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You are the director of a theatre workshop. You are going to give a lecture to four young actors and give them advice on how they should play their parts in a performance of Romeo and Juliet: Act one scene five.

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Romeo and Juliet: SHAKESPEARE -coursework assignment You are the director of a theatre workshop. You are going to give a lecture to four young actors and give them advice on how they should play their parts in a performance of Romeo and Juliet: Act one scene five. Write out the lecture you will give to the actors. Welcome to the Walton Theatre Company and congratulations on your successful audition for roles in our latest production of Romeo and Juliet. I am going to explain to you how I want you to play your parts but before I do that, I need you to listen carefully while I give you some information about the play as a whole so that you can put the scene into the wider context of the play. It is important that you understand this so that you can portray your characters, as Shakespeare would have liked them to be played on stage. Please don't make notes, as I will give you a copy of my talk later. Romeo and Juliet was written by William Shakespeare who is one of the world's greatest playwrights. He wrote many of his plays during the fifteenth century concentrating on the writing of comedies and plays, which dealt primarily with English history. Later in his career he focused on tragedies like Hamlet and Macbeth. None of his plays were published in his lifetime, as his original manuscripts did not contain act and scene divisions or stage directions, these were added much later. Shakespeare's drama is seen as being both innovative and challenging as it questions the beliefs, assumptions and politics of Elizabethan society in its action. Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written in the early part of Shakespeare's career. It was probably written before 1597 when it was first performed. The idea of the play is not original as several writers in the early sixteenth century refer to a story of two young lovers from opposing families. ...read more.


Now we come to the part of fiery Tybalt, this is your part Craig, and to play this part well you need to show that you are an aggressive, hot tempered young man who hates all the Montagues. As you enter the party you walk in with a swagger and a show of arrogance, after all you really think that you are someone important. Danger and excitement enter with the fiery and unpredictable Tybalt and you must bring these qualities out in your speech and movement. You are enraged immediately by the insult of Romeo's presence as you notice straightaway Romeo's attraction to Juliet. Fetch me my rapier. You insult Romeo with venom as he is covered with an antic face. You grow angrier though when you are challenged by Capulet who has to use force to control you. This leads to your challenge to Romeo resulting in the later deaths of Mercutio and yourself. it fits when such a villain is a guest. I'll not endure him. You continue to complain that you are not allowed to action the violence, which is such an important part of your life. Why, uncle, 'tis a shame- you threaten to kill Romeo and swear retribution as you storm off. It is your actions and behaviour, which contributes to the tragic events which take place later in the play. I will withdraw but this intrusion shall, now seeming sweet, convert to bitterest gall. You are living proof of the feud, present at the lovers' first meeting, and later you precipitate the tragedy by vowing revenge on Romeo. You reinforce the audience's impression of your impetuous character and they begin to see how such hot-headedness runs in the family when Lord Capulet beats you down. As Tybalt you are ordered to leave Romeo alone but your words are heavy and threatening. Your language spits out alliteration to show your contempt patience perforce and seeming sweet as you literally shake with anger and fury speaking in rhyme to make your words in this scene both memorable and powerful. ...read more.


Indeed, Romeo's words before the party tells of this overwhelming sense of destiny and foreboding which is set in motion during the party, as he looks uneasily into the future with a premonition of death. I fear too early for my mind misgives some consequence yet hanging in the stars. His tone is ominous and is filled with a sense of foreboding. He uses legal language prophesying that his premature (untimely) death will result from what begins tonight (date) by going to the Capulets feast. His life he says will be the penalty (forfeit) he must pay when the time is up (expire the term). Romeo's words when he finds out just who the attractive young woman is shows his dismay that Juliet is a Capulet Ay, so I fear, the more is my unrest? As the party ends, Juliet too feels a similar feeling of foreboding on learning Romeo's name. She realises that she too has fallen in love with one of her family's hated enemies. It is clear that from its first appearance in the play, the love between Romeo and Juliet is marked out not only as exceptional but also as doomed both perfect and at the mercy of the world or their respective families. When Juliet says Prodigious birth of love it is to me that I must love a loathed enemy, her words for us define this important moment in the play in terms of love, fate, destiny, birth and finally death. The scene builds on Romeo's last two lines deepening the note of foreboding the more is my unrest. The audience is made painfully aware that although this scene is a crucial one as it begins their romance, it also includes the hostility and resentment that surrounds the two families and the figures of Romeo and Juliet. Their first encounter mixed with Tybalt's aggression shows us clearly that act one scene five of Romeo and Juliet is fraught with the potential for tragedy as the events begin which lead to their unfortunate deaths in the final part of the play. 7 1 ...read more.

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