https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-p6vuauG0nc
William Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet, is one of the most popular tragic stories to have ever been written and it is a play that is still studied in today’s classrooms. This famous play has been adapted and performed repeatedly throughout the ages and I believe that plays should be watched and not read. While it is important that the play’s text is explored, watching the play and experiencing it visually is equally important. Bringing the different adaptations of the play into the classroom was a very easy decision to make. Not only does this cater to visual students, but it also brings live, passion, and excitement into the English classroom and it is something that my students certainly appreciated!
For this particular exercise, I used different adaptations of the party scene. I used the 1996 adaptation of the play directed by Baz Luhrmann, and a stage performance from the Stratford Festival 2013. Students were asked to fill in their “Decoding Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet” class handout while they first, read the party scene, second, watched the 1996 version, and third, watched the Stratford stage performance. Through the three steps, students were asked to fill in what they understood, what helped them understand, and what they still had a question about. The movie adaptation and stage performance, alongside the original text, helped students explore and understand the scene better. With each clip, the students discovered a new layer of the scene that they had not before explored. The students also had a chance to compare and contrast the importance of picking the right cast and how different directors interpreted Shakespeare’s scene differently. They learned about different people may read the same lines and see something completely different. I believe that is the true magic in studying and teaching English.