Congratulations to Christian Ely and the Extraordinary Middle School Cast of this year's Romeo and Juliet!
The Shakespeare Project, now in its 20th consecutive year under the direction of Christian Ely, is without parallel in the independent school world. Each year, the 7th grade English classes read a Shakespeare play aloud in class and do a fully produced, cut staging of the play. Every student in seventh grade is either in the show or on a crew. Additionally, trained Shakespearean actors come into each classroom to coach and direct the entire grade in their selected scenes of two or three characters. Over the years, we have also brought in theatre professionals who have been commissioned to write original music, choreograph fight scenes or dances and design costumes and scenery. Rehearsals and the realization of the production elements occur during both in-school and after-school rehearsals. Every year, Mr. Ely focuses on a certain theme or themes of the play to develop a concept for the show's staging and design, and the students and the production crews work hard to realize his vision.
This year's production of Romeo & Juliet used Brechtian techniques to focus on society's treatment of women and social classes. Christian Ely said of the show, "The 20th Annual Seventh Grade Shakespeare Project. It takes my breath away to think of that. Not because we've been doing it for twenty years, but because for twenty years we've been able to find new themes to build the productions around. This is our sixth or seventh staging of Romeo and Juliet – I've lost count – and over the years we have focused in big ideas like love, the antithesis of love and violence, and the productions that emphasize the beauty of the language of play. This year, after rereading the play, I decided I wanted to focus on two other themes Shakespeare explores with the show: class and the place of women in the world."
Bravo to the entire cast and crew!
To see photos from the show click here
*Photo credit: Al Foote III - http://alfoote3photography.com