Group2

Group 2 should create their page here
 * Kelly - costumes
 * Jackie - scene description
 * Will - setting
 * Lauren Medwid - casting


 * Part 1: Place and Time**
 * Darien/New Cannan
 * Present day (2010)


 * Part 2: Concept Statement** (one page minimum)

The Montagues of Darien and the Capulets of New Cannan are rival families. The cause of this feud goes back to when Capulet and Montague were not yet fathers of Juliet and Romeo. The conflict began when they were in high school. Montague was the quarterback for the Darien High School football team, and Capulet was the quarterback for the New Cannan High School football team. They were both extremely good athletes, and fought to compete for not only a win for their teams but also for fame throughout Fairfield County and even the state of Connecticut. One day, some of the Capulets decided to crash a Montague party in Darien, celebrating a Darien win over New Cannan. Montague knew that the only reason Capulet was there was to steal away his fame and popularity, so he went looking for Capulet. They got into a nasty fight that eventually ended up getting them both kicked off of their own football teams. Ever since then, the Montague and Capulet families have been enemies, and the rest of the people in Darien and New Cannan became rivals as well.

Our story begins at the start of the high school football season of 2010. Romeo Montague of Darien has now taken his father's place as the quarterback for the Darien High School football team. Juliet, the daughter of Capulet of New Cannan, was not a football player for the New Cannan team like her father, but instead she was a cheerleader for New Cannan High School. They meet each other at a party at the Capulet household and immediately fall in love. The day after they meet, and after Juliet agrees to go to a major school dance with him, a fight breaks out at a football game between Mercutio and Tybalt, and Romeo also gets involved. They both end up getting hurt and are out for the rest of the season. Principal Prince of DHS is called out to break it up. The scene that we chose to portray was Act III Scene i, and it begins with this fight at Darien High School.

Our updated version is appropriate to the text of //Romeo and Juliet// because it changes it up a bit without straying too far from the plot line. Making the time period in present day allows for a better understanding of the story for the audience in this day and age. Darien and New Cannan is a very appropriate setting for the feud between families because they are two small towns that happen to be rivals, just like the Montagues and Capulets in the book. This aspect also makes it very simple for the people of today to relate to, especially for the people of our own Darien High School and New Cannan High School. Having Juliet and Romeo meet at a party is also very true to the book and in addition is very realistic for this time period. We did change the story (a bit) slightly when we added the part about how //Romeo and Juliet// would be going to a big school dance rather than getting married, but this is appropriate because we wanted to keep the characters in the play and in our version similar in age, and nowadays, people would not get married at such a young age. The part of the story where Mercutio and Tybalt get killed was also changed from death to a serious injury. We thought such a change was more appropriate because while two students fighting at a sporting event generally would not get killed, they could definitely get hurt seriously enough to be sent to the hospital and be out for a whole sports season. Our updated vision is appropriate to the text of //Romeo and Juliet// because it is the same characters and plot line, but with an interesting modern twist added in to make it more relatable to this day and age.

(Written by Lauren...it's not yet finished! we will make the final changes in class on monday while we are making the power point so we can all consult with each other at the same time.)

​Lauren: thanks for the suggestions kelly! I kept in all of your suggestions that you added in pink so I changed them back to black. We also really need to decide where Romeo is sent after the fight and how. Does anyone else have any suggestions as to where and how Romeo should be banished?

Will: Maybe Romeo's punishment can be: 1. He is forbidden to attend the school dance (so he can't be Juliet's date there) and 2. He is supposed to stay out of New Canaan for some amount of time. His parents would see to it that he isn't interacting with anyone from the town.


 * Part 3: Choose a Scene**
 * Act 3 Scene 1

//a. Set Design//
 * Part 4: Jobs**
 * DHS football field, with the school in the background.
 * There are some background characters, but most of the team has disbanded, and it is getting fairly dark outside.
 * Mercutio and Benvolio (and later Romeo) can enter from the right side of the stage, Tybalt and his guys can enter from the left.
 * The sides of the stage can be marked at around the 30 yard line or so, to give the actors ample room to brawl.
 * BWP banners by the field to show team pride.

//​Lauren:// Will, I think this is good...yes it should take place at the DHS football field. Banners are a good idea too. Make sure to make a drawing of it for Monday!

Kelly: I also like the football field, as it will take place at a sporting event. I think that there should be a lot of school pride from both New Canaan and Darien to emphasize the rivalry.

Will: Alright, I'll get to that. Thanks for the help.

//b. Casting//
 * Benvolio: Cory Monteith (from the television series Glee) - I thought he would be a good actor to play a good friend/peace maker
 * Mercutio: Kellan Lutz (from Twilight) - would be a good actor to play a funny/slightly crazy character - good for a football player
 * Tybalt: Chuck Norris - okay, so I know he's not that young but he's the perfect tough guy and would make the fight scene interesting! If not him then I would say Vin Deisel.
 * Romeo: Chace Crawford - he's young and is perfect to play a romantic character (not to mention he's pretty good looking...haha)
 * Prince: Denzel Washington - good to play a serious character that is in authority
 * Lady Capulet: Meryl Streep - she's the perfect person to play sort of a drama queen/beauty queen
 * Montague: Dustin Hoffman - kind of an old guy
 * Pertruchio & Citizen: random extras (not famous actors)

Lauren: These are some of the characters I chose, feel free to make suggestions. I tried to make it so that younger actors play the younger characters and the older actors play the older characters (except for Chuck Norris...but can't he be an exception?!?!). Some are also more famous than others to balance it out! Also, I made it so that Pertruchio and Citizen were both played by random people, because I think if we were to make them be some famous actor, it would take away from the scene because people would be confused if like, for example, Zac Efron showed up out of no where. And, the two characters at the bottom sort of set apart from everyone else are characters that are in the scene but do not have lines.
 * Capulet: Sean Connery - a tough guy and also pretty old (has a beard)
 * Lady Montague: Helen Mirren - also kinda old, mellow

Kelly: Love the character choices!! The last two that are seperate--are they Capulet and Lady Montague? Just a side note, for actor/acting purposes, do we want one family to be more well liked than the other? I would think that we would want the audience to be more drawn to Romeo and the Montagues to ensure that people don't feel sorry for Tybalt and the Capulets.

Lauren: Well, I think it is up to the audience to decide which family they like more than the other. I mean, I would expect most of the audience to side with the Montagues because the Capulets are more outrageous characters in general, but I dont think its necessary that try to guide them towards the Montagues because the characters themselves sort of automatically do that.

Will: I think they are all good ideas except for Tybalt. I agree that Chuck Norris is awesome, but he's too old to make a reasonable Tybalt. It would make the fight scene a little absurd if Chuck was going around picking fights with high school students. He should be someone closer to Romeo's age.

//c. Costume Design//
 * Romeo, Benvolio, and Mercutio wearing same team jerseys of same colors (Blue and White)
 * Show similarity and partnership
 * Tybalt wearing team jersey of colors opposite to that of other team (Black and Red)
 * Show their unity to one another and extreme opposition to others
 * Prince--wearing a suit
 * Show his importance and authority
 * Make his clothes a different color than the fighting boys--khaki or neutral
 * Want him to stand out above others-- differentiate himself from other spectators
 * Lady Montague--wearing designer clothes
 * Fancier than other spectators, but still more casual than "Prince"
 * Show her wealth
 * Make her clothes the same colors as her son--set her apart from Capulets
 * Montague--Also wearing expensive clothes
 * Mayber wearing a button down shirt and pants?
 * Less fancy than a suit, but more fancy than others
 * Have the same colors as his son and as Lady Montague
 * Lady Capulet--wearing designer
 * Have her clothes the same colors as her side
 * clothes a different style than Lady Montague--set them apart
 * Mayber one is more flamboyant and accessorized than the other family?
 * Capulet--expensive clothes, too
 * Have his clothes also fancier, maybe a button-down shirt and pants
 * Have same colors as wife
 * Differentiate them from other spectators and from each other
 * More extravagant than Montague--go with wife's elaborate clothes
 * Petruchio/Citizens--wearing casual clothes
 * Wear jeans with a regular tee-shirt
 * Have their nonchalance stand in contrast to the crispness and extravagance of the Montague and Capulet relatives
 * All blend in together so main characters stick out

Lauren: Kelly, this sounds excellent. I deleted the text that read "maybe played as principal" because we have now established that Prince will indeed be played as a principal in our story.It is definitely a great idea to differentiate the Prince from the other characters. Maybe he could be wearing a neutral colored suit? Neutral colors would be good I think because he isn't on one side or another, he's sort of in the middle. Also, I changed it so that Romeo, Mercutio, AND Benvolio were all wearing Darien colors, since Benvolio is also on their side and not Tybalt's. Also, are we certain that the colors were black and orange? Because I've kinda always thought it was black and red. As for the Montague and Capulet, I think that maybe one of them could be wearing a polo and slacks, maybe the other could be wearing a button down shirt? I dont think it is too important to make one family look wealthier than the other because it isn't really emphasized in the book, only in the modern version of the movie that we saw today. For Lady Capulet and Lady Montague, maybe one of them could be wearing a dress and the other a skirt and a blouse? Also, if you can, do you think maybe you could actually name some designers? Haha, I think it would really add to the presentation and would also add in a little bit of humor. And just so you know, these are all just suggestions

Kelly: As we were saying in study hall, I think that the designer names would be a great touch. I didn't think that we had established colors yet, but I agree that black and red are more striking than black and orange, which I chose because they are the opposite of the white and blue which Darien will be wearing. As for the button down shirt versus polo shirt, I am afraid that the polo shirt will be too casual against the button down shirt. If I find a polo shirt which is maybe somewhat dressier, I think that would be good for the Darien Capulet. I will do some research on some brands for the costumes and I will have some names prepared!

Kelly: Hi again! I did a whole bunch of research and I have pictures, brands, and prices galore! They are on a Microsoft Word document, and I will send them to school for you guys to all look over and choose from on Monday!

//d. Scene Description// Lauren: Jackie, I think all you really need to do here is update your description of the scene based off of what we have in our concept statement! Also we needa think about how/where Romeo gets suspended to...
 * Mercutio and Benvolio enter, walking powerfully and acting as though they own the place (at a home game),
 * Mercutio possibly drunk? could be inappropriate.... if not, he's swaying while talking,playfully shoving Benvolio
 * Tybalt enters, very sober, trying to take control, but Mercutio impossible to control. Tybalt gets tired of dealing with him, tries to provoke Romeo, and Mercutio gets out of control.
 * Mercutio punched and blacked out
 * Romeo loyal to his friend....wants to get back at Tybalt, very angry (rival between towns built up anger along with him beating up his friend)
 * Socks Tybalt in right eye as Prince (principal) walks in, furious, and pulls them apart.
 * As fight clears out, crowds from football game come in, watch the end of the fight. Becomes very rowdy.
 * Romeo gets suspended(?), Tybalt and Mercutio go to hospital

Kelly: The basic idea of this scene is great, but it may need some more concrete details as to the how/why/etc. and maybe some more updated and relevant details which pertain to the modernized time period.