Shakespeare - English & English Extension - Free online resources for secondary schools - University of Queensland Library. Romeo and Juliet: Romeo and Juliet Play Summary & Study Guide. Elizabethan Theater - Shakespeare Fun Facts. Acting was not a highly paid or highly respected profession.
Actors were seen as vagrant troublemakers who promoted hard living and sin. In the 16th century, actors traveled from town to town on a cart, looking for audiences to pay to watch them perform. Playhouses were not constructed in London until 1576. Because acting was not a respected profession, women were not allowed to act until after 1660. Teenage boys who hadn't gone through puberty would play the roles of women, Romeo and Juliet. Baz Luhrmann's "Romeo + Juliet" compared with Shakespeare's Original Work. Baz Luhrmann’s kaleidoscopic film adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, while often leaving much to be desired from the two main actors in the way of delivery, presents a fascinating modern interpretation of the 16th century drama.
David Ansen, film critic, describes it as “alternately enrapturing and exhausting, brilliant and glib…a "Romeo and Juliet" more for the eyes than the ears” (Newsweek). Sir Philip Sidney states in his Apology for Poetry that poetry should both delight and teach, and both the text and the film serve this purpose well—each suited to the time in which they were presented. Shakespeare incorporated jokes of the time, mentions of royalty, and allusions to historical events in his plays.
Luhrmann does this as well, pulling in numerous references to recent pop culture. Both Shakespeare and Luhrmann endeavored to delight their audiences with beautiful costumes and familiar music, and to teach them with the basic moral precepts inherent in the story. Do Film adaptations of Romeo and Juliet enhance Shakespeare in contemporary society or undermine his cultural status? - Arts and Humanities. Romeo&JulietNotes on the Luhrmann film.pdf. Baz Luhrmann's Romeo & Juliet: Kitsch and Tears.