Scene Adaptation

In this assignment, you will work a group of three and adapt two important scenes from Romeo and Juliet to the modern day. You must follow the dialogue of the scene, but you may change the setting, tone, language, etc. to fit today’s standards. Be creative and spend time brainstorming. Follow the steps below as you work in your group. Jot down ideas at the bottom of this page, but type up your actual adaptation. Only one adaptation per group needs to be handed in.

1. Choose a passage that you think is interesting and important to the play as a whole. Get approval for your selection. Write down the page numbers and make up a title that describes the scene (i.e. Balcony Scene or Love at First Sight). Make sure the passage is long enough to be interesting. If the scene is too long—8 pages or more—you may cut some lines out when you adapt it.

2. Once you have gotten approval for your passage, analyze the scene. What are the characters saying? What are they thinking? What are they feeling?

3. Now you must consider how to change or adapt the passage. What time period should you choose, 50s? 80s? present? Where will your scene take place (California, city, small town, college campus, beach, just to suggest a few)? What would the modern version of the characters be like? What would their families be like? How would they talk? What would they say? What would their personalities be like (i.e. would Romeo be a gangster, a red neck, a preppy snob?) What is the central difference between the two families? What have they been fighting about for generations? Etc. Think about how you want to change from the original. Will you make it funnier, more realistic? Write down your thoughts below.

4. Now that you have done lots of brainstorming, you need to start writing. You may want to alter the names a bit, or leave them the same (but keep them close—i.e. Juliet to Julie). Make the lines sound like speech, not like writing—i.e. use slang and contractions. NOT: “Hello and how are you today” for a teenager, YES: “Hey, what’s up, dawg?” for a teenager. Write it like a play. Also, do put in scene directions and tone of voice in parenthesis.

Romeo: It is prime time and Juliet is a big screen TV. Arise fair TV and kill that puny black and white job.

Juliet: Oh my . . .

5. Shakespeare uses many metaphors, symbols, and puns in his writing. Make sure you also use metaphors, symbols, and puns in your adaptation. For example, if you do the balcony scene, perhaps Juliet will compare Romeo to a Chevy truck rather than a rose. Be sure to maintain the irony in the scenes. You may even want to exaggerate it.

6. The first draft of your adaptation is due on _______________________________.

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