Creative Team

Director — Lester Malizia
Sets — Liz McCraven
Costumes — Brian O'Keefe
Lights — Annmarie Duggan

Written by William Shakespeare
Study Guide written by Gary Cadwallader

Cast of Characters

Romeo
Juliet
Montague, Romeo's father
Capulet, Juliet's father
Lady Montague, Romeo's mother
Lady Capulet, Juliet's mother
Benvolio, Romeo's kinsman
Nurse to Juliet
Abram, a Montague servingman
Tybalt, kinsman to the Capulets
Balthasar, Romeo's servingman
Petruchio, Tybalt's companion
Capulet's Cousin
Sampson, Servingman
Gregory, Servingman
Peter, Servingman
Escalus, Prince of Verona
Paris, the Prince's kinsman and Juliet's suitor
Mercutio, the Prince's kinsman and Romeo's friend
Paris' Page
Friar Lawrence
Friar John
Citizens, Musicians, Watchmen
Chorus

The Source

Shakespeare's primary source for "Romeo and Juliet" is a popular poem, "The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet", by Arthur Brooke (1562). Among other sources, Brooke's poem is based on Luigi da Porta's tale of Romeo and Giulietta. Although the tale exists in previous adaptations - it probably originated as a folk tale - da Porta was the first to insist that the lovers were historical figures, a conviction that persists today. Brooke's version was a cautionary tale, which alerted young people to the consequences of familial disobedience. Shakespeare subverts this moral of the original and turns his young lovers into the victims of parental control. In Shakespeare's version, it is the adults who must accept responsibility for the fate of their young!

History of the Play

"Romeo and Juliet" was first performed at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London around 1594. It has been recorded that it was performed many times, making it one of the big successes of the decade. It was first printed in Quarto form (pocket-sized) in 1597 as An Excellent conceited Tragedie of Romeo and Juliet. Because this printing was based on someone's memory of either being in the audience or in a small role in the production, it was unreliable and therefore been dubbed a "bad quarto." In 1599, the Second Quarto, entitled The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedie of Romeo and Juliet, was printed, and it is this version that is used by scholars today. It is even thought to be the version that was taken from Shakespeare's own handwritten manuscript.

Synopsis

ACT I — A street fight breaks out between two warring families, the Montagues and the Capulets, which is broken up by the ruler of Verona, Prince Escalus. He threatens the Montagues and Capulets with death if they fight again. A melancholy Romeo enters and is questioned by his cousin Benvolio, who learns that the cause of Romeo's sadness is unrequited love.

In conversation with Capulet, Count Paris declares his wish to marry Capulet's daughter, Juliet. Capulet invites him to a party that night. Romeo, discovering that the Capulets' are having a party and that Rosaline, on whom he currently dotes, is invited, decides to go.

Lady Capulet informs Juliet of Paris' marriage proposal. Juliet replies that she hasn't even thought of marriage, but that she will consider Paris as a candidate if her parents wish her to.

Capulet welcomes the disguised Romeo, Benvolio, and Mercutio. Romeo, watching the dance, is caught by the beauty of Juliet. Overhearing Romeo asking about her, Tybalt recognizes Romeo's voice and is outraged at his intrusion. Romeo still manages to meet Juliet, and they fall in love. Not until they are separated do they discover that they belong to enemy houses.

ACT II — Romeo finds himself in love with Juliet and decides he cannot leave her. He scales her garden wall and is surprised to overhear her proclaim her love for him. When he responds, they acknowledge their love and their desire to be married.

Romeo hurries to Friar Lawrence. The Friar agrees to marry them, expressing the hope that the marriage may end the feud between the families.

Romeo meets Juliet's Nurse on the street and he gives her a message for Juliet - to meet at Friar Lawrence's room in the afternoon and there they will be married. The Nurse returns home to give Juliet the message and Juliet prepares to go to Friar Lawrence's room.

ACT III — Mercutio and Benvolio encounter Tybalt on the street. As soon as Romeo arrives, Tybalt tries to provoke him to fight. When Romeo refuses, Mercutio answers Tybalt's challenge. They duel and Mercutio is fatally wounded. Romeo then avenges Mercutio's death by killing Tybalt in a duel. Benvolio tries to persuade the Prince to excuse Romeo's slaying of Tybalt; however, the Capulets demand that Romeo pay with his life; the Prince instead banishes Romeo from Verona.

The Nurse tells Juliet the news that Romeo has killed Tybalt and has been banished. Juliet, at first, grieves for her beloved cousin, Tybalt's, death, but renounces those feelings and devotes her grief to Romeo's banishment. The Nurse promises to bring Romeo to Juliet that night.

Friar Lawrence tells Romeo that his punishment is banishment, not death. The Nurse arrives, and Friar Lawrence tells Romeo he may go with the Nurse and spend the night with his bride but must go to Mantua in the morning for his exile.

Lord Capulet promises Paris that Juliet will marry him in three days.

Romeo and Juliet separate at the first light of day. Lady Capulet announces that Juliet must marry Paris. Juliet refuses and decides to seek advice from Friar Lawrence.

ACT IV — Paris is talking to Friar Lawrence about his wedding to Juliet when she arrives at Friar Lawrence's room. After Paris leaves, Juliet threatens suicide, and Friar Lawrence gives her a potion that will make her appear as if dead the morning of the wedding. He assures her that when she awakes in the vault, Romeo will be there to take her away.

Juliet, with resolve, tells her father she will marry Paris after all. Lord Capulet, delighted, moves the wedding up to the next day. Juliet drinks the potion Friar Lawrence has given her.

In the morning, the Nurse finds Juliet in her deathlike trance and announces Juliet dead. Friar Lawrence helps with funeral arrangements.

ACT V — Romeo's servant, Balthasar, arrives in Mantua with news of Juliet's death. Romeo sends him to hire horses for an immediate return to Verona. Romeo buys poison to join Juliet in death.

Friar John meets Friar Lawrence to tell him he was unable to deliver the letter to Romeo that was to inform him of the real circumstances of Juliet's "death." Friar Lawrence anxiously goes to Juliet's tomb to be there when she comes out of her trance.

Paris visits Juliet's tomb and, when Romeo arrives, challenges him to a duel. They fight and Paris is killed. Romeo then takes the poison and dies as he kisses Juliet. Juliet awaking to find Romeo dead, kills herself with Romeo's dagger. Alerted by Paris' page, the Capulets, Montagues, and Prince arrive to hear, from Friar Lawrence, the account of Romeo and Juliet's marriage. The deaths lead Montague and Capulet to declare their hostility is at an end.

Themes and Topics to Explore

Revenge. If a friend or family member is killed, is revenge appropriate?

Arranged marriage. Is marriage a personal choice, or a parental choice?

Disobedience. Does the fact that Romeo and Juliet disobey their families lead to their fate?

Love at first sight. Do you believe in love at first sight?

Impulse. Does the fact that Romeo and Juliet act hastily and impulsively contribute to their tragedy?

Responsibility. Does Romeo contribute to the feud between the Capulets and Montagues?

Gang Violence. Gangs call themselves "families." How is gang violence in today's society similar to the Capulets' and Montagues' feud?

Investigation

Look in your newspaper or in current magazines to find stories and instances of hate, rivalry, revenge, responsibility. How do these stories mirror the same themes in Romeo and Juliet.

Find stories of societies that still believe in arranged marriages. For example, what do some of the cultures in India, Iran, Japan, and United States, believe in regards to arranged marriages?

About William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-Upon-Avon, England, in April, 1564. It is thought that Shakespeare was educated at the King's New School, where he studied Latin and the literature of Virgil, Ovid, and Plutarch. He married Anne Hathaway in 1582, and had three children: Susanna (1583), and twins Judith and Hamnet (1585). No one knows when Shakespeare actually moved to London but it is thought to have been sometime before 1589 when his first plays, Henry VI, Titus Andronicus, and The Comedy of Errors, were the hits of the London season. Shakespeare was also an actor as well as a playwright.

In 1594, The Lord Chamberlain's Men was formed, and for the next ten years it was London's premier acting company. This was due, perhaps, to the brilliance of Shakespeare's writing. In 1603, with the succession of James I, Shakespeare's company was given the royal patent, which meant they won the King's approval as the best theatre company in London, and became known as the King's Men. Not only do the King's Men perform at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (of which he had been part owner since 1599) but they also gave performances at the court of the King.

Around 1610-11, Shakespeare moved back to Stratford a wealthy man, and died there in April, 1613. He was buried at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford.

Useful Shakespearean Terms

Aside. A speech in which the speaker turns away from the other characters and reveals his true feelings to the audience. The aside is based on the premise that although the speaker stands but a few inches away from the others, they nevertheless are unable to hear what he's saying.

Humors. According to Elizabethan physiology, a humor was one of four elemental bodily fluids - phlegm, black bile, blood, and yellow bile - each relating to a specific temperament or mood. Diseases and emotions were determined by the balance of the humors. Someone with an excess of phlegm is sluggish, pale and slow; an excess of black bile is quick to anger and unmerciful; an excess of blood (or sanguine) is excessively jovial and lustful, and an excess of yellow bile is maudlin, lovesick, and languid.

Iambic pentameter. The standard metrical form of poetry that Shakespeare and most English poets use because its easy inflection and rhythm closely mimic natural speech. Each line contains ten syllables consisting of an unaccented syllable followed by an accented one.

Soliloquy. A speech in which the speaker is alone with his private thoughts. It is designed to inform the audience what he is really thinking. When a character delivers a soliloquy, we may assume he's speaking the truth. For example: Juliet's speech, "Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo?"

"Romeo and Juliet" Today

"Romeo and Juliet" is one of the most often produced plays in the world. Here is a list of contemporary adaptations form which we discover how much Romeo and Juliet has stayed in the worlds' consciousness. (To list stage productions would fill an entire volume!)

Music:

Bellini's opera, "I Capuletti ed i Montecchi". Written in 1830. Bellini had to rewrite the final scenes after the premiere because the audience demanded a happy ending. They got their wish, and the lovers wake up! It is now played with the original ending.

Berlioz's "Romeo et Juliet". Written in 1839. A symphony with text by Emile Deschamps. A hybrid between symphony and opera.

Tchaikovsky's "Romeo and Juliet". Written in 1869. A tone poem that is probably the most famous love music ever written by a classical composer.

Prokofiev's ballet, "Romeo and Juliet". Written around 1940. Since it was written, the music, most often heard in three popular suites, has taken on a life of its own, independent of the ballet.

Film:

"Romeo and Juliet" (1936). Directed by George Cukor; Norma Shearer as Juliet; Leslie Howard as Romeo; John Barrymore as Mercutio; Basil Rathbone as Tybalt.

"Romeo and Juliet" (1954). Directed by Renato Castellani; Laurence Harvey as Romeo; Susan Shentall as Juliet; Flora Robson as the Nurse; John Gielgud as Prologue.

"Romeo and Juliet" (1968). Directed by Franco Zeffirelli; Olivia Hussey as Juliet; Leonard Whiting as Romeo; Michael York as Tybalt; Milo O'Shea as Friar Lawrence; Laurence Olivier as Prologue.

"Romeo and Juliet" (1996). Directed By Baz Luhrmann; Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo; Claire Danes as Juliet.

Offshoots:

"Me and Juliet" Broadway: 1953. Musical with music by Richard Rodgers, Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. This musical is a show-within-a-show romance between a stage manager and a chorus girl.

"Romanoff and Juliet" Broadway: 1957; Film: 1960. Play by Peter Ustinov that makes the warring "families" the Communists vs. the Capitalists.

"West Side Story" Broadway: 1957; Film: 1961. Music by Leonard Bernstein, Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and choreography by Jerome Robbins. One of the most famous pieces in American musical theatre history. It transplants Verona, Italy to the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and Romeo and Juliet become Tony and Maria. The film features Richard Beymer as Tony, and Natalie Wood as Maria.

Sources

Epstein, Norrie. The Friendly Shakespeare. New York: Penguin Books, 1994.

Mowat, Barbara, Werstine, Paul, ed. The New Folger Library Shakespeare: The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. New York: Washington Square Press, 1992.

For the students...

In live theatre, unlike movies and television, the actors can hear (and often see) you as easily as you can hear and see them. If you comment out loud on a live show, or read or eat, you disturb not only other members of the audience but also the people on stage, thus diminishing the performance and ultimately, your own enjoyment of it.

This doesn't mean you have to remain silent. Actors want you to respond with laughter and applause; but such responses should always be genuine and appropriate to the moment. Such inconsiderate behavior as shouting, catcalling or sustained whispering, even during blackouts, can ruin the concentration of actors and audience members alike. And throwing paper or objects of any kind towards the stage is not only rude, it's also extremely dangerous to the performers.

In the event of any student misbehavior, the relevant school will be contacted and its principal informed.

We want you to enjoy your visit to Seaside Music Theatre, and we rely on you to exercise your common sense and mature judgment. Thank you for being a valuable part of our audience this season.