How now, you crusty bag of nature, you egg! Do ye have what it takes to step into an original production of Shakespeare’s ROMEO & JULIET? To explore the shifting yet constant nature of language and dramatic action? Come and take part in a group staging of Act I, Scene 1, wherein the company shall roundly insult each other with Elizabethan screeds and many, many thumbs shall be bit. Cosplay welcome—nay, encouraged!
A collaborative production between the Main Programming and LitRPG Tracks with narrator Neil Hellegers:
This is a group workshop I have done many times with all ages, and with as many as 50 people, and it ends with everyone doing a scene from Romeo and Juliet together! (background: I worked as a university instructor and teaching artist for decades before becoming an audiobook narrator).It starts with splitting the group in two, taking opposing sides of the room. I’ll then distribute slips of paper with insults from numerous Shakespeare plays, and do a quick review for sense. These are always fun, a little more graphic than people generally expect from Shakes, and an exploration of language and action. We practice firing them at each other at the other group from across the room.Then I have each group pick two “captains”, with whom I cast and review a shortened version of the first scene from R&J (aka the “Do you bite your thumb at me, sir?” scene). We then choose a fun setting and stage the scene, with each group as rival Montagues and Capulets, and let the insults and biting of thumbs fly, complete with police (The Prince) intervention.I can fold in a little or as much literary analysis and dramaturgical import as fits the group, while we also have a blast, a rowdy and energetic experience, with a unique version of the play, and tons of archaic insults to keep throwing around the con for the days to follow.
Expect to have a blast at this panel!
