This exercise explores the opening scene from the play. It asks students to imagine the narrow streets of Verona; to think about the stakes for each character and to think about how Shakespeare’s audience would have reacted to the opening of the play. You will need the Key Scene Resource.

• Divide the students into pairs and ask them to label themselves A and B with the A’s as Samson and B’s as Gregory.
• Ask students to read through the first few lines of Act 1 Scene 1, the exchange between Samson and Gregory. What do they notice about the type of language they are using? What kind of relationship do Samson and Gregory have with each other? Are there any modern-day equivalents we can draw on? How do we think that Shakespeare’s audience would have reacted to this banter in the opening moments of the play?
• Describe to the group the narrow streets surrounding Shakespeare’s theatre and the lack of sanitation, which meant an open sewer running down the centre of the street.
• Ask the students to demonstrate what would have happened when two people tried to pass each other in that narrow street.  
• Now invite the students to walk around the room and give a set of instructions to try. As they walk: Avoiding making eye contact;Make and hold eye contact;Make and hold eye contact as if you are a ‘rival’ pair. 
• Ask students to discuss their feelings as the exercise develops.
• Ask the students to experiment with this.  Whilst the students are walking around the room introduce some of the context that Shakespeare gives us in his play for the market place in Verona.  Ask the students to do the activity as if:it’s a very hot day; they are enemies; they are two rival factions in Verona, the Capulets and the Montagues. They have always hated each other however they are in the market place, the public square in the centre of Verona. Fighting is against the law.
• Now ask students to make groups of four. Within each four, one pair will play the Capulets (Sampson and Gregory); the other pair will play the Montagues (Abraham and Balthasar). 
• Students work with the section of the scene from the entrance of Abraham and Bathasar.
• Ask students to read the scene out loudly as if you want the whole world to hear you. Next instruct the students to whisper the scene back to back carefully and thinking about who hears what.
• What do we notice about the scene when its played in 2 different ways?  Were there any moments that worked well being said out loud?  Did any moments worked being whispered and why?
• Ask each group of 4 to come up with a way of sharing the scene back to the rest of the room.  Ask them to notice who is speaking to who and which parts they want to be whispered or spoke out loud.
• Two or three versions of the scene are shared and discussed.
• Asks students what they have discovered about the world of the play. Why do they think the Capulets and Montagues are enemies? What did it feel like to be part of a ‘household’? Do they think the situation will change under Prince Escalus’ law? Why/why not? 

This exercise explores Romeo’s speech in Act 2 Scene 1 and will help students embody the language, playing attention to repeated words and words in opposing pairs. You will need Act 2 Scene 1 Resource.

Act 2 Scene 1 

• Divide the students into pairs and place the text of Romeo’s speech from Act 2 Scene 1 face down in front of each pairs, instructing the students not to look at the text.  
• Next give each pair 20 seconds to quickly look at the speech and then place it back down with the text facing down.  

• Ask students to try and recall any words or phrases that stood out. Share these with the group and then ask each pair to focus on one remembered word or phrase.  
• The pair create a frozen image or strong gesture that best represents the word or phrase, which will be depicted in silence. Encourage them to match the image/gesture to the text. Students share their silent gesture   
• Next arrange the group into a circle and ask for two volunteers to read the speech out loud, changing speaker every time there is a change in punctuation.  
• Divide the remaining students into two groups, each group standing behind one to the students speaking the text. 
• The two volunteers read through the speech once again but this time the groups standing behind each speaker echo any words said by that speaker that relate to imagery or themes within the speech – (eg light/moon/sun/eyes).  

• Now ask the students to return to their pairs and give each pair two or three lines from the speech, asking them to find strong gestures to go with each of the significant words in their lines.  
• Ask each pair to deliver their lines and gestures in sequence round the circle, watching carefully to and notice which words/ images stand out when delivered in this way.  

Within this exercise we are going to compare and contrast two of Juliets speeches. What is Juliet’s journey and how does Shakespeare show us this through the language she uses? You will need the Act 3 Scene 2 Resource. 

• Arrange the students into pairs and them to read the last words of Juliet’s first speech (Gallop apace) in turn. What information do they glean about this speech? 

• Repeat the exercise with the second speech (Shall I speak ill of him). What do we notice about the contrast? What has happened to Juliet between the first and the second speech? How does Shakespeare show us this journey?
• Staying on the second speech, ask students to comment on names or words that are frequently repeated – ie husband, cousin, Romeo, Tybalt, banished, and words that are similar – ie kill, killed, slain, murdered. Ask students to underline these words. 
• Now ask them to read the speech out loud to themselves whilst moving around the space. 
• Every time they read out loud an underlined word they are to hit the paper. How does this help students to focus in on the key concepts of the speech?
• Bring the students back together into a circle and read the first speech from Act 3 Scene 2 aloud, with each student reading only up to the next punctuation mark.

• Each time there is a punctuation mark, the next person reads. This may mean that individual students read only one word, or a couple of lines. The focus is what the punctuation offers up, rather than worrying about meaning of individual words. 
• What is noticed about the pattern of the speech? Which words stood out? Was there a place in the speech when readers are swapped often? Did any individual have a more sustained period of speaking? 
• Now ask students to read out loud the second speech, whilst walking around the room again shifting on each punctuation mark.
• Once each student has spoken ask them for a word to describe how they feel.
• How does this relate to Juliet’s emotional state at this point in the play? What might be learned about the length of her thoughts, even though she’s in a heightened state of excitement?