Kind thanks from the Arts Faculty to all students involved in the Romeo & Juliet production, and to all who came along to support. This was a combined creative effort involving Drama, Dance, Music and the Visual Arts, with a number of students active either as performers, musicians, costume designers or set designers.
Based on recent school cross curricular themes of the environment and technology, we explored the characters of Romeo and Juliet in a post apocalyptic world with an uncertain future. Our hope is that by creatively re-interpreting the historical text through a variety of art forms our students gain knowledge and insight of how to use the Arts to explore these themes, alongside the development of valuable 21st century transferable skills, such as collaboration, confidence, imagination, innovation and risk taking.
Romeo & Juliet – what could possibly go wrong?
Take as many Year 4 Drama students as you can get away with, add some enterprising Art students, and a liberal sprinkling of choral enthusiasts, let the dancers in….
It seemed a daunting prospect – all those lines to learn, dance moves to choreograph, props to create, costumes to design, songs to rehearse – apocalyptic indeed! Could ECP really pull off a Shakespeare play? Would the audience understand?
Experience dictates that the more people and aspects involved in a project, the more scope for things to go wrong. Fortunately, the production of Romeo and Juliet by so many of our classmates at the English College in Prague was not the case. The acting was, in general, pretty good and it was inspiring to see some new faces making their acting debut. Yes, some lines got missed, mumbled or messed up but come on, this is Shakespeare – not exactly everyday stuff. The show went fine and although not many would claim to have understood all the lines, we grasped how the story and individual characters developed.
Highlights
The design of the play was brilliant – the Art Department’s close attention to detail was noticeable, as were the costumes. The throne zones of the two houses, Capulets and Montagues occupying different sides of the stage was a very nice touch adding to the tension between the two rival families. Arina’s poise and Bibiana’s absolute stillness were a skillful supplement.
Both the music and the dance scenes made a great impression and the audience was appreciative of that. In fact, we wanted more! Couldn’t we have been treated to another routine in the second half? The Fight song was rousingly motivational but perhaps a more energetic and violent song would have conveyed the mood more appropriately. We loved the simple but so effective sound-compilations that the cast produced using just their hands as musical instruments – it made for a magically moody finale. Scenes and acting that stood out for us were Nicholas Roussouw as Friar Laurence, Bibiana Nesvadbová’s monologue and the sensational scene as Romeo’s lips met Juliet’s sending a buzz of electric tension whistling through the audience. Training the fight scenes paid off as resounding thwacks, whacks and smacks reverberated from the stage.
So we would like to congratulate the ECP Drama, Music and Art Departments for putting together a wonderful performance which was very unique in its presentation. It was most entertaining to see a traditional Shakespearean play done in such a different, yet entertaining way.
Members of the Theatre-Going ECA
