1.  Shakespeare : Born 1564 : Stafford upon Avon.  Little known about his life until he arrives in London in 1590 and starts working for a theatre company as a playwright and actor.  A story teller and entertainer – no television, cinema and most people could not read.  Very popular – made lots of money – Globe theatre – the pit.

2.  Never would have thought that people would be studying his plays in a classroom over 400 years later.  Never kept copies or published his plays.  Would have been lost except for some friends of his collected some last copies of the plays after his death and published them.

3.  Wrote 38 plays, wrote Romeo and Juliet in 1595 when he was 31. One of his most loved plays and most famous characters.

4.  A genius with the English language.  Either invented or was the first writer to use 2000 words that were never recorded before.  Had a vocabulary of 30,000 words – more than 6 times the average educated person in his day and more than double those of today.  His use of language is fresh, surprising and inventive.

5.  He combined words in new ways and came up with thousands of phrases that people still use everyday – but no-one used these phrases until Shakespeare invented them.  Egs) In my minds eye – in a pickle – play fast and loose – cold comfort – flesh and blood – foul play – tower of strength – be cruel to be kind – vanish into thin air – smooth faced -

6.  The English language is a living thing and it changes over time – the language of Shakespeare’s time is different from the language we speak today – will get used to it.  Shakespeare is also one of the all time great story tellers – he creates interesting, rich and believable characters. We care about them and watch them develop and struggle to find happiness and live good lives.

7.  Tragedy – a sad and unfortunate event that causes pain and suffering.  Oldest stories were tragedies – the world can be a cruel, unfair and painful place. Good people can suffer. Would teach people to keep going, to light a candle in the darkness even if the darkness was more powerful and could easily snuff it out.

8.  Romeo and Juliet is a Tragedy. We are told at the beginning that they will both die and that their love will be defeated by the dark forces of hatred, anger and hostility that exists between their two rival families.  We still admire their courage and strength even if it is defeated in the end. Should teach us to refuse to give in to prejudice and hatred if we come up against them in our own lives.

9.  They die because they are so committed to the love they feel for each other that they cannot imagine living without each other.  Their deaths shock their families into realising the folly of their ways and it reminds us that we should set petty problems and squabbles aside and add to the store of good and love in the world.

10.  CAPULET (JULIET)  Sampson(servant)  Gregory(Servant)  Tybalt(Juliet’s cousin)  Lord and Lady Capulet  Montague(Romeo)  Abraham (servant)  Balthasar (servant)  Benvolio (Romeo’s cousin)  Lord and Lady Montague