Romeo + Juliet

So Life’s been fairly strict with me lately but I did get a chance to read Shakespeare’s Boy Actors and it was good (snarky in places too, loved that) so now I have a completely different perspective after reading that and watching - for the first time - the Baz Luhrman version of Romeo an Juliet. My new perspective is actually just back to my original, simple idea: keep everything in the play the same, just Juliet be played by a man. I think what I’ve learned ultimately is that by saying a little I say a lot, and instead of forcing all my imaginative whims, I should let the piece speak for itself. 

Also, my favorite part of this play is the scene with the Capulets where Juliet is told that she’ll be marrying her father. It was my favorite part in the play for a reason and Baz totally picked up on all the things I did from it - ya know, and probably tons of other scholars and such who study the play - and that’s the sheer hopelessness, the horror of the whole situation - not just in R&J’s plight but in Juliet’s family. Talk more about that later in my “Sami + Shakespeare” column that doesn’t exist yet but will soon.