Unit 1 - 4

Unit 1 : Principles of Performance 

 Monday Week 1

Week one was all about working on variety of acting skills sand techniques which will develop are skills, confidence and abilities( see more on skill audit). my first lesson on the UAL LEVEL 3 course. The lesson started of with all the students being in a circle and our teacher  Rob Alexander asking us how our Weekend was. We then walked around the space where we all did various  different activities put together by Rob  to help us get to know one another . For example , one activity included walking around the space and making  eye contact and then further into the exercise we had to smile at each other. The second activity was for us to get into groups where we played the ‘Yes and then’ game and then the 1,2,3 game. This was helpful  because I started to interact with the other students . We then got into the circle and was all given scripts of the play in which we read the first scene of Romeo and Juliet together .

Following into  our second lesson, we got into pairs and discussed an event which happened during our summer holidays. After joining in pairs, we then got into groups of fours and told one another about each other’s holidays, following that we had to create a piece of drama containing all four of our events which happened over the summer. 
After  performing each other’s scenes in front of the class we then were applauded and got  constructive criticism about what went well and even better if.

Tuesday

 Tuesdays lesson began  by  laying down on the floor and doing some breathing exercises ,whilst  breathing in and out we had to make a high-pitched sound and then a low-pitched sound. We then learned some mouth exercises like massaging the jaw. We were then told  the importance of the jaw and mouth when you perform. After that we were put into groups of fours and sat down to list in chronological order what we know about the story of  Romeo and Juliet. I knew a lot about the play due to the fact I studied it for my GCSE's but the exercise was helpful to other people who may know little about Romeo and Juliet. We then had to decide on the three most important scenes in Romeo and Juliet in which we had to show other groups  by a freeze frame. Alongside the freeze frame we all had to say a line from the scene .My group thought the most important genes were; Romeo and Juliet meeting at Capulet party ; Mercutios death and the last important scene being the death of Romeo and Juliet. Despite my groups opinion the majority of groups decided that the most important scenes were:

1.Romeo and Juliet meeting at the Capulets party

2.Romeo and Juliet getting married 

3.The death of Romeo and Juliet

Wednesday

On the third day we met with the year above us who our further  into their LEVEL  3 course and participated in a few  games like 'Yes lets'  where we had to get into pairs with someone we  didn't know from the other class and took turns improvising a story that the two would have to act out and then we become groups of fours and did the same thing. We then got into groups of eights and had to line up next to each other. We then had to use our peripheral vision to try to copy one another’s movements with one person leading the whole group, and that was a slight challenge for some as it would be hard to see what both hands of the person next to you would be doing but it was a fun exercise and it was successful in helping everyone bond. Then all the students split into groups of threes and played ‘yes let’s’ in big circles which also helped everyone bond.

Thursday

On the fourth day we discussed what would make this year successful and we split into pairs and listed 10 important qualities to have to make this year successful. We then had to collectively decide what the three most important qualities were and out of that we all started to debate with one another our ideas and this was quite enjoyable to take part in as we got to see what others were like in that kind of situation and who would take a leadership role and in a way it helped me to see what kind of people I would be working with so it was quite an experience. We had all decided that the three most important qualities were:

1.Attendance and punctuality (organisation with time)

2.Communication

3.‘Resport’ (Respect and support).    

In the next lesson the teacher would pick a student to sit on a chair and play ' goberlygu'  with him in front of the whole class, and we had to ask the person on the chair questions and Rob would translate from English to goberlygu and the person on the chair would answer it in goberlygu. Having the chance to be on the chair myself I can say that it was good for building improvisation skills and confidence. We then got into groups of two with people we wouldn’t usually work with and created an improvised a piece that had to start with one person from each pair to say ‘I don’t think we’re meant to be here’.Dylan and I worked together where improvised a scene in which was built upon becoming a short horror flick where we both get passed and die and turn into zombies. After everyone  performed  their piece  each group got an applause. After this we read the beginning of Romeo and Juliet and discussed the purpose of the chorus. After this some of us were picked to get up and perform a drafted version of the chorus and the fight between the four but at the same time we had to get creative with it so that it wasn’t boring and like every other traditional Romeo and Juliet opening scene. It ended up working quite well and we got some constructive criticism from our class who talked about space and how it is important that everyone watching can see everything going on which made everyone more spatially aware.

Week 2 

Monday 18th

Week two started with a warm up which included walking around the space in the theater and Freezing every time Rob clapped his hands. We then walked around the  space moving our wrist around in which we then had to move our bodies in the same motion as the wrist almost as if the wrist was controlling our physicality and movement. The next task was to walk around the space imagining  holding a candle. The task was simple, whisper a line from Romeo and Juliet to the candle making sure you don't  blow it out. The line I used was "Plague on both your houses" by Mercutio.

We then gathered into pairs and within our pair we would decide who is A or B.

All of the A's went to wall which was at the very end of the stage and all the B's would sit at the back row of seats in the theater. The A's would then say there line in a whisper and then shout it but their volume had to remain the same . The B's would then judge how well each A person said their line by judging if the can hear you or not then vice versa.

We then stood still for a moment and closed our eyes in space creating the character we would become when we open our eyes. This exercise was to explore the diversity of characters in the Capulet ball scene where Romeo and Juliet meet for the first time.

We would walk around the space imaging it to be a party and have conversation with one another introducing our character  about there  Age, Name , Occupation and special skill.

Tuesday 19th

On Tuesdays class with Sharon we worked in pairs to create and choreograph a  sequence of fighting movements. This then followed by each pair going on opposite sides of the room which ended in two parallel straight lines. We then tried different drama techniques like cannon and movement in unison. When we explored movement in unison, the first line moved forward together in a fighting sequence then the second line, this carried on until both lines collided.

The exploration of cannon was done by the person in front of you moving with you in unison . However the cannon element was shown by the pair at the end of both lines on opposite sides doing their sequence first which carried on until the last pair.

Wednesday 20th

On Wednesday we spent our lesson at the dance studio and we played a few games such as wink murder, grandmas footsteps, yes let's. This was to create more friendships in the group and to make us a stronger team. We then continued to develop our fight scenes doing them twice in slow motion and twice in fast motion and all the fight scene elements we had been doing from Tuesday and Wednesday would help us for when be began working on Romeo and Juliet as it could indicate the tension between the two households and could make the play more interesting for the audience.

Thursday 21st

On Thursday we were all told which character we were to play, and for me that character would be Mercutio. Mercutio is my favourite protagonist and was the only character I fancied playing so I was very pleased to get the role because I felt that Mercutio is a reflecton of myself so I find it easy to play him and he also has action sequences in the play . We then practiced the first scene between me and Abe who plays Tybalt. Rob choreographed the fights and showed some people as to how they should be playing roles for example: Benvolio has to run into the scene and stop a fight rather than walk in and try to stop it. We also looked at different ways characters could walk onto scenes. Rob made us aware on how we could use the space around us and how it's important to take advantage of the space in order to build tension and create better visuals for the audience. We tried to look at other scenes and develope them  to make them look  unique compared to any other Romeo and Juliet play.

Further into the day we had our next lesson with Sharon in which we  performed what we had done so far and gave a few tweaks to it, and then we proceeded to site read the rest of the play.

Week 3 

Monday


Morning, we spent the first lesson practicing the first scene which we had looked at on Thursday and continued to work on other scenes (we worked up to scene 5), and we had also spent a bit of time improving and brushing up on the first couple on scenes. We focused on the space on the stage and how we could use it well. We had also worked on trying to make the changed between each of the scenes as fluid as we possibly could make them. One example of what had happened was that Benvolio had to run into the scene where the lower class montagues and capulets fought one another instead of walking into it as was what he tried to do, and that made the scene all the more exciting and gave it more of an action element in my opinion.  In the lesson after that we proceeded onward looking at other scenes and I had to perform my scene at the party and I was instructed on using more spaces and was given suggestions as to where I could stand as I performed my role. He had also told us to be more vocal/loud as Romeo was being quite quiet on a scene where he had talked about Juliet. There was also a scene where Juliet was standing on a white bench and we thought about how in the actual play we could use people to create vines to make it clear and make the illusion that she's on a balcony strong. We had also discussed ideas such as maybe loads of people pretending to be dead in the final scene as Romeo and Juliet are supposedly in a graveyard. We also looked at trying to make the party scene more interesting with loads of us in the background talking to one another and sharing our skills (referring to what we did in that lesson where we made up characters and each character had a role). In the next lesson we looked at the lists that we had created on week one which were writing the chronological order of the scenes in the play, and the three most important ones. We then had to perform what we had done to the class and developed what we had done. We had to add three more scenes to add to the list of scenes and perform all six in chronological order, but we also had to do it by efficiently using all the space on the stage which meant we had to get quite creative. This was very successful as the teacher in the end gave us praise for using the space well, and I had learnt more about how to make an act more interesting and much clearer for an audience by using the space well. I had also been told to write intentions next to where my character would speak, and this would help me to bring out that intention when performing. Mercutio is generally quite a flamboyant but yet serious character  so I had to keep this in mind for future rehearsals.

 Tuesday



 We ran through scenes 5-12 with Sharon and tweaked a few aspects of it for example I was asked to walk into the scene when other characters were speaking but not to speak until they were silent, rather than interupting them and talking what's on my mind to put more emphasis on me. Romeo was another great example as when he spoke to Juliet he spoke too softly and not loudly enough, and from this I realised that in theatrical acting even if you were whispering to someone who speaking softly and gentily you still need to be loud so even people at the back of the audience can hear you.

This is a diagram to distinguish our modern version of Romeo and Juliet to older and more  traditional versions. Because the characteristics of our audience is young we needed to make it more entertaining for them and less boring in summary we needed it to be more comical less dramatic .

                                                                (Abdul and I playing Mercutio and Benvolio )

Wednesday 

We had played Park Bench which is an improvisation game. There are two seats and everyone sits down and at random 3 people need to get up and pretend they are in a park doing their own thing. Every now and then someone will leave and someone else who hadn't gone up will go and perform with everyone else. This game is to make people more confident to try new and weird ideas in front of everyone and it makes people more confident too. You also have to go along with something someone says so if someone walks up to you during your time in the improvisation and says "Hi dad how are you doing" you're going to have to go along with what they say. This is important as young actors as you need to get out of your comfort zone to try new things, and this is an important lesson in life. After we had played Park Bench we then did some devised pieces based on either two parents not accepting what one child wants to do or one parent not accepting what one of two children want. This was quite a fun exercise as we had time to get adventurous and create a funny story out of our imagination and I was working with Gabriel and Georgina . I played a drug addict sitting on a bench in the park while Georgina played a little girl who wanted too play. So the piece was Georgina agitating me while I made weird noises and sounds. This was very enjoyble to perform in front of everyone hearing peoples reactions and how they laughed. It was quite a serious yet comedic scene. In this exercise we had to speak loudly and the audience were slighty far from us and so this helped us be more vocal in our performances. We ended the lesson by the teacher picking a student to get up and do a freeze frame of them in an imaginary place in their mind i.e someone would freeze whilst playing football in the park, and then 6 others would have to join in the create the image of a park. By this point my approach to performing in front of everyone was more of having a laugh and my passion to entertain.

Week 4

On Monday we spent the lesson brushing up on the first 5 scenes. One example of what we had done is that we worked on a part of the chorus where Jayshel says "Two households both alike in dignity", and after this is said all the Capulets and Montagues line up and face each others. We had improved this so that we didn't just simple stand in line and look at each other to show the tensions between the two households but we had also been instructed to pose to show anger for example I pose by holding a sword pointing at the enemy Capulet in front of me to show my ferocity and that I'm fully involved in the feud between the households despite not being a blood relative. This was quite nice as it gave a better representation to the audience as to how the mechanics between the Households in the play was like. In Sharon's lesson, we had been refining party scene. For example when romeo and I are done with our dance scene  I step into the enemies party as if they are allies I even give a bow to tybalt and lord Capulet showing my bravery. I learnt quite a lot from this for example how you can easily get creative, and make smooth transitions from one scene to another and in that way the audience won't get bored. After I am done partying with other characters, everyone in the party scene in the background including me goes silent and freeze to give emphasis to the scene going on between Romeo and Juliet.

On Tuesday we had worked on Character/character development with Sharon. We started the lesson by sitting in a circle and discussed what makes a character for example looks or personality or background. Then we had to write down some details of our characters that we had knowledge of:

Who am I ?   Mercutio

Where do I live  ? Chelsea and Kensington

What work do I do ?  Fashion

Friends ?   Romeo and Benvolio 

Family ?  Prince and Paris

Wednesday



since not all of the class had attended the lesson on time, the Montagues and Capulets split up at beginning of the lesson, and each family had to create a scene containing all the characters having a conversation just so that we got to know one another's characters better. We had discussed some actors that do contrasting roles and how they managed to pull off the roles well, and the reason why was because they look for the motive of the character they are looking to play to create such a strong effect. We briefly spoke about Naturalism by Stanislavski and also projection, emotional memory, the magic if Objectives and discussing what our characters objectives. Then we continued to go into groups of twos with someone else in the play whose character could have a past with our character. I worked with Romeo again and we had built on yesterdays idea with him stealing Roseline's heart. At this point I have become quite comfortable with just going up and performing a piece to the rest of the class and so I asked to go first which we did. I enjoyed our semi-improvised scene and it went smoothly, and everyone felt it was quite comedic yet serious.

 Thursday



we had done a joint lesson with the dance students. We spent the beginning of this lesson in a circle doing all sorts of exercises, some of which were stretching and others were vocal exercises. One example was the 'Ma ma ma ba ba ba pa pa pa" at which we say that but talk in such a way where we are trying to get our voice to hit the other side of the room. This game is to get us out of our comfort zones by making silly/humiliating noises to the other side of the room which for me had increased my confidence, and this exercise is also good for the vocals just to warm them up. After this we got paired up with another dance student and using any technique we wanted we had to perform a quick 2 minute piece on how we got to college. My partner and I had performed a comedic piece where we would perform an action for example walking. but we did it over the top and say 'Then we walked'. This went well as the crowd got the humour and had laughed and I used this exercise to make my voice stronger in front of crowds, whereas normally I get quiet when I am performing in front of crowds of people I don't know. This had worked as I felt quite confident performing in front of all the actors and dances and I was proud.  In the next lesson we got in a circle and wrote details about our characters down.

then we partnered up with another person in our group and we had to read out about their character in front of everyone else and the person whose characters attributes are being said has to act out some of their description. An example of this is if I write that I as Mercutio am full of myself then my partner would read it out.

Skills Audit

My main skills in performing arts are acting, singing and dancing . However the skills in which I brung with me to the  UAL Level 3 drama course  which are relevant to acting are; voice and body giving me the ability to dress to the audience. A characters emotions using body language and the frequency of my voice ; spacial awareness which gave me the ability to use the space creatively to tell a story ; professional improvisation didn't just give me the ability to build an unknown storyline and character ,but to also to carry on if I or another actor made a mistake. These skills were all acquired by my training at Young Actors Theatre ( see autobiography).

Despite the fact I had these skill, during my time on the course I've attained new skills such as acquiring a deeper understand and knowledge of practitioners such as Stanislavsky where we've used his ideas about naturalism and emotional memory where we use something from our life and bring out that emotion in our character to create a sense of naturalism. I've also acquired rehearsal skills  which trained me into becoming organised, focused and able to stay on task  and ensure things our completed on time like when had to write a play over the weekend and send it to Rob on the deadline. I've also attained workshop skills by working through multiple ideas using freeze frames to create the possible outcome in which I learnt during my first week on the course when Rob made us do an exercise where we had to become objects by freeze frames.


Development of skills


I Developed my skills by attending the workshops an learning from other professionals. This didn't just give me a deeper understanding of the skills I was attaining but also showed me different ways to apply those skills. For example emotional memory was a skill I was already very aware off and how to apply it. However the course taught me the context of where it came from

Conway Hall / 12.10.17/ Shakespeare festival workshop 

We visited the Conway hall to do a workshop with Samuel Rhodes School. The workshop started with us getting into a circle and worked on articulation by pronouncing fruits like  banana, pineapple, kiwi and pumpkin.
This exercise really warms up your face by forcing you to use ever muscle while pronouncing the words. We also had to move our bodies while pronouncing the fruit names.

We then played a game of Stop-Go. In which we walked around the space and when Francesca said stop you stop and if she said  go you go. Other were included into the game like clap and jump which was then reversed so jump became clap and Stop became go. 

During a Game of Stop - Go we were then introduced to a school from Islington in which we partnered up with them in groups of four, two from Westminster  Kingsway and two from the school. We told them about our play and they told us about theirs which was Macbeth.

We then showed them the introduction of our play and then the school from Islington gave us very positive  feedback about how they really enjoyed it . The Islington school showed us a snippet of a scene from there play Macbeth in which we gave them feed back .
After the exchanges of constructive criticism and positive feedback one of the Shakespeare festival staff William  showed us five rules to consider while on stage performing to an audience:

1. land your line.

2.  embrace the audience magnet

3. stay in character
4. Avoid kiss or kill position
5. cheat with your feet

Those 5 rules were very helpful as they  as they gave us all an insight into professional practice and the principles of performance  and how to apply it to our own work  Romeo and Juliet but most importantly performing in general.

Week 5

Monday



 We spent our time developing scenes 1-5. We specifically spent our time developing the first fight scene between the two peasants from the Montague and Capulet families and between Tybalt and Benvolio. With the fight scene between Mercutio and I we changed our positioning as Tybalt tells Benvolio that he isn't really keeping the piece, and instead of us standing at a fair distance from each other we are nose to nose. This creates a lot of intensity for the viewer as when I get close to him my voice tones also changed and so does my facial expression to show anger and hatred. We had also choreographed the fight scene which was quite easy to learn and also looked quite impressive on camera. We had to shout each time we strike with our swords to emphasize the effort that we put into wanting to kill each other as our families are enemies to one another. As I have gained a lot of confidence doing this course over time I had no problem in doing this and I did not feel shy about it which I was quite impressed about. Later that day, we performed everything that we had done thus far in the play to Sharon which was quite successful as no one complained about anything which a couple of students usually do and we swiftly went from one scene to another. After we had performed to Sharon we had gone downstairs to the theatre to perform a technical rehearsal up until the 5th scene.

 Tuesday
(Check evaluation)

Wednesday

 We only had an hour to rehearse and warm up our bodies and throats by doing specific exercise like imaginary chewing and opening our mouths wide while making noises. Once we were done with the exercises Abe asked Sharon if we could spend the last 20 minutes rehearsing before we perform. ( Check Evaluation)

Thursday

(Check Shakespeare School Festival Workshop)

Evaluation 


Tuesday:

On Tuesday we were given the pleasure to watch a few performances played by the Music level 2 and 3 students. I was very impressed by the energy and atmosphere the performers created and emphasised . There was so much energy in a lot of the songs they had performed in which they all had put their own twist. One of the performers who was singing Billy Jean- Michael Jackson loved the song so much  it made him comfortable on stage to start dancing and making sound effects . The dancing was very cringe as it wasn’t very good however the performer felt comfortable in his body which made it funny and enjoyable to watch.

 Further into the performances i was blown away by a very talented performer who sung ‘Stand By Me’ in Spanish. I was amazed by the  energy that she put into her performance making up for her previous performance at which she made a mistake and got embarrassed so she didn't do so well. I  respected the way  the band behind supported  the girl when she made a mistake and got embarrassed . This showed me what team work and supporting each other can create a good atmosphere rendering yo to have a good performance. In conclusion I really enjoyed watching the Music level 2 and 3 performances and the unique twist they gave there songs.

Wednesday:

I  enjoyed Wednesday performances more than Tuesday because the performances were more engaging and the choreography and movements had a message or story behind it making it very entertaining to watch. This worked very well because it made the audience and I very intrigued and absorbed into their performance. The different shapes they made while dancing and the invisible chains that they emphasised to the audience  to show that  they couldn’t break free. I was impressed by their craft and the work they produced and how they moved together in unison and worked well as an ensemble. They all looked so passionate about the message they were trying to get across about addiction and domestic abuse. After that the dance level 3 students had performed some more pieces which were just as passionate and creative as the last pieces. Then it was our turn to show the work we had produced on Romeo and Juliet which I was very excited  to perform . Nobody lost confidence which was good so our performance went well. Overall I enjoyed Wednesday the most because all the groups showed passion in their craft.

warm ups
Throughout the first term we have done plenty of excersises and warm up games to help with articulation and to warm up the body.For example tongue twisters have been a common warm up at the beginning of each class to help with articulation. Another common excessive we do is a chewing excessive to warm up the jaw and mouth in order to activate the face.

technical skills

Emotional memory
vocal projections
stage presence
stage awareness
articulation
engagement with audience

Unit 2 : Engaging with an Audience

Audience characteristics 

Families, older children 

What can I do to make an audience engaged 

eye contact 
loud theatrical voice  and movements

Unit 3 : Introduction to Professional Practice

Unit 3: Health and Safety.

Health and safety aspects of preforming at a set theater varies depending on the theater itself, as each one has differing layouts and equipment. This being said there are be broader rules that can be applied:

Learning the stage space, so you don't collide with anyone else or other issues regarding the stage space, like the edges and drops off the side.

Actors need to be careful where they put their bags, it should be backstage, out of the way where no one can trip over a misplaced bag.

Fire and emergency exits should also be known in the case of an emergency so the theater can be vacated effectively with minimal casualties.

Physical and vocal warm ups

Performance Day

The final performance takes place at the shaw theatre on the 21st of november (2017). 

Being in a professional theatre is very different to a school rehearsal room, or in a school theatre. Due to this the performers, and the production itself, needs to adapt to the performance space. Our class had very limited access to the stage itself prior to, and including, the day of the show; so we had pressure to adapt effectively in a limited time frame, which is a challenged, but a welcome one due to the fact that we, as actors, need to be able to adapt quickly and readily especially in the case of shows that tour different theatres or situations where we may have to work in a limited time frame to meet a deadline.

The practice was valuable and not particularly difficult in terms of staging or movement. The stage space was similar to ones I have performed on in my Past experience so stage positions were not hard to grasp so confidence for me was quite natural on stage . Movement was a little harder due to the stage having a steep drop that you couldn't see clearly if stage lights were on you, and the space being larger than we were accustomed to; because of this we needed to learn how far, or how fast, we needed to move in order to get to a point where we could start the deliverance of our lines. However after a full run-through we managed to conquer the stage and could move confidently, and hopefully convincingly.

The few days leading up to the show we had our first dress rehearsals (a full run-through with costumes). Are  Costumes needed to reflect the personality and  characteristics of the protagonist we were each playing.  When an individual dresses into their outfit the clothes usually reflect a projection of their interests and feelings. As actors we need put our feet in our characters shoes in order to be aware and have a understanding of how the character thinks and feels . A characters socio-economic status  plays a big part  in the way they dress. For example when I was developing my character Mercutio (See week 4) I concluded he a had a high status so my costume was all black with a velour crocodile print jacket, leather loafers and a gold chain to show he's quite fashionable and high class. The costumes showed a clear indication between different characters class and power. In conclusion characters stood out and were a good indication of personality. Additionally I'd like to point out the difference in costume between Benvolio and Tybalt; the peace loving Benvolio dressed like a calm, chilled, and inoffensive guy whilst Tybalt was more aggressive with his appearance.

What went well:

I thought our performance was brilliant as we all had fantastic costumes to express our view on how the characters should be portrayed. We were all very confident and had loud voices with big actions to show our emotions and the relationship status between different characters. In particular the scene where Abe and I have our fight scene we showed  emotions of anger through our voice by using volume and pitch to show the relationship status between mercutio and tybalt .

Even Better If :

we had more props like swords for my fight scene with Tybalt it would of made the choreography way more effective . However to be fair the energy Abe(Tybalt) and I (Mercutio) put into the scene made the imaginary swords quite effective.

Feedback:

Unit 4 : Critical and Contextual Awareness

Shakespeare Timeline 

1564. William Shakespeare is born in Stratford upon Avon to local tanner John and Mary Shakespeare. His actual birthday is unknown but assumed and celebrated today on April the 23rd, just three days before his baptism was recorded in the Parish register of the Holy Trinity Church on April the 26th 

1582. Shakespeare is in love... At age 18, he marries the considerably older Anne Hathaway (26 years old) from Shottery on November the 27th at Temple Grafton

1585-1592. Shakespeare is believed to have left his family in Stratford to join a company of actors as both playwright and performer, starting his career in theatre.

1589-1590. Shakespeare is believed by most academics to have written his very first play, Henry VI, Part One in this year.

1592-93. Shakespeare is thought to have written the poem Venus and Adonis and the plays Richard III and The Two Gentlemen of Verona 

1593-94. The Rape of Lucrece, Titus Andronicus and The Taming of the Shrew are thought to have been penned by Shakespeare at this time. 

1595. A busy year for Shakespeare as he is thought to have composed Richard II performed that very same year, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, thought to be composed for a wedding and the greatest love story of all time, Romeo and Juliet 

1599. The Major shareholders of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men lease land from Nicholas Brend, The Globe theatre opening later that same year. Julius Caesar is performed at the Globe Theatre for the first known time on September the 21st according to German tourist Thomas Platter’s diary. John Weever praises Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, The Rape of Lucrece and Venus Adonis in the poem Ad Guglielmum Shakespeare.

1600-1601. Shakespeare is thought to have composed arguably his greatest play, Hamlet at this time.

1613. The Globe Theatre burns to the ground. The Two Noble Kinsmen is penned. A 1634 entry within the Stationer’s Registry confirms that both William Shakespeare and John Fletcher composed this play. 

1614. The Globe Theatre reopens. 

1616. William dies on April 23rd, his burial being recorded in the Stratford Holy Church Register two days later.

How do we make Shakespeare relevant in 2017 ?

Societal Context (Past)

When William Shakespeare wrote the play of Romeo and Juliet in 1595, England had a striking resemblance to fourteenth - century Italy in which the play takes place. Due to religious beliefs and political power struggle over religious influence between catholic and protestant Elizabethan England suffered from a lot of violence and tragedy. The same struggle resembled conditions in Italy 200 years prior. Shakespeare  religion cubically would of been protestant due to being born under protestant rule and Catholicism being outlawed. However Shakespeare parents were most likely covert Catholics and Shakespeare's father John was very close friends with William Catesby, the father of the head to blow the Protestant monarchy to smithereens.

Social Context(Present)

Romeo and Juliet  has become Shakespeare best-known play, it has been filmed many times and adapted in all sorts of ways. For instance, there are cartoon versions for children, older versions, big Hollywood blockbusters set with gang fights in the US staring Leonardo Decaprio. 

There are countless references to Romeo and Juliet in songs and books in which has made so much of an impact on popular culture that its used in ordinary conversation. For example if a young man who goes out with lots of girls or who is surrounded by a lot  is often referred to as a 'Romeo.

Language  

At the start of the 16th century England had a very poor opinion of their own language: there was little serious writing in English, and hardly any literature. Latin was the language of international scholarship, and the eloquent style of the Romans was much admired. Many translations from Latin were made, and this way writers increase the vocabulary of English and made its grammar more flexible. French, Italian, and Spanish works were also translated and, for the first time there were English versions of the Bible. By the end of the century, English was a language to be proud of: it was rich in vocabulary, capable of infinite variety and subtlety, and ready for all kinds of word-play especially puns, for which Elizabethan English is renowned.

Themes

Love V Hate 

Throughout the play of R&J,  the ideology of love and its meaning is expressed in many different ways and how its impact on individuals, friendships and families is both positive and negative. For example  I as Mercutio died because Romeos love for Juliet made him get married to her causing his enemy Tybalt to be his cousin in law. This made Romeo effeminate as he did not want to fight Tybalt but to love "Tybalt, the reason that I  have to love thee Doth much excuse the appertaining rage to such a greeting". Romeo pacifistic behavior on these circumstances due to love eventually caused the death of his best friend Mercutio. Furthermore, I as Mercutio showed the conflict between love and hate by expressing my feelings and closing in on my body language screaming "A plague O both your house !!!". This suggest how the conflict between love and hate had impacted my character as an individual . 

Another way love impacts the play is via family and family feuds.

In Elizabethan times, people got married much earlier than they do today. It was common for daughters to get married at 13 years of age. Normally, parents chose their child's partner and this would be based on wealth, potential titles, land and influence.

Romeo and Juliet both decided who they are going to marry which would have been disrespectful to their families, especially as their families are enemies .

Fate

Scholars are divided on the role of fate in the play. No consensus exists on whether the characters are truly fated to die together or whether the events take place by a series of unlucky chances. Arguments in favor of fate often refer to the description of the lovers as "star-cross'd". This phrase seems to hint that the stars have predetermined the lovers' future 

Light V Dark 

Shakespeare's widespread use of light and dark imagery throughout the play has long been noted. The theme of light is considered as "symbolic of the natural beauty of young love." Both Romeo and Juliet see the other as light in a surrounding darkness. Romeo describes Juliet as being like the sun, brighter than a torch, a jewel sparkling in the night, and a bright angel among dark clouds. Even when she lies apparently dead in the tomb, he says her "beauty makes This vault a feasting presence full of light."