Active Shakespeare: Directing Romeo and
Juliet
Pupil reflection log
March 2010
QCDA/10/4797
Active Shakespeare: Directing Romeo and Juliet
Text extracts from the play have been taken from Cambridge School Shakespeare, Romeo
and Juliet, 3rd edition by Rex Gibson, text © Cambridge University Press 1984, 2005
reproduced with permission.
The Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency is the non-regulatory part of the
Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. © QCA 2010
Active Shakespeare: Directing Romeo and Juliet
Contents page
STAGE 1
1
Resource 1: Meet the cast and director
1
Reflection opportunity 1: Potpan and servingmen – Act 1 Scene 5
2
STAGE 2
3
Resource 1: Words as weapons – Act 3 Scene 1
3
Reflection opportunity 1: Throwing words
5
Reflection opportunity 2: Mercutio and Tybalt
6
Reflection opportunity 3: Effective language
7
STAGE 3
8
Reflection opportunity 1: Status words and actions – Act 3 Scene 5
8
STAGE 4
10
Resource 1: Act 3 Scene 5
10
Reflection opportunity 1: A 21st Century perspective - Act 3 Scene 5
2
SYNOPTIC TASK: Directing the play
3
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Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. © QCA 2010
Active Shakespeare: Directing Romeo and Juliet
STAGE 1
 Resource 1: Meet the cast and director
Phil Cumbus plays
Colin Hurley
the second
plays Lord
servant and Tybalt
Capulet
Tunji Kasim
Claire Lams
plays Benvolio
plays Juliet
Chiké Okonkwo
Jonjo O’Neill
plays Romeo
plays the first
servant
Rachel
Louise
Lumberg plays
Jameson plays
the Nurse
Lady Capulet
Nicholas Khan
plays second
Bill Buckhurst
directs
Capulet
The Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency is the non-regulatory part of the
Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. © QCA 2010
1
Active Shakespeare: Directing Romeo and Juliet
STAGE 1
 Reflection opportunity 1: Potpan and servingmen – Act 1 Scene 5
Potpan and servingmen: extract 1
Write down as many words as you can that describe the mood of the extract you have just
seen:
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Potpan and servingmen: extract 2
Write down as many words as you can that describe the mood of the extract you have just
seen:
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How would you direct this scene?
Which interpretation of the scene do you think would best set the scene for what happens
at the ball?
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Explain your choice.
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Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. © QCA 2010
2
Active Shakespeare: Directing Romeo and Juliet
STAGE 2
 Resource 1: Words as weapons – Act 3 Scene 1
Lines from Act 3 Scene 1

The day is hot, the Capels are abroad

…thou art as hot a Jack in thy mood as any in Italy

…simple!

Gentlemen, good e’en: a word with one of you

Zounds, consort!

Your worship in that sense may call him ‘man’.

Thou art a villain

Farewell. I see thou knowest me not

Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries that thou hast done me

Calm, dishonourable, vile submission

Tybalt, you rat-catcher, will you walk?

Good King of Cats

A dog, a rat, a mouse, a cat, to scratch a man to death

A braggart, a rogue, a villain

I have it, and soundly too

Thou wretched boy, that did consort him here

Tybalt, that murderer, which way ran he?
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Active Shakespeare: Directing Romeo and Juliet

Where are the vile beginners of this fray?

Tybalt, my cousin, o my brother’s child
Write down the words you chose as weapons.
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Which words best fitted with a throwing action and why?
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Active Shakespeare: Directing Romeo and Juliet
STAGE 2
 Reflection opportunity 1: Throwing words
Are the actors’ choices of ‘weapon words’ similar to yours or did the choices surprise you?
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Which words do you think were the most effective ‘weapon words’? Explain your choices.
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How did the actor deliver the word that made it effective?
Consider how they played with: word length, tone, emphasis of particular vowels and/or
consonants, gesture etc.
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Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. © QCA 2010
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Active Shakespeare: Directing Romeo and Juliet
STAGE 2
 Reflection opportunity 2: Mercutio and Tybalt
How does the actor playing Mercutio use his words as weapons to taunt Tybalt?
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What effect do Mercutio’s words have on Tybalt in this version and how do the actors
reflect this?
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Can you think of any other ways of playing this exchange?
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Active Shakespeare: Directing Romeo and Juliet
STAGE 2
 Reflection opportunity 3: Effective language
Words that provoke a fight:
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Words that encourage peace:
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Identify what you have discovered about the use of words in this scene to achieve their
purpose.
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Active Shakespeare: Directing Romeo and Juliet
STAGE 3
 Reflection opportunity 1: Status words and actions – Act 3 Scene 5
What words does Lady Capulet use that show her status compared to Juliet?
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What words does Juliet use that show her status compared to her mother?
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What actions can you identify that show the characters’ relative statuses?
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8
Active Shakespeare: Directing Romeo and Juliet
What does Lord Capulet do that shows he is an Elizabethan father?
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How does Juliet’s behaviour show that she is an Elizabethan daughter?
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What is the status relationship between the Nurse and Lady Capulet throughout this
scene?
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Active Shakespeare: Directing Romeo and Juliet
STAGE 4
 Resource 1: Act 3 Scene 5
Read through your extract.
Nominate a director in your group.
Decide on how your actors will deliver their lines, when the actors should move and how
they should react. Experiment with different ways of acting the scene.
Practise the scene.
Decide which version you prefer.
Extract 1
Nurse
Your lady mother is coming to your chamber.
The day is broke, be wary, look about.
Exit Nurse. Enter LADY CAPULET
LADY CAPULET
Why how now, Juliet?
JULIET
Madam, I am not well.
LADY CAPULET
But now I'll tell thee joyful tidings, girl.
JULIET
What are they, beseech1 your ladyship?
LADY CAPULET
Well, well, thou hast a careful father, child,
One who, to put thee from thy heaviness,
Hath sorted out a sudden day of joy,
That thou expects not, nor I looked not for.
1
may I ask
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Active Shakespeare: Directing Romeo and Juliet
Extract 2
JULIET
Madam, in happy time, what day is that?
LADY CAPULET
Marry, my child, early next Thursday morn,
The gallant, young, and noble gentleman,
The County Paris, at Saint Peter's Church,
Shall happily make thee there a joyful bride.
JULIET
Now by Saint Peter's Church and Peter too,
He shall not make me there a joyful bride.
I wonder at this haste, that I must wed
Ere1 he, that should be husband comes to woo.
I pray you tell my lord and father, madam,
I will not marry yet. These are news indeed!
LADY CAPULET
Here comes your father, tell him so yourself;
And see how he will take it at your hands.
1
before
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Active Shakespeare: Directing Romeo and Juliet
Extract 3
Enter CAPULET and Nurse
CAPULET
How now, wife,
Have you delivered to her our decree?
LADY CAPULET Ay, sir, but she will none, she gives you thanks.
I would the fool were married to her grave.
CAPULET
Soft, take me with you, take me with you, wife.
How, will she none? doth she not give us thanks?
Is she not proud? doth she not count her blest,
Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought
So worthy a gentleman to be her bride?
JULIET
Not proud you have, but thankful that you have:
Proud can I never be of what I hate,
But thankful even for hate that is meant love.
CAPULET
How how, how how, chopt-logic1? What is this?
'Proud,' and 'I thank you,' and 'I thank you not,
And yet 'not proud,' mistress minion2 you,
Thank me no thankings, nor proud me no prouds,
But fettle your fine joints3 'gainst Thursday next,
To go with Paris to Saint Peter's Church,
Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither.
LADY CAPULET
Fie, fie, what, are you mad?
1
riddles
2
spoiled brat
3
get ready (the expression comes from a grooming horse)
The Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency is the non-regulatory part of the
Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. © QCA 2010
1
Active Shakespeare: Directing Romeo and Juliet
STAGE 4
Reflection opportunity 1: A 21st Century perspective - Act 3 Scene 5
How is the 21st Century interpretation of Act 3 Scene 5 different to the Elizabethan
interpretation you watched earlier?
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The Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency is the non-regulatory part of the
Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. © QCA 2010
2
Active Shakespeare: Directing Romeo and Juliet
SYNOPTIC TASK: Directing the play
Your class is going to stage a production of Romeo and Juliet and you have been asked
to direct it.
You have to decide whether you would like to stage an Elizabethan interpretation or a 21st
Century interpretation of the play.
You need to produce an extended piece of writing that describes the choices and
decisions you have made to create your interpretation of the play.
You should focus on the three scenes you have been working with:
Act 1 scene 5 – Potpan and servingmen
Act 3 scene 1 – Mercutio and Tybalt
Act 3 scene 5 – Lord and Lady Capulet.
Remember

Focus on the language and identify what words and lines gave you your ideas for
the production.

Show that you have thought about the characters’ relationships with each other and
how their behaviour changes in different situations.

Think about how well this play can be understood by an audience today; How will
you reflect Elizabethan or contemporary social conventions?

You don’t need to explain how to stage the play or how the actors should deliver a
line or describe in detail the costume and set design.

Use quotations from the play to support your opinions and explain how these
quotations support your interpretation of Romeo and Juliet.

Don’t forget to look back at the notes you have made in your reflection log.
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Active Shakespeare: Directing Romeo and Juliet
Page for writing
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Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. © QCA 2010
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Active Shakespeare: Directing Romeo and Juliet
Page for writing. Please ask for more paper if you need it.
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Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. © QCA 2010
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