Using Romeo and Juliet in the classroom

By: Runa Nesje

Romeo and Juliet is the famous, tragic love story about two young lovers whose deaths was the necessary for their two families to end a long feud. Since the story is a play, it can be funnier for the pupils to work with the text in a practical activity. Last week we worked with Romeo and Juliet in our class, and we did this activity called “freeze frame”. We divided the class into two group, one group was going to remake a scene from all the scenes from act 1, and the other group would remake a scene from each scene in act 2. We went through all the scenes and decided who was going to act what and how we were going to place us. We had 6 scenes to make a remake of. It ended with someone being a bush, a wall, lamps, chairs, and some of the characters from act 2. The meaning of freeze frame, is to portray a scene from a story in just pictures using only our bodies and facial expressions to portray the scene the best way for the audience. The group is counting until 1o for theme self, then the whole group will change positions and make the transition as fast and smoothly as possible for a new picture .  

This picture is from when we acted out the balcony scene with Romeo and Juliet in act 2. 

I think this is a great activity one can use in the classroom. While working with the “freeze frame” the pupils get to work with cooperating with each other in groups, they have to read (parts of) the play to plan what they are going to do, and everyone in the group can contribute.

Sources: 

Shakespeare. W. (1982) Romeo & Juliet. Glasgow: Oxford University press