This activity is used to make sure students know the context of the scene, or entire play, that they will be exploring. The teacher as a storyteller tells the story of the play in action. Students sit round in a storytelling circle and are asked to enter the circle and create the pictures/characters/ places and things for the story. 

At the end of each section, students are asked to hold an image summarising the action. Props can be used to represent key characters: eg a mask for Romeo, a shawl or scarf for Juliet. You will need the Story Resource.  

• Sit the students in a circle. 

• Read out loud the story.

• The students create the images in bold, for example 2 students might create the image of ‘Capulets’ in the middle of the circle, or one student might create the image of ‘Prince Escalus’.

• The text in bold can be delivered whether by a student in the middle of the circle or yourself.

• After each section students sit down and continue with the story. 

• How does this way of telling the story summarise and embed the knowledge of the plot? 

There are two sections to this next exercise: 

1. Status Lines – looking at where different characters within the Montague and Capulet household place themselves on a status line. Where do the points of conflict occur? Who has the highest status Montagues or Capulets? Where are the women? Where is the nurse? 

2. Family photos – Staying in the same groups students are asked to create two family photos, one for a tabloid magazine and one taken by the paparazzi, showing what the relationships in the household are really like. These are compared and interrogated. What do we discover about the world of the play? What do we discover about the relationships in the play? Where are the conflicts, tensions? 

You will need the Character Facts Resource.

Status lines 

• Divide the group into 2 groups.

• Hand each student a character card (found in resources).  

• Ask students to quickly read the information about their character to another person. They must then make a decision about the status of that character in the play (how important they are).  

• Ask each group to work separately and put their character into a status line with the character who has the highest status at one end and the person with the lowest status at the other end.  

• The two groups stand in a line and face each other so you can compare their choices.  

Family photos 

• Ask the two groups to now divide themselves into the Montagues and the Capulet households. (The Prince and Paris may choose which household to go to).  

• Each group has five minutes to create two family photos, one for Hello Magazine (how the family want to be seen) and the other, a snapshot taken by the Paparazzi, showing what relationships in the household are really like.   

Reflection in pairs: 

• How does introducing plot and character in these ways differ from reading the text cold? 

• What difference might this approach make to pupil motivation?

• What kinds of understanding do we start to build?

• When pupils work together in this way, what are the learning opportunities? What are the risks?

• What do students know now and what do they need to know? How might this ‘need to know’ influence their learning? 

Working through the play as an ensemble means finding a collaborative understanding which is mutually supportive and unique to that group of students. 

In this exercise we will ask you to focus on the prologue at the start of the play.  We will take you through 4 different exercises to get the text up on its feet and into the bodies of the students much like we would do in a rehearsal room.  

We know by enabling the students to work in this way the text will become playful and embedded more easily within the students vocabulary. The art of repetition means the students will be able to recall the words more easily. 

You will need the Prologue Resource.

1. 

• Stand the students in a circle and give each a copy of the prologue.  

• Ask the students to read the prologue out loud through once, changing reader at every punctuation mark. Sometimes this means students will only read one or two words but it allows everyone to read. 

•  Note where there is a lot of punctuation and where there is little.  Why might some sections have one word and some sections have one line? 

2. 

• Ask students to walk around the space.   

• Call out a number and tell students that they must huddle together as quickly as possible in that number, though inclusion is more important than the number itself.  

• Ask the groups or pairs to start creating frozen images, done quickly in instinctive response to words or phrases based on the Prologue. 

• For example in small groups/pairs show: 

• Family; fighting or ‘mutiny’;  

• Two lovers; fair Verona 

• Asking the students to make these instant frozen images allows them to take ownership of the text.  

3. 

• Now ask students to form two groups, facing each other in a long line. Ask them to create a still image of ‘two households, both alike in dignity.   

• Discuss the choices that they made.  

• Now ask them to change the picture to ‘two households both alike in dignity … from ancient grudge break to new mutiny’.  

• Discuss how have the images changed? How does this help us understand certain characters journeys? 

4. 

• Divide the students into three groups.  

• Ask the students to animate their section of the prologue, ‘acting out’ the events that are described through images and sounds, while one or more within each groups reads out the text.  

• Share the performances.

Reflection: What is the effect of telling the story of the play so briefly? The play opens with a prologue which tells you everything that’s going to happen: why do you think Shakespeare does this?