Discovering Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet: Workbook for Students (Young Actors Series) - Softcover

The King James version of the Bible has been "updated" and retranslated countless times to fit various vernaculars and political agendas. So it is with Shakespeare, too. The authors of Discovering Shakespeare, a pair of classically trained actors, have "translated" Romeo and Juliet into contemporary teen talk, and presented the two texts side-by-side to ease digestion of the classic by high school students. The book uses the new translation as an entry to the original text and includes useful tips on how schools might cast, rehearse, and perform the new version. Though designed for classroom use, the book offers an offbeat and potentially valuable Rosetta stone for any theatrically minded teen who loves the play but is struggling with its language.

Fredi Olster and Rick Hamilton have acted in sixty productions of Shakespeare's plays, as well as appearing in film and on television. Their extensive experience in regional repertory theater includes several seasons at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, where Fredi was Kate and Rick was Tranio in Bill Ball's widely acclaimed production of The Taming of the Shrew, which was televised for Theatre in America (PBS). They spent several seasons with the Oregon Shakespearean Festival, the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, the Utah Shakespeare Festival, the Alley Theatre, and the Dallas Shakespeare Festival, among others.