Beyond the Balcony

This term, eighth graders breathed new life into Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet by expanding the focus beyond the play’s star-crossed lovers. Anchoring their work in textual evidence, students finished their study of the play by presenting deep-dive character studies of figures such as Romeo and Juliet, as well as Lady Capulet, Friar Lawrence, and the Nurse. It was an exercise in literary analysis that showed how the varied reactions of the supporting cast drive the play's plot.

For the project, English teacher Dan Roy guided students through two distinct phases of literary study. First, students honed their close-reading skills by selecting a character, identifying three defining personality traits, and then supporting those choices with textual evidence. For the second phase, students transitioned from analysis to creative synthesis. Using insights from the text, they created a modern-day profile of their character, imagining how these 16th-century figures would exist in our world today. Students had to think about how they would dress, what their favorite media would be, how they would spend their free time, and what they would think about.

When it came time to design their final presentation boards, many students let their character’s personality dictate the aesthetic. Capturing Friar Lawrence’s grounded nature, one student crafted a beautifully intricate sepia-toned poster reflecting his faith and values. Meanwhile, Juliet’s romantic idealism inspired a totally different approach: a joyful, balloon-decorated board featuring a modern-day social media profile and her favorite Taylor Swift songs. Students expressed their connection to these literary figures through the expansive modern backstories they constructed, creatively imagining their characters performing acts of heroism or even running their own side businesses.