We've done a Shakespeare every other year at our school. The kids get used to it, as does our audience. But, as Rachel says, start with something lighter and more accessible.
Midsummer is an excellent "gateway drug". There's a lot of plot to move the play forward. Much of the language is uncomplicated. Some of the flowery passages are extraneous and can easily be cut from the text without destroying the rhythm or the story. As a director, you can be playful with blocking and setting. There's room to build a strong ensemble with the Fairies. There are great opportunities for individual performances. And, as a bonus, there's Pyramus and Thisbe!
I directed
Romeo and Juliet at a high school about 25 years ago. On the plus side, it's a recognizable title. The kids were familiar with the story, more than any other Shakespeare play. But, I had to cut it. A lot. And it still ran really long. And we found that once Mercutio and Tybalt were dead, the play lost its momentum and any trace of humor. I don't think I'd do it again, unless I found some really interesting conceit for it.
Don't be afraid to cut a Shakespearean text as long as you have a clear idea of what you are cutting for. We've done some much-shortened productions where we have rearranged a lot of the text to serve a specific purpose. For example, we turned
Macbeth into a ritual theatre piece by playing it from the point of view of the witches. We developed "rituals" to underscore the action and replace sections of text. We created a performance of
The Tempest as if it were the fleeting thoughts of a dying Prospero. All of the important characters grew from people who had come to pay their respects. Both of these productions used the original language but ran a concise 80 minutes and used a much smaller cast than the original. I would be happy to share those scripts with you.The kids found them accessible and they really enjoyed the process of working to create a unique world in which the action had to exist.
When I work with Shakespeare or any complicated text, I set lots of very early off-book dates. It puts a lot of pressure on in the beginning of the process and we make sure that the actors know what they're talking about. But it makes it much easier to tell the story once they're not struggling with words.
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Michael Bergman
Teacher/Director
The Potomac School
McLean, VA
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-10-2017 09:55
From: Waleksa Mendoza
Subject: Romeo and Juliet
It is that time that we have to select our fallen spring shows for the following year and I am considering choosing Romeo and Juliet as our dramatic piece for the fall production. However I am a bit hesitant about choosing such a difficult piece due to the Shakespearean language within the text and the struggle actors may have with having to produce such vivid and complicated language. Has anyone performed Romeo and Juliet at the high school level that can enlighten me with the advantages and disadvantages or pros and cons with performing a Shakespearean piece such as Romeo and Juliet? Is it a play that still draws audiences or is it a piece that is slowly fading away from the spotlight from overuse?
Thanks,
Waleska Mendoza
Drama Instructor