THE ROMEO AND JULIET PROJECT THE PLAY’S THE THING

THE “ROMEO AND JULIET” project is a Lakeside rite of passage. At the end of each fall semester, freshman English students — across all nine sections of the course — work with upperclass drama students and perform scenes from Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.”

The project began nearly 15 years ago, when Upper School drama teacher Alban Dennis proposed a workshop that would introduce English 9 students to Shakespeare‘s text from a performance-oriented angle. “Shakespeare was always meant to be spoken,” says Dennis. Performing Shakespeare would allow students to experience and engage with the language in ways different from learning in a traditional English classroom. The proposed partnership was met with enthusiasm: What began as a one-time workshop expanded into a recurring, memorable, intergrade collaboration spanning multiple class periods.

In the class, English 9 students select a monologue or partner scene from the first act of “Romeo and Juliet” to closely annotate; they then rehearse with Drama II, III, and IV students before they perform in front of the group and their English class.

“The 9th graders look up to the seniors so much,” says Upper School English department head Kat Yorks. “They take feedback from their older peers to heart, I think, even more than mine as a teacher.” While the drama students provide feedback, they are careful to not direct. Instead of being instructors, “we want to become mentors who ask helpful questions, give suggestions, and are a supportive audience,” explains Dennis. Beyond providing theatrical advice, drama students inspire an excitement for the project that spreads outside the classroom. “It’s so much fun to see students during this unit reciting their lines in the stairwell of the AAC, in the cafeteria… all over campus,” says Upper School English teacher Amy Kaz.

At the same time, this collaboration is an especially valuable experience for Drama IV students. In Drama III, they have had a Shakespeare unit during which they closely studied meter, rhyme, diction, and performance techniques. They learned that Shakespearean plays lack stage directions; acting reveals details that are easily glossed over when simply reading. Directions about character, movement, tempo, emphasis, and so much more are embedded within the text itself. And teaching is often said to be the best way to learn; indeed, working with English 9 students allows the Drama IV students to not only provide specific feedback, but also solidify their own knowledge and make new discoveries.

For many English 9 students, this project may be their first time experiencing the vulnerability, nervousness, and excitement of performing in front of an audience. After each performance, the audience provides affirmative feedback and celebrates the artistic choices each actor made. “Hearing this validating feedback afterwards is very empowering for the students,” says Dennis.

“Romeo and Juliet” works especially well for building collaboration and community because it is a play written about adolescents. “It seems it’s about young love, but it’s really about the desires of the self coming into conflict with the expectations of the world around you,” says Yorks. “I think that's something 9th graders really relate to.” Acting out the play enhances the students’ understanding of and connections to the story. “They inhabit the language in a way that's different from literary analysis,” she says. “They experience Shakespeare as living, breathing text that was meant to be staged.”

— Hallie Xu ’23