoners, and also their fear and fascination with theunknown.

The following quote by a contemporaryRenaissance scholar gives us some sense of how theaterwas viewed in Shakespeares time.

we need to recognize that the drama we regard

s one of the supreme literary achievements ofthe English language was viewed quite differentlyby the period in question as a troublesome andpotentially subversive social phenomenon thatthreatened religious and civic hierarchies and yet,despite considerable antagonism, could neitherbe outlawed nor put down.

Steven Mullaney, The Place of the Stage, vii.

Playhouses were not generally accepted by the

city authorities, or by Puritans who were gaining powerin London, so playhouses were (particularly duringhakespeares time) located in the city liberties. The

liberties were the more suburban areas of London, thatlay outside of the city walls. These were tough places (nothe suburbs we think of today) populated by cutthroats,pickpockets and prostitutes. Despite the danger of goingoutside the walls of the city, people of all classes flockedto the playhouses, which demonstrates the power of itsppeal.

Playhouses became a place where people could

mingle across social class and take in a day of entertainmentAudiences were often rowdy and were well-aware of thecontrol they had over theater companies. Playhousetried to provide their audiences with a new play every daywhich meant there were a lot of plays being written at thistime. If a play didnt appeal to audiences, it was forgottenPlaywrights often disliked the power their audiences hadover their career and would write extensive speechesinto the action of their plays that insulted the uncouth

The Elizabethan Stage and Spectacle

Continued on next page

The original Globe Theater where Shakespeare performed and presented

his work no longer exists, but a replica built in England some years back

serves as the site of Shakespeare and other productions today.


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behavior of their audiences. Shakespeare was one of thefew playwrights who did not insult his audiences in hiswork.

The following quote from a civic decree of the time

reflects the behavior that was common in a Renaissancetheater.

Item: That no tobacco be taken in the Hall noranywhere else publicly, and that neither at theirstanding in the streets, nor before the comedybegin, not all the time there, any rude or immodestexclamations be made, nor any humming,hawking, whistling, hissing or laughing be used,or any stamping or knocking, nor any such otheruncivil or unscholarlike or boyish demeanour,

upon any occasion; nor that any clapping ofhands be had until the Plaudite at the end of theComedy, except his Majesty, the Queen, or othersof the best quality here, do apparently begin thesame.

Even within the playhouses, the love for spectaclecontinued and not just on the stage. There are numerousaccounts of cutpurses being apprehended and tied to thestage so that audience members could look at them andwonder at their crimes. Also, many prostitutes used the

playhouses as their chief source of income, and mingledwith the other patrons to get new clients. Young noblemen(often referred to as gallants but also insultingly referredto as gulls) took their days off from law school to attendplays to be seen by the public. They were often themost ridiculed by playwrights writing specifically aboutLondon.

Theater today is very different from in theRenaissance. Now, its expected that audiences will show

up and sit quietly in their seats to enjoy the show. Theresless interaction between the audiences and the performersthan there was in Shakespeares day. Those of us behindUMasss production ofRomeo and Julie wondered whatthe contemporary equivalence to Renaissance theater

might be.We started researching contemporary forms of

entertainment, and it didnt take long before we weredrawn to the growing world of video games, particularlyrole-playing games like the Final Fantasy series. Likehakespeares theater was in his day, video games arentppreciated as the art form they are. Academics and artists

look askance at the idea that video games are shaping ourculture. At the same time, media stories abound with theeffects of violent video games on todays youth, or the

rise in degree programs geared towards creating videogames, or the numbers of households that now own someform of gaming console. Clearly, video games are having aprofound impact on our society, just as theater did duringthe Renaissance.

We were further drawn by the sheer artistryof some of these games. Composers spend their entirecareers creating the perfect soundscape for these gamesThe visual effects of these games are breathtaking.

But most inspirational to our creative process wasthe interactive quality of video games that lies at the heart

of live performance but is so often neglected in professionatheater today. With video games, you never know iyoure playing the game, or if the game is playing youWe wanted to connect to audiences like Shakespeare did

nd we felt inspired by video games as a form of modernentertainment. Gamer and role playing game todayudience and play in Shakespeares England one does

not exist without the other and we hope to capture thisinteractive quality in our production.

continued from previous page

Theater in the Renaissance

This Study Guide was prepared by members of the UMass Amherst Department of Theater.

Contributors: Bethany Marx, Maryanne Olson, Lauryn Sasso.

Editor/Layout: Anna-Maria Goossens

Department Chair: Harley Erdman

For more information about the department and this production, visit www.umass.edu/theater

Romeo and Juliet.pdf

Documents

Transcript of Romeo and Juliet.pdf