April 2023: One Fell Swoop: Reading All of Shakespeare’s Plays - Romeo and Juliet

Friday, April 21, 2023, 12:00-1:30 pm EDT

 

Pre-registration is required, and we ask you to register only if you can be present for the FULL session. All readings are available online. Participants who successfully complete ALL sessions will be eligible to receive an Amazon e-gift certificate.

 

 

We'll begin the series with Romeo and Juliet, one of the most frequently read of Shakespeare's plays. A perennial assignment for high school students, the play has also been filmed in endless iterations, from the 1970s Zefferelli film, to the Baz Luhrmann version in the 90s, through to reinterpretations like West Side Story and Gnomeo and Juliet. But how does the play change when we approach it without all the cultural baggage it has accrued? How is it different to read the play as an adult? Does it live up to its romantic reputation, or is it something else entirely? And what do the restrictions and limits faced by the play's young people have to say about questions of liberty?

 

Readings: Romeo and Juliet