Gender Switch

Gender Switch

I want to examine the way the both Romeo’s and Juliet’s character change during the ply from their original gender towards the opposite gender. This happens as both of them act in ways that are unusual for their gender in the time the play takes plays and was written. In the beginning of the book Romeo is the guy in the relationship while Juliet is the girl. However towards the end of the play this changes. Juliet takes over more of the man's part by acting in way, that in the time the play was written, was extremely unusual for a girl, for example the decision to take the sleeping potion to take hers and Romeo’s faith in her hand while Romeo on the other hand is merely sitting in Mantua waiting for what will happen. A thing that was more common for a women to do. This project will help me think more about the changes that Shakespeare let’s the characters experience in his play, along with his portrait of women compare to the one of man. 

In order to explore our analysis we decided to stage the Balcony scene, which shows Romeo’s role as a man and Juliet as a woman. Act 3 Scene 3 in which Romeo is more a girl as he is devastated about his banishment. In the conversation he has with Friar Laurence, Friar Lawrence tells him to act like a man. The final scene we will do is Act 4 Scene 1, and maybe some of Act 4 Scene 2, where Friar Lawrence encourages Juliet to take the sleeping potion. Juliet makes this important decision all on her own while Romeo is waiting in Mantua. Later (in Scene 2) Juliet even wonders if Friar Lawrence is trying to poison her however she drinks the potion anyway, which demonstrates her bravery.

To stage that and to make the what we are analyzing more clear we will first have Juliet be played by a girl and Romeo by a guy and then these two people switch roles, the girls played Romeo, the guy Juliet. Friar Lawrence will be played by the same person. We will need to see how creative we can get with the stage and the costuming as it is based a lot on what resources we will have at our hands. Me personally, I believe to demonstrate the switch in character by the actors they should switch costumes this will not only make it more clear to the audience but also amusing as the guy will be wearing a dress. If the costumes do not fit the actor completely it won’t be a problem as it can be taken further in though Romeo and Juliet switched gender they do not completely fit in it, like they don’t fit in the costume.

We require three people for our project. A girl Romeo and Juliet, a guy Romeo and Juliet and a Friar Lawrence. I will be playing the girl Romeo and Juliet, we haven’t decided yet which of the guys is to play the guy Romeo and Juliet and which is to play Friar Lawrence. We will do that tomorrow.

Each of the group members will have equal parts as we will have three scenes in total and each actor will be in two and only two of them. This is also very helpful as we will always have one person watching to give feedback.