Have you ever seen any live theater productions? Make a list of any plays or musicals that you have seen performed on stage or been a part of.

What are some of the elements that go into pulling off a professional theater production?

Romeo and Juliet Background

"He was

not of an

age, but for

all time!" Renaissance actor, poet and playwright Ben Jonson on the work of his friend (and rival), William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare Biography

William Shakespeare was born in April of 1564 in Stratford on Avon in England. Only a baptism record exists for William on April 26 of 1564. The 23rd is his accepted birthday.

He married Anne Hathaway on November 28, 1582. William was 18 at the time, and Anne was 26 (and pregnant!).

Life in the Theater By 1594, he was acting

and writing for the Lord Chamberlin’s Men, a theater troop in London.

Shakespeare made much more money in his lifetime as an actor, not a playwright.

Shakespeare’s DeathWilliam Shakespeare died on April

23rd of 1616, his alleged birthday.He wrote the epitaph on his tombstone

and it contains a curse!

Shakespeare’s Impact on English• Gossip

• Eyeball• Alligator• Assassination• Bandit• Hint• Glow• Traditional

•Dawn•Skim Milk•Torture•Excitement•Elbow•Generous•Gloomy•Lower

•“Wild Goose Chase”•“Break the Ice”•“All of a Sudden”•“Love is Blind”•“Flesh and Blood”•“Full Circle”•“Kill with Kindness”•The name “Jessica”

Shakespeare introduced 1,700 new words to the English language plus dozens of today’s most commonly used phrases

10% of the vocabulary used in Shakespearean plays were new words

The Globe Theater was built in 1599 by the Lord Chamberlin’s Men, Shakespeare’s acting company.

It was also known as the “Wooden O” due its shape.

Open air theater (no roof) and no artificial lighting

In 1613, the original Globe Theater burned down when a cannon shot ignited the roof during a performance of Henry VIII. It was rebuilt soon after.

The Globe was 3 stories tall and could house roughly 3000 people.

Queen Elizabeth and King James I would frequent the theater along with many of the rich elite in London.

On the other hand, at the base of the stage, there was an area called the pit, where, for a penny common people (the “Groundlings”) would stand to watch the performance. This ranking system made the theater available to everyone.

Flags flying above the theater indicated the type of play being performed. (a red flag for a history play, white for a comedy play and black for a tragedy play). This is the only information audiences had about the show ahead of time.

Actors would fill a pig’s bladder up with blood

and hide it under their costume.

During a fight scene, one actor would stab another where the bladder was concealed so he would bleed on stage.

Audiences loved gory violence and so Shakespeare used a lot of it in his plays, including R&J.

Girls in the GlobeWomen were not allowed to be actors during

this time period. All characters had to be played by men. The character of Juliet, for example, would have been played by a young teenage boy who had yet to go through puberty.

Stage sets were very minimal. Actors and

playwrights relied on words to set the time period, the location or the time of day that a scene would be taking place.

Shakespeare used a narrator, called the chorus, to also fill in any holes that audience members needed about time, location, or plot.

Many props were used, but costumes were seen as the company’s most valuable asset. They were very elaborate and expensive!

Romeo and Juliet Romeo and Juliet was written around 1595

and was not an entirely original story. Shakespeare “borrowed” the plot and characters from other sources.

Romeo and Juliet

• Romeo and Juliet is set in Verona, Italy in the 1300’s or 1400’s.

• The entire action of the play takes place in 5 days.

“Juliet’s Window” in Verona

Theater Vocabulary Three theater terms you need to know…

• Aside: A conversation two actors have on stage that other characters cannot hear. This also might be an actor talking directly to the audience when others around him can’t hear.

• Soliloquy: a speech when an actor is alone on stage. Useful for telling the audience the thoughts or feelings of the character.

• Monologue – similar to soliloquy, but occurs when other actors are on stage. (Long speech)

The ProloguePrologue = Introduction

Recited by the chorus

Location, time of day, date, summary, what to expect, etc.

The prologue is a sonnet – a 14 line poem Shakespeare was known for

Two households, both alike in dignity,In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.From forth the fatal loins of these two foesA pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;Whose misadventured piteous overthrowsDoth with their death bury their parents' strife.The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,And the continuance of their parents' rage,Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;The which if you with patient ears attend,What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

No Fear Shakespeare Prologue In the beautiful city of Verona, where our story

takes place, a long-standing hatred between two families erupts into new violence, and citizens stain their hands with the blood of their fellow citizens. Two unlucky children of these enemy families become lovers and commit suicide. Their unfortunate deaths put an end to their parents' feud. For the next two hours, we will watch the story of their doomed love and their parents' anger, which nothing but the children's deaths could stop. If you listen to us patiently, we'll make up for everything we've left out in this prologue on stage.

What do we learn from the Prologue?

• The play is set in Verona, Italy.• Two families are fighting for unknown reasons and

the fighting has been going on for generations.• This feuding has caused much bloodshed already.• Two people, one from each family, are going to fall

in love• The lovers are going to die and their deaths will

bring the two families together• The story will take two hours to tell (on stage)• The lovers are “star-crossed”

Why Give Away the Ending?!?!