In our humanities class, did an exciting project where we took Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and transformed it into a modernized version set in North Vancouver. To kick things off, we began by reading the original play, getting a deep understanding of its themes, characters, and dialogue. Our teacher made sure we fully grasped the play’s meaning by giving us small quizzes after each section, helping us analyze the text in detail.
Understanding the story: Once we had a good understanding of the original script, we were divided into small groups of five or six students. Each group was assigned a specific act from the play, and our group was responsible for Act 3. She made these groups based on each individual’s strengths that could add to each team.We were tasked with rewriting our act in a way that fit a contemporary setting, while still keeping the heart of Shakespeare’s story intact. This required some creative thinking as we considered how to adapt the characters, settings, and conflicts to modern life. We brainstormed ideas about where the play could take place in North Vancouver, deciding to use locations like schools, local cafes, and even parks, to make the story feel familiar to us.
Script: Next, we began writing our modernized script as a group. We made sure to keep the essential plot points of Act 3, but we Rewrote the language and scenarios to reflect today’s society. For example, the sword fight scene was turned into a casual boys fight that escalated, and some characters had their personalities adjusted to make them more relatable to a modern audience. There were a few challenges, like ensuring we stayed true to the emotional intensity of the original while adapting it to a modern context. It was hard to coordinate between the teams to make the story flow within and not have plot holes.
Preforming: Finally, after About a week of writing and rehearsing, we performed our modernized version of Romeo and Juliet and combined each one of the acts. We preformed it to two classes.
My role: Wrote some of the scrip. Found most visuals and background photos. Thought of lots of ideas and elements that made our play unique.
Driving question: “how can parody make old stories feel new and connected to people today.” By modernizing Romeo and Juliet, we were able to take the original ideas of love, family conflict, and fate and give them a new twist that connected with our generation. Instead of using old-fashioned language, we changed things that would seem more true to todays society which was a fun challenge. The most challenging part for me was that they costume changes weren’t very thought out and to fix this we could’ve had more rehearsing time and less of a deep understanding of the book. Just a brief overlook would have been a better usage of our short time. Overall, this experience was unique for a humanities class, it was also really fun and helped me practice my public speaking, being on stage, and being a helpful team member.