Starter (10 mins approx.)

Put students into groups of 4. Give each one the title of a statue they must make in their group:

• The perfect daughter
• Teenager
• Parent and child
• Love at first sight
• A Prince and his subjects
• Street fight
• A betrayal of trust
• A family in mourning

Ask each group to show their statue in turn.

What similarities and differences do they notice between each image? What themes are coming through from these images that might give us clues about what to expect in the play? 

Write these themes on the board and ensure students copy them down in their notes, to serve as reminders to keep returning to as you progress through the scheme of work.

Main activity (25 mins approx.)

Ask students to work in groups of three. Give each group one of the plot points on the ‘Romeo and Juliet Plot Points’ resource.

Ask them to create a freeze frame to depict their plot point.

See the downloadable lesson plan for the full activity, prompt questions and more.

Download the Romeo and Juliet Plot Points

Plenary (10 mins approx.)

Ask students to come up with a title for each of the moments in the plot that were depicted in the freeze frames/short performances.

What do they notice about how the plot progresses over time? What behavioural patterns can they see? Who appears to have/not have power? What themes are being explored in the story? Is this just a story about love or are there other elements at play?

Ask students to summarise in 5 bullet points what they have learnt about Romeo and Juliet today and record this in their notes.

Starter (10 mins approx)

Give each student a copy of the Prologue and read it through together three times – the first to familiarise, the second to allow students to start to make sense of it, and the third to enable them to begin understanding meaning.

After the third reading, ask students if there is any vocabulary they don’t understand and spend some time going through to make sure that the sense of every line is grasped.

Don’t worry about interpreting at this stage – just ensure that the literal meaning of each line is understood.

Main activity (25 mins approx)

Explain to students that they are going to be working in pairs, using rehearsal room activities to unlock meaning in the Prologue.

The first activity involves students taking it in turns to speak alternate lines of the Prologue to each other. On each line, before they start reading, they will need to repeat a key word or phrase from the previous line spoken by their partner before saying their own, phrasing this key word or phrase as a question.

See the downloadable lesson plan for the full activity, prompt questions and more.

Plenary (15 mins approx.)

Ask students to now consider who might speak the Prologue and what impact this might have on how the audience approaches and interprets the events of the play.

The play’s stage directions tell us that the ‘Chorus’ enters, but ‘Chorus’ is not a character, and could potentially be spoken by anyone in the play.

Some productions have chosen to have a character from within the play who is still alive at the end – such as the Prince, or Friar Lawrence, speak the Prologue. Others have chosen to have a Stage Manager or an actor wearing their normal clothes speak the Prologue, emphasising the fact that the Prologue is a metanarrative device.

Given what we have already learned about how the Prologue works in terms of setting us up with a particular perspective on the play, who do they think would be an interesting person to speak the Prologue, and why?

Ask students to discuss on their tables before sharing their ideas.

Remind students that there are no right or wrong answers, and Directors’ choices on this casting will depend on what angle/perspective they are exploring in their productions.

Finally, ask students to write a short summary paragraph to explain what they have learned today in their exploration of the Prologue.