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Wolfling Meets "Romeo+Juliet"
For reasons that utterly escape me, Wolfling's junior high drama teacher is introducing students to Shakespeare by having them read Romeo and Juliet and having them watch the Franco Zefferelli movie and West Side Story.
I boggle every time I think about it.
How is this a good idea???
Wolfling is a budding Shakespeare fan -- and she really likes some musicals -- but I could not imagine her doing anything but snoozing and wincing through those movies.
So in an effort to help prepare her for reading the play and sitting through those movies, I Netflixed Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, figuring the exciting pace and the intense visuals would help carry her through the language and the fact that it's "a kissing book."
She had a hard time getting the players straight at first, but her interest ratcheted up significantly when Claire Danes' Juliet came on the scene. Reminding her how old the characters were also intensified her interest.
She nodded sagely when I pointed out that the party scene carries an important life lesson: Always find out a boy's name before you kiss him and fall head over heels in love, just to be sure he's not your mortal enemy.
In the end, however, she started begging me to turn it off just before Romeo killed Tybalt. The problem wasn't the violence.
Nope, she was shouting at the screen: Enough with the emo!
And really, who can blame her? Especially when the emo is being radiated in waves by Leonardo DiCaprio.
It was getting late anyway, so I turned the movie off, but insisted on going through the plot with her until she was clear on the major points. Part of her confusion was due to a critical misundertanding: not realizing that when Mercutio spoke of Tybalt sending a letter to Romeo's "father" he meant Romeo's dad, not the priestly "father" Romeo was hanging out with that morning. When I cleared that up, she was much less confused.
Sometimes I blush for the gaps in my daughter's religious education.
*sigh
She also just didn't get all the bits about pride, honor, and testosterone-fueled taking of offense. Explaining that Mercutio dies because Tybalt is trying to take revenge on Romeo for crashing a costume party took some doing. She just couldn't get her mind around it. Which I suppose is a good thing.
I boggle every time I think about it.
How is this a good idea???
Wolfling is a budding Shakespeare fan -- and she really likes some musicals -- but I could not imagine her doing anything but snoozing and wincing through those movies.
So in an effort to help prepare her for reading the play and sitting through those movies, I Netflixed Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, figuring the exciting pace and the intense visuals would help carry her through the language and the fact that it's "a kissing book."
She had a hard time getting the players straight at first, but her interest ratcheted up significantly when Claire Danes' Juliet came on the scene. Reminding her how old the characters were also intensified her interest.
She nodded sagely when I pointed out that the party scene carries an important life lesson: Always find out a boy's name before you kiss him and fall head over heels in love, just to be sure he's not your mortal enemy.
In the end, however, she started begging me to turn it off just before Romeo killed Tybalt. The problem wasn't the violence.
Nope, she was shouting at the screen: Enough with the emo!
And really, who can blame her? Especially when the emo is being radiated in waves by Leonardo DiCaprio.
It was getting late anyway, so I turned the movie off, but insisted on going through the plot with her until she was clear on the major points. Part of her confusion was due to a critical misundertanding: not realizing that when Mercutio spoke of Tybalt sending a letter to Romeo's "father" he meant Romeo's dad, not the priestly "father" Romeo was hanging out with that morning. When I cleared that up, she was much less confused.
Sometimes I blush for the gaps in my daughter's religious education.
*sigh
She also just didn't get all the bits about pride, honor, and testosterone-fueled taking of offense. Explaining that Mercutio dies because Tybalt is trying to take revenge on Romeo for crashing a costume party took some doing. She just couldn't get her mind around it. Which I suppose is a good thing.
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Much Ado About Nothing is delightful though, my favorite. And while Julius Caesar is dull at times, I enjoyed reading it in class back in high school--I jumped on the part of Cassius, who I still adore for some unfathomable reason. (His wry snarkiness, I guess!)
*/way too late in the night babbling*
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The way to turn kids onto Shakey is to get them to act him out. That's what happened at my school. When I was about Wolfling's age I got to be Macbeth and Mark Antony onstage in front of an audience of parents and aunties- and I never looked back.
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I'm not sure it's going to make Wolfling any more appreciate of the play, but she'll probably enjoy herself more. ;-)
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1) This was essentially about two silly teenagers in silly puppy love who overreacted to everything. I had always before tried to understand (and couldn't) the deep meaningful love and devotion that precipitated their actions. Whew. That was a relief. I no longer had to angst over the fact that I didn't get Romeo and Juliet.
2) The scene where Juliet and her mother are about to have a meaninful conversation and the mother calls the nurse in. I never quite got that. What was that all about? Now I realize the mother was in over her head and out of touch with Juliet and was glad to turn her over to someone else.
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And I'm glad that Wolfling did not see their swooning love-at-first-sight and becoming engaged after being in each other's presences for only half an hour or so as romantic, but utterly ridiculous.