EDUCATION PACK
WRITTEN BY ANNA RICHARDSON AND JONATHAN PRICE
He pou atua, he pou whenua, he pou tangata.
Ko Waitematā te moana
Ko Waikōkota te whenua.
Ko Te Pou Whakamaharatanga mō Māui Tikitiki a Tāranga te tohu o te kaha, o te kōrero, o te whakapapa o tēnei wāhi, o tēnei whare.
Nau mai e te tī, e te tā ki te whare kōrero, ki te whare whakaari o ASB ki te tahatika o te moana.
Mauri tau, mauri ora!
Pouwhakamaumāharatanga mō Māui-Tikitiki-a-Tāranga
The Memorial Post of Māui the Topknot of Tāranga
Robert Jahnke ONZM (Ngāi Taharoa, Te Whānau a Iritekura, Te Whānau a Rākairo o Ngāti Porou) 2016
Laminated tōtara and Corten steel
Proudly commissioned by Auckland Theatre Company for ASB Waterfront Theatre
The symbols of support, of strength and of guardianship stand fast and proud.
The waters of Waitematā ebb and flow against the shores here at Waikōkota, the land upon which we stand.
The pou of remembrance to Māui Tikitiki a Tāranga stands tall as a beacon of courage, of stories passed down and of the history that connects us all to this place and to this space.
We welcome you all from near and far to this house of stories, to the ASB Waterfront Theatre.
Mauri tau, mauri ora!
15 jul – 9 AUG 2025
directed by Benjamin Kilby-Henson
CAST
Ryan Carter — Mercutio
Liam Coleman — Benvolio
Theo Dāvid — Romeo
Courtney Eggleton — Nurse
Jesme Fa’auuga — Tybalt
Isla Mayo — Sampson/ Dance Captain
Miriama McDowell —
Whaea Lawrence
Phoebe McKellar — Juliet
Jordan Mooney — Paris
Meramanji Odedra — Montague
Beatriz Romilly — Lady Capulet
Amanda Tito — Death/Prince/ Petra/Apothecary
CREATIVE
Playwright — William Shakespeare
Direction — Benjamin Kilby-Henson
Production Design – Set, Props — Dan Williams
Production Design – Lighting — Filament
Eleven 11 - Rachel Marlow & Bradley Gledhill
Production Design – Costume — Daniella Salazar
Composition and Sound Design — Robin Kelly
Movement Direction and The Engine Room
Assistant Director — Katrina George
Vocal Direction — Cherie Moore
Stunt Choreographer — NZ Stunt School
Intimacy Coordination — Lara Fischel-Chisholm
Teaching Artists — Emily Hurley & Jonathan Price
Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare is the fourth play in Auckland Theatre Company’s 2025 season. Directed by Benjamin Kilby-Henson, it began previews on Tuesday 15 July and opened on Thursday 17 July 2025.
The production is 2 hours and 30 minutes, including interval. It includes brief partial nudity, depictions of drug use, suicide, violence and haze. Please switch off all mobile phones and noise-emitting devices.
The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedie of Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare was likely first performed at The Theatre in London in 1597 and was published in the Second Quarto in 1599. The first production of Romeo and Juliet at Auckland Theatre Company was directed by Willem Wassenaar and opened on Thursday 22 July 2010.
About This Pack
This education pack is designed to support your exploration of Auckland Theatre Company’s production of William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet. Whether you’re an kaiako preparing lessons, an ākonga studying the play, or simply curious about this timeless work of love and tragedy, this resource offers insights into both the original text and this specific production. This education pack is divided into three sections:
About the Play
Making the Play
Activities
After a welcome from Auckland Theatre Company, this section includes key information about the cast and creatives, essays providing essential context and background information, and a synopsis of the production.
This section takes you behind the scenes with artefacts from the rehearsal room, key design concept insights, and notes to and from the cast, giving you a unique window into the creative process.
NCEA-linked activities that you can try in your classroom or at home to help you unpack and explore this production of William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet. These activities support achievement standards across Levels 1, 2, and 3.
Each section builds upon the previous one, but you can also use individual components as standalone resources. The activities are designed to complement the contextual information and production insights, making this pack suitable for both independent study and classroom use.
Haere Mai
It is speculated that sometime during the writing of Romeo & Juliet, William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway lost their son, Hamnet, aged 11, to unknown causes. This profound family tragedy must surely have entered Shakespeare’s writing: the tragic, unfilled potential of young life; the senselessness of such loss; and the unfathomable pain. This can all be found in The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedie of Romeo and Juliet.
Director Benjamin Kilby-Henson, who is our Artistic Associate and Casting Director, has cleverly envisaged a world where the characters are now in purgatory, looking back at the events that thrust them into eternal anguish. They assemble in Verona in the 1960s. The decayed ballroom now under refurbishment acts as a metaphor for an opulence lost: two proud households brought undone and long since forgotten. Ben’s creative team has fused space, movement, voice, soundscape, music and costume into a compelling emotional journey.
Our Romeo and Juliet, Theo Dāvid and Phoebe McKellar, each making their debut with us, lead a troupe of familiar and new friends. They are an energetic, youthful and committed bunch, who have given everything to make this brilliant production. I could not be prouder of a company of actors.
Jonathan Bielski Artistic Director & CEO
William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) was an English playwright and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language. Born in Stratford-upon-Avon, he gained recognition for his plays during the late-16th and early-17th centuries.
Shakespeare’s works, consisting of approximately 39 plays, 154 sonnets and several narrative poems, span various genres, including tragedy, comedy and history, and have had a profound and enduring impact on literature, theatre and culture. Some of his most celebrated plays include Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello and King Lear. His exploration of universal themes such as love, jealousy, ambition and human nature continue to resonate with audiences today and offer profound insights into the human experience.
Shakespeare’s language, characterised by its poetic beauty, intricate wordplay and profound psychological depth, has inspired and influenced artists worldwide. His plays are performed and studied extensively,
Playwright
William Shakespeare
in both traditional productions and innovative adaptations, showcasing the enduring power of his storytelling.
Auckland Theatre Company first presented Romeo & Juliet in a production directed by Willem Wassenaar in 2010 at the Maidment Theatre. Alongside Romeo & Juliet, Auckland Theatre Company has presented: Julius Caesar, directed by Raymond Hawthorne (1998); Twelfth Night, directed by Michael Hurst (2006); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Ben Crowder and Colin McColl (2012); and King Lear, directed by Michael Hurst and Benjamin KilbyHenson (2023). In 2008, Auckland Theatre Company’s Summer School presented Shrew’d, written and directed by Margaret-Mary Hollins, adapted from William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, and in 2015, Auckland Theatre Company presented Hamlet, directed by Dominic Dromgoole and Bill Buckhurst live from London’s Globe Theatre and presented in partnership with the New Zealand Festival of the Arts.
Benjamin is one of New Zealand’s leading theatre directors, who has forged a diverse career spanning form, scale and medium, including original works, scripted premieres and opera.
Ben teaches in Auckland’s drama schools and is Artistic Manager of The Actors’ Program, Aotearoa’s leading training ground for actors with one of the highest employment rates in the country.
Under theatre collective Fractious Tash, Ben has received critical acclaim for Earnest, Not Psycho and
Director Benjamin Kilby-Henson
Titus. Titus was then remounted for a sell-out season at the Pop-up Globe (featuring Beyoncé covers by New Zealand’s only steelpan band...).
For Auckland Theatre Company, Ben has directed Red Speedo, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, King Lear and The Effect, described as having “masterful direction“ by The New Zealand Herald.
Benjamin is the Artistic Associate and Casting Director at Auckland Theatre Company.
Essay From Bad Poetry to Great Love: How Shakespeare Uses Language to Chart Romeo and Juliet’s Journey
By Jonathan Price, Teaching Artist at Auckland Theatre Company
So much of the delight and depth on offer from any production of Shakespeare comes from the poetic language, and yet this is also the very thing that gets in the way of many people’s enjoyment: our ears struggle to adjust and our brains get overwhelmed.
It’s hard to imagine, but in a time before recorded music, literate people interacted with poetry like we do with pop music today. Poets and playwrights were held in high regard and ordinary people looked forward to their work just as we anticipate the latest album drop from our favourite musicians.
If you find the thought of listening to actors speak Shakespearean language challenging or off-putting, don’t worry. Give it time. Once the play starts, it will take your ears a moment to adjust to the heightened language. However, this does not mean you’re missing out or “not getting it“. Think about listening to a song the first time: just because you don’t catch all the lyrics at first doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it or find it meaningful.
As it happens, the character Romeo is also a student of poetry, and he also struggles, but as a speaker rather than a listener. When we first meet Romeo he is pining for Rosaline, a woman he has not actually met. Despite this, he professes his anguish in greatly exaggerated terms, taking Benvolio’s
fresh injuries as an opportunity for poeticising (and throwing in a few rhyming couplets for good measure):
Romeo:
Here’s much to do with hate, but more with love. Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate O anything, of nothing first create! Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all: O me! What fray was here? Dost thou not laugh?
Benvolio: No coz, I rather weep.
Romeo: Good heart, at what?
Benvolio:
At thy good heart’s oppression.
If you think this sounds bad, you’re right. Benvolio mocks Romeo, and so should we. His over-wrought, clichéd poetry reveals his shallow infatuation with Rosaline. But if Shakespeare links bad poetry with shallow love, then the opposite must be true: great love should inspire great poetry. We can think of this like Shakespeare setting a wager with us: “OK, you’ve heard me mock bad poems, now watch me do better.“ Shakespeare wasn’t above flexing.
Fast-forward to Romeo’s first meeting with Juliet at the Capulet ball. The chemistry is real. They’re both into each other and they both know it. How do we know this? Because no sooner have they met than they compose a perfect sonnet together: fourteen lines in ABAB
rhyme scheme, with a rhyming couplet at the end. As director Benjamin Kilby-Henson explains:
“Gone are Romeo’s self-aware romantic liturgies and here, through the purest, rarest of repartees – and Juliet’s crystal-clear wit – he is able to improvise, with ease, a complete sonnet with a stranger. There can be no stronger proof the two are soulmates; each other’s truest, greatest, love.“
But that’s not where it ends. Romeo and Juliet have a long way to go as their love deepens and the story’s tragedy mounts. So, as we might expect, the poetry continues to change, too.
As popular as they were, sonnets and other rhymed forms were no longer the cutting edge of poetry when Shakespeare wrote Romeo & Juliet. The new wave of poetic
writing was blank verse – unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter. All the best writers were trying their hand at blank verse. Compared to the rhyming forms that had dominated up until then, blank verse sounded less artificial, more natural, and allowed for greater psychological complexity.
As Romeo & Juliet progresses, listen out for how the language changes. You might notice fewer rhymes, more surprising imagery, or that the dialogue seems to flow more like normal speech.
It’s up to you to decide why this might be, but perhaps you could start by thinking about your own journeys with attraction. How does the experience of attraction evolve over time? Is it simple, complex or both? How does the way you speak to a friend, crush or loved-one change?
Essay Romeo and Juliet: Beginnings and Endings
By Dr Hannah August
Dr Hannah August is a Senior Lecturer in English at Massey University. This is an abridged extract from her introduction to the Oxford World’s Classics Romeo and Juliet (Oxford University Press, 2024).
Romeo and Juliet begins by spoiling its ending. Audiences in both the sixteenth century and today were, and are, unlikely to come to this play without some knowledge of how its plot unfolds. But for anyone who has managed to escape the cultural juggernaut the play has become, remaining ignorant of the protagonists’ tragic fate is immediately prevented by the play’s prologue. The play’s initial fourteen lines are like one of those overlong film trailers whose clips reveal the entire plot, the upshot being that we know almost immediately that the ’star-crossed lovers’ will die, and that
this is how their parents’ feud will be resolved. To remain in the dark about the play’s ending as we watch it is an experience that is denied us.
But the prologue does more than spoil the plot. It also conveys information about the play’s setting, its thematic concerns, and its confusing genre.
Two households both alike in dignity In fair Verona, where we lay our scene (Prologue, 1-2)
This announcement was not just a necessity at early performances of the play where fixed scenery
establishing geographic locale would have been absent. The prologue’s declaration of the play’s Italian setting also gestures towards the emotion that will drive its plot: love. Italy was notoriously the birthplace of the fourteenth-century poet Petrarch, whose sonnets of (unrequited) love to his beloved Laura had inspired a vogue for sonnet-writing and a particular mode of amorous expression that the lovestruck Romeo has clearly absorbed.
For a play set in Verona to feature characters who were in love would have seemed logical to audiences, because many of them had already seen such characters in another play by Shakespeare that, titularly at least, shared the same setting: The Two Gentlemen of Verona, first performed in or around 1594. That play, however, was a comedy. So too were Shakespeare’s other plays set in Italy and first performed in the same decade as Romeo and Juliet: The Taming of the Shrew, The Merchant of Venice, and Much Ado About Nothing.
The third thing that the announcement of an Italian setting for Romeo and Juliet did, then, was to muddy the claim made by the play’s full title, that the play was ’The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet’. The body count at the end of Act Five certainly proclaims its tragic credentials, but for Shakespeare at this point in his career, to set a
tragedy in Italy was a departure from form. And in fact, Romeo and Juliet is a mash-up of tragic and comic elements, leading the critic Susan Snyder to observe in the 1970s that the play ’becomes, rather than is, tragic’.
But as the prologue reminds us, regardless of the play’s dalliance with comic conventions, death lurks behind every joke and declaration of love. Knowing this, audiences are placed in the same position as Romeo and Juliet themselves. Because while the supporting characters are ignorant of the plot’s ultimate resolution, the lovers have an inkling of their deaths’ inevitability. Juliet blames her ’ill-divining soul’ for the vision of a tomb-bound Romeo (3.5.54); Romeo believes that if he attends the Capulet feast:
Some consequence yet hanging in the stars Shall bitterly begin his fearful date With this night’s revels, and expire the term Of a despised life closed in my breast, By some vile forfeit of untimely death. (1.4.108-12)
He concludes: ’But he that hath the steerage of my course | Direct my sail’ (113-14). Despite his lack of control over where he is headed, Romeo is willing to go along for the ride. In this play in which, as the critic Lloyd Davis has put it, ’the question is less what happens than how it happens’, the prologue sets up audiences to share that ride.
Synopsis
A
summary of Auckland Theatre Company’s production of Romeo & Juliet
Verona. 1960s. Death sits reading a magazine. Our story begins with young Juliet contemplating a sleeping potion to fake her death, before Death rewinds the narrative to reveal how we arrived at this fateful moment.
Act One
Ancient grudges explode when the Capulets and Montagues clash in the streets of Verona. The Prince (played by Death) threatens death to anyone who disturbs the peace again.
Romeo has been withdrawn and melancholy, lovesick over Rosaline who doesn’t return his affections. His friends Benvolio and Mercutio suggest Romeo attend the Capulet ball to forget Rosaline.
Lady Capulet and Paris discuss his proposal to marry Juliet. Capulet is reluctant; Juliet is young, but agrees to let Paris woo her. The Nurse and Capulet tell Juliet about Paris’s proposal. Juliet responds dutifully but without enthusiasm.
Romeo crashes the Capulet ball with Benvolio and Mercutio, and fate intervenes. Romeo forgets Rosaline the instant he sees Juliet. Only after their first kiss do they discover their impossible identities—she a Capulet, he a Montague.
Unable to leave after the party, Romeo finds Juliet at her window. They declare their love and agree to marry secretly.
Romeo goes to Whaea Lawrence, who agrees to marry them, hoping their union might end the feud. Romeo and Juliet are married by Whaea Lawrence. The wedding is juxtaposed with tender moments between Benvolio and Mercutio, also a lovestruck pair.
Their happiness is short-lived. Tybalt confronts Romeo, seeking revenge for the previous night’s intrusion. Romeo refuses to fight his new cousin-in-law. Mercutio, not understanding Romeo’s reluctance, draws his sword and fights Tybalt himself.
Tybalt fatally wounds Mercutio. In grief and rage, Romeo kills Tybalt. The Prince banishes Romeo from Verona on pain of death.
The act ends with Juliet eagerly awaiting her wedding night, Romeo hiding in exile, Benvolio cradling Mercutio’s body, and the families mourning their dead. Death oversees it all.
Act Two
Juliet learns of Tybalt’s death and Romeo’s banishment, ultimately choosing loyalty to her new husband over grief for her cousin. Romeo despairs to Whaea Lawrence, believing banishment worse than death. Whaea Lawrence arranges for Romeo to spend one final night with Juliet before fleeing to Mantua.
The lovers share their wedding night but must part at dawn. Their farewell is filled with foreboding.
Lady Capulet, grieving Tybalt’s death, hastily arranges Juliet’s marriage to Paris for Thursday. When Juliet refuses, her mother threatens to disown her, and even the Nurse advises her to forget Romeo and marry Paris.
Desperate, Juliet seeks help from Whaea Lawrence, who gives her a potion that will make her appear dead.
Meanwhile, grief-stricken Benvolio seeks poison from an Apothecary (portrayed by Death), contemplating suicide over Mercutio's death.
Juliet takes Whaea Lawrence’s potion and is discovered “dead“ the next morning, devastating her family and Paris. Amidst preparations for her funeral, Benvolio goes to warn Romeo of these tragic developments.
After hearing Benvolio’s news, exiled Romeo resolves to join Juliet in death. When he asks if there’s any message from Whaea Lawrence, Benvolio has none. The conflicted Benvolio hands Romeo poison from his own pocket. After Romeo departs for Juliet’s grave, Benvolio takes out a dagger and stabs himself in the heart, dying as he speaks of Mercutio and the cold field bed.
Whaea Lawrence arrives too late, finding Benvolio’s body in the darkness. Realising her plans have failed, she knows Juliet will wake to find Romeo dead.
At Juliet’s tomb, Romeo fights and kills Paris, then drinks poison beside his seemingly dead wife. Juliet awakens to find Romeo dead, kisses his still-warm lips, then takes his dagger and kills herself.
The Prince explains the tragic chain of events. Faced with the ultimate cost of their feud, Capulet and Montague reconcile.
The Prince concludes that this gloomy peace brings both pardons and punishments, declaring that: “Never was there a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo.“
Note from the Director
Benjamin Kilby-Henson
Romeo & Juliet is Shakespeare’s sweeping diorama of love. Love in all forms, peacocking the paradigm through the over-heated and fast-beating chests of its Veronese characters.
Young love; honoured love. Familial; sexual; collegial; faithful. Love unrequited; love betrayed. Love of order for the people; love of chaos amongst the sprites. Love for the sound of one’s own voice. Love of love itself.
And here Shakespeare distils love to its purest form – poetry. Music may be the food of love, but poetic verse is its very life force. Romeo only ever addresses Juliet in verse and viceversa. So pure is Juliet, in fact, save for one line, Juliet only ever speaks in verse at all. They are ’wedded’ in verse come the famous sonnet and throughout, find beauty and unity in words, just as they do in each other.
In Romeo & Juliet, Shakespeare uses more rhyming couplets than any other of his tragedies. Rhymes are harmonious and coupled, therefore the very essence of pure love.
And rather than resulting in a hackneyed singsong, the play is evermore alive for its ebullient, love-cursed, populus of steedpaced and hot-bloodied Italians. As each character shocks themselves with the adrenaline rush of an unexpected rhyming couplet, so the play vibrates with life.
If poetry is love and love is poetry, then both are in bondage to the devourer of all things: Time. As poetry must hit its scansion, so love must adhere to the Time it’s given. Could Nurse and the Friar have behaved differently? Perhaps. But is it better they were there at all? Undoubtedly. Could Tybalt have slowed down and questioned his
loyalty to tradition? Could Sampson push back on each abrasive street fight being now? Lady Capulet hurries her daughter’s marriage to Paris, why shouldn’t she? Montague wishes for more time with his offspring. Nurse charges ahead. Friar beats her in the race. Both Romeo and Juliet share with us – at length – their frustration with time and if only their love could move quicker. If anyone were to find this unrelatable, think of meeting someone new, texting them, and tell me if you think Time is behaving itself.
So effervescent is the life running through the veins of these gorgeousbut-flawed people in fact, the result can only be death.
Only Death can wait.
Only Death will be there in conclusion.
Romeo & Juliet is arguably the genesis of glamourising the hard, fast, doomed, romantic trope. And so be it. Let’s celebrate that. Their love is forever released of the responsibility of longevity. Other works explore this. Romeo and Juliet, not so much.
With a cast I’m deeply proud of; with a band of Aotearoa’s best arts leaders and designers; with Auckland Theatre Company and the ASB Waterfront Theatre – let’s honour Shakespeare’s love letter of a love letter to love.
B x
Excerpt from Benjamin's script for Romeo & Juliet
A Conversation on Direction and Design: Love, Death and Fate
CREATIVE CHOICES: HOW THIS PRODUCTION CAME TO LIFE
This production of Romeo & Juliet features brave edits to the text, the addition of a new character, and a design which collides Shakespeare’s cosmic poetry and 1960s iconography within a kind of purgatory space.
On the first day of rehearsal, director Benjamin Kilby-Henson and the team of designers met with the cast to discuss the ideas behind the key artistic choices being made in this version of “the greatest love story ever told“.
WHERE AND WHEN
Benjamin Kilby-Henson (Director):
We are, sort of delicately, in a European, Italianate, kind of world, and I use the world “delicately“ because we’re not going to get too “period“ and make a study of that; it’s just the paintbrush we’ve put over the production.
It’s important to remember that William Shakespeare never went to Italy, so he was using it as the backdrop you would use in a gorgeous painting, so that the audience are already framed up
in a world of extreme violence and passionate love.
So why the 1960s? It’s just cool, it’s the era of fashion and it’s the era of love, so it holds this beautiful fairytale really well. I think it’s really important for a Shakespeare to have some kind of mystical distance, so that the height of the poetry, the contrivances of the plot, the fairytale aspect of the whole thing, is held and it’s got a romanticism and a distance to it.
Daniella Salazar (Costume): When I began my research, rather than fixate on whether or not it was early, mid or late 60s, I just wanted to capture the essence of the 60s by choosing certain iconic pieces that we’re all familiar with.
So, for example, I wanted the hippie in there; that’s Mercutio. For the three boys [Benvolio, Tybalt and Sampson] I’m using the Rolling Stones as an inspiration. Another iconic look is the kaftan, for the Friar. And the inspiration for Death is Jackie O at JFK’s funeral. Billowy sleeves run throughout the production, because we want to keep that romance alive!
Dan Williams (Set and Costume): And I love that it’s Shakespearean as well, even though we’re in the 60s, there’re nods to that!
We also really fell in love with Truman Capote’s black and white ball. [In the ball scene] everyone will
be wearing these fantastical masks, it will be completely black and white, we’ll fly in these giant black and white photos of [the actors].
We’ll also fly in a black and white moon, and around that is where Romeo and Juliet will have their moment. And when we’re in an empty ballroom environment, when there’s no Capulet things on top of it, that’s when we’re outside or in the street.
THE METAPHORICAL SPACE
Benjamin:
What I wanted to do in the edit [of the script] and the design, was to make this Romeo and Juliet’s purgatory story. So all of the action leading up to Juliet taking the potion exists outside of the room that we’re in: a dilapidated, Capulet ballroom.
All of the action is going to happen inside that internal space. Even though there’re so many hot sweaty streets and romantic gardens, [the ballroom] is the confinement of Romeo and Juliet’s purgatory, the place where they met for the first time.
Daniella:
And that’s echoed in costume. We mostly find these people in their “funereal best“, that we found them at the time [of the ballroom scene].
Katrina George (Movement Direction): [For the ballroom scene] thinking about how it’s a kind of purgatory space, none of the characters will touch.
In their dancing and movement I also want to merge with this very stylised, sixties, Bob Fosse, very shapely and articulated style with a more contemporary sort of anguish; feral and carnal and dynamic.
Rachel Marlow (Lighting Design): With the lighting, we’re trying to feed into that purgatory sense as well. It’s interesting because we’re obviously in an interior space but the lighting will be acting as an exterior lighting source: the sun, the moon, and that cyclical nature.
So it’s acting a little bit out-ofstep; like there’s this other sense that’s coming in from the outside and maybe part of the thing that’s trapping and holding these people in this realm.
Robin Kelly (Sound Design):
There is an element in the sound design – the atmospheric world – where the fact that we are in a purgatory means an external world is always knocking at the door, death is always just there, that void that we will reach at the end is always knocking at the door.
One thing I want to do is create a sound floor and a sound ceiling. By that I mean a little bit of sound that will be just present, a non-conscious
level of white noise in the space, that can then disappear to great effect. Think of it like the sound when a [CRT] TV is playing, but nothing’s playing, and then it turns off and you think “what just changed“.
Dan:
And the other big thing to note is the idea that the space is in renovation.
So we have a snooker table, period furniture and TV, but also a warehouse ladder which doubles as the balcony, paint trolleys and other props which support the idea that we are in limbo. So everything that lives within a ballroom can also become anything we need wherever.
FATE AND DEATH
Robin Kelly:
That inevitability, the fact that no one can go and see Romeo & Juliet without knowing that they’re going to die, we know how it’s going to end – how then do we get swept up in the love of it with this inevitability?
That’s where minimalism comes in. I’m working with some references that started in the sixties, people like Michael Nyman (who did the score for Jane Campion’s The Piano). He does this thing which has a kind of pulse to it, never-ending, and it just builds and builds, and continues and continues…
Benjamin: It also means we were able to apply this concept that death is ever-present. Death is the instigator of this purgatory world, gives the introductory chorus, is present as much as we can fold in, [with actor Amanda Tito] doubling as other characters that steer Juliet and Romeo’s ship toward its iceberg: without the Prince’s ultimatum, Romeo would never be banished; without Petra struggling to deliver invitations, Romeo and his chums would never have gone to the party; without the Apothecary giving in to local law, the fatal poison would never have entered the equation.
Production Design
Set Design
The old Judges dining room in Old Sessions House served as the inspiration for the set design.
by Dan WIlliams, production designer.
Sound Design
Robin Kelly designed his sound design using some key songs and selected composers. Here are some links to the original tracks that Robin started his design with:
Then He Kissed Me
Carole King - Will You Love Me Tomorrow? (Official Audio)
THE SHIRELLES-WILL U STILL LOVE ME TOMORROW
Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow
Time Lapse (2004 Digital Remaster)
Am Horizont (1991) for Violin, Violoncello and Accordion - song and lyrics by Wolfgang Rihm, Ensemble Recherche, Teodoro Anzellotti | Spotify
Movement Direction
When Ben approached me to movement direct Romeo and Juliet, he provided a stark and thrilling vision for the 2025 production: a world of searing heat, striking architecture, and the glamour of the roaring 60s. This timeless classic, reimagined through that lens, combined with a cast of twelve powerhouse actors - what a delicious canvas for movement.
The 1960s served as our launching point for movement research. Ben sent me a video of Christopher Bruce’s Rooster, which pulses with primal energy - peacocking on a wild night out. You’ll spot its influence in the ball scene. I also drew inspiration from Bob Fosse’s distinctive style, particularly in Sweet Charity. These references became leaping-off points for both our choreographic sequences and character development.
The movement language in Romeo and Juliet presents a carnal, feral quality to it, echoing the volatility of the world of the text.
Ben’s vision, and the play itself, offers an exciting challenge in terms of embodiment. I worked closely with the actors to locate the weight and simmer of this purgatorial world, where love and violence are balanced on a knife’s edge. We explored proximity, pathways, and physical dynamics to unearth nuance, and brighten the tension in our story.
It’s been an absolute pleasure to help craft this alongside Ben, our extraordinary creative team, and our exquisite cast.
Fa’afetai tele lava, Katrina
George
Katrina George designed the movement using some key songs and selected composers. Here are some links to the original tracks that Katrina started her design with:
Sympathy For The Devil - Christopher Bruce
Bob Fosse dance numbers - “ The Rich Man’s Frug “
Batsheva Dance Company: ’It’s about making the body listen’
Rehearsal Diary
Playwriting student, Victoria Lewis, travelled from Victoria University in Wellington to spend a week in the rehearsal room for Romeo & Juliet. Here’s what she saw:
MONDAY
The 1996 Baz Luhrmann adaptation of Romeo & Juliet adaptation is practically perfect: chewy, rich language; phenomenal performances; the hot, sleek, pressure-cooker Verona of Shakespeare’s imagination, made modern and fantastically visual. I love it dearly.
I think this adaptation could potentially unseat it as my favourite. No word of a lie.
To give you a taste of the terribly exciting Design Presentation from today:
• Abandoned buildings, gaping arches, hungry fireplaces;
• The Rolling Stones, the score from 2001: A Space Odyssey;
• Vibrant, sleek, expansive, sexy 60s costuming;
• Innovative, modern staging and narrative framing.
This Romeo & Juliet is interested in the tension of being stuck for too long, of being forced to replay your sins over and over. There’s a mix of modernism and metamodernism, a sense of play with place and time - we haven’t yet dived into the text itself, but the worldbuilding we saw today looks absolutely incredible.
TUESDAY
Today was fascinating for the cast. They spent most of the day immersed in physical character work: exploring music, movement, vocal exercises, and asking questions that seemed to unlock something internal. It felt like watching people stretch invisible muscles. Clearly vital groundwork for what’s to come.
WEDNESDAY
This morning began with stunt work - slow, careful choreography laying the foundation for something faster and more chaotic. Even at this early stage, the cast was slipping into character, their movements shaped by the weight of the text. Later, I sat in on a voice session with Theo and Phoebe (Romeo & Juliet), watching them unpack the language: the emotional weight of vowels, the structure of consonants, and the sacred-profane tension woven through the verse. Technical, yesbut also unexpectedly fascinating, a peeling back of another layer in Shakespeare I’d never learned before.
THURSDAY
Today, we finally got to table reading. Here’s the dirty little secret no one wants to admit, but everyone wants to hear admitted: Shakespeare is hard! It’s hard for anyone, casual reader, student, or professional. We stopped, over and over, to discuss what certain lines meant, or certain scenes were saying. A lot of the time I didn’t know, and sometimes the cast didn’t quite know. So they chewed it out together, settled on slangy, modern interpretations, and playing the scenes through with that energy instead.
“Towards him I made, but he was ware of me, And stole into the covert of the wood.“ became “He’s off being a sop in the woods again!“; Romeo and Juliet’s first meeting became a flirting, testing game of ’can you keep up with me?’, the balcony scene’s ending became a teenage ’You hang up first’ ’No you hang up first’.
FRIDAY
Finally, (unusually late, I’m told), we’ve made it to the first full readthrough. Most productions tackle this on day one or two, but this team has had nearly a full week to sink into the world and their characters. It showed. There were barely any flubbed lines; the emotion and intent behind the language came through clearly, even when the text itself still felt chewy to my ears. The cast were grounded, present, already deeply in-character. It was unbelievably impressive—and on my last day, I feel so privileged to have observed the first week of this process and the building of this show, and to have spent the week with so many generous, talented artists, learning about their craft.
Cast and Characters
Read introductions and insights from Benjamin Kilby-Henson, prepared for the cast of Romeo & Juliet.
Ben’s casting list:
Theo David Phoebe McKellar
Ryan Carter
Liam Coleman
Jesme Fa’auuga
Courtney Eggleton
Beatriz Romilly
Isla Mayo Amanda Tito
The final cast, in costume:
ROMEO AND JULIET
If poetry equates love, then much of this story is encapsulated in Romeo’s evolving language.
When we first meet him, Romeo is self-consciously tormenting himself with romantic poetical tropes flung in the direction of Rosaline. But then – KABOOM – Romeo’s linguistic escalation skyrockets immediately upon seeing Juliet for the first time. Never have we seen him so sincere than asking himself:
“Did my heart love till now? Forswear it sight,
For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.“
And with that couplet, uttered despite himself and without affectation (it’s only for us and him to hear, not his boy mates), the rose-tinted lenses of his boyhood crushes are shattered, and he is able to see the world of love in all its technicolour.
Juliet is purity; Juliet is poetry; Juliet is love. Just as the sun can’t control its beauty as it rises in the east, or the lark relish the cadence of its own call, Juliet can’t help the unselfconscious purity of her poetry. Her poetry is Romeo’s challenge to meet. And meet it he does by being the first to draw the sword of his newly awakened eloquence:
“If I profane with my unworthiest hand…“
Juliet barely draws breath to respond in the very form Romeo has begun within, and so one of the world’s most famous sonnets takes flight. Life is poetry and poetry is love.
And if love is poetry and poetry is love, the genius here would be in the spell cast when Elizabethan audiences – an audience more adept at listening than reading and would’ve known sonnets passed
Read introductions and insights from Benjamin Kilby-Henson, prepared for the cast of Romeo & Juliet.
DEATH
around like pop songs – would’ve ’fallen in’ to the form as it occurred between our central pair. As Romeo falls in love with Juliet, as Juliet falls for her Romeo, we fall for the sheer eloquence of the verse structure. Two hearts, two minds, two lives entwined by one sonnet, one love, and one stolen moment at a party neither of them wanted to go to.
If poetry is love, love is life, then poetry must also be Death. In our production Death is ever-present, just as she is in the text with mention over 80 times (not far behind the 120 uses of the word love). The inevitable creeps under every surface. Even Romeo’s offer of Juliet’s hand being a statue his lips would take pilgrimage to kiss, foreshadows her immortality as a gold statue in tribute of her untimely death.
Taking command of Fate, Death pops up throughout our approach as other characters that steer Juliet and Romeo’s ship toward its iceberg: without the Prince’s ultimatum, Romeo would never be banished; without Petra struggling to deliver invitations, Romeo and his chums would never have gone to the party; without the Apothecary giving in to local law, the fatal poison would never have entered the equation.
MERCUTIO AND BENVOLIO
Plentiful are the theories that Mercutio had to be first for the chop simply because his exuberant verbosity threatens to eclipse the main action of the play. In honour of a vital bracket of love muted by Elizabethan society (regardless of how vibrant behind closed doors) our production sees Mercutio and the blushing Benvolio kindle their own flame in tandem to the titular two.
Once the vibrancy of Mercutio is extinguished too soon, however, our diorama of love flips to the darker side of passion and the play’s famous ending becomes inevitable.
In our production Juliet and Romeo are not the only star-crossed lovers. Knowing his only true counterpart, Mercutio, is gone, Benvolio can no longer continue. In Benvolio we have the level-headed defender of peace. Without him, the hinge-pin to peace is rattled out of place and the play must clatter to a conclusion.
TYBALT AND SAMPSON
Death and violence are riveted to love and passion in the world Shakespeare gives us, epitomised in the seething jaguar, Tybalt, and loyal copy-cat, Sampson as they stalk the Verona streets looking to make them their own.
What tethers Tybalt so strongly to upholding this hatred with such vehemence? Theorise all you wish, as long as it stokes the fire in the belly with truth. Loyal, loving Sampson will follow in upholding the feud no matter the motivation.
CAPULET AND MONTAGUE
The origins of the ancient grudge between Capulet and Montague seem to be immaterial to Shakespeare. In our production – dispensing as we have of Lady Montague and Lord Capulet – the feud begins as an affair between Montage and Lady Capulet ends.
And perhaps Montague, one bereft of his first wife, Romeo’s mother, simply has too big a zealous heart to keep his love in one place. Especially as his heart can’t find the words to reach his love incarnate – his son Romeo. Montague must rely on accounts of his son from cousin and childhood friends Benvolio and Mercutio.
The most time the play deserves Montague with his son is in contemplating Romeo’s poisonravaged body at deceased Juliet’s
side. Perhaps his fears are realised; his son is the concentrated version of Montague’s younger self – a man with too much love to give.
And who is Montague’s counterpart?
One thing this production will not be leaving to conjecture is a passionate liaison between Lady Capulet and Paris. What better way to keep Juliet’s dowry in the family than an arranged marriage between one’s daughter and one’s own lover? To uphold an Elizabethan attitude to the woman’s role in the household (despite our 1960’s resetting), when Lady Capulet threatens Juliet with disownment, she is eVectively condemning her to dying on the streets. Is it possible, in light of Lord Capulet’s absence, she is overprojecting her own fears?
PARIS
What of peppy Paris? Surely, he can’t be immune to Juliet’s light; her clarity; her freshness? His journey is an echo of Romeo’s; he thought he knew love in his surrender to Lady Capulet (laying himself, as he does, before her saber jaws for the devouring) only to see the way his life could’ve gone in the companionship of Juliet. Defending her grave is the closest he’ll come to knowing love before Death must take him by the hand.
THE NURSE AND WHAEA LAWRENCE
In this over-boiling world of destructive passion and high-octane loving, where are the anchors, the rocks, the upholders of levelheadiness?
Well, Willy Shakes doesn’t really give us any. Or if he has, they reside in the characters of The Nurse and Whaea Lawrence. Each represents paternal love – a love at discord in Juliet and Romeo’s upbringing – if it weren’t for them. For Juliet, Nurse is a confidant and vital link to the outside world, confined as she is within the walls of the Capulet estate.
Death has visited Nurse in the loss of her own dear daughter, Susan. Juliet, clearly, is surrogate therefore and through Nurse’s brassy exterior lies a heart beating to rhythm Julietta.
The Friar, in both Shakespeare’s original text, but extended in our production, is a creature of Earth’s dear bounty; a collector of herbs, potions, botanicals and all things nourished by soil. Whaea Lawrence may have committed her love to a higher entity, but she finds the world’s secrets in the richness below. She represents for Romeo the ’cool mum’ who would rather have him drink in the house, or at least turn up at her place the morning after. Which he does.
Theirs is an enviable bond. In Whaea Lawrence’s optimism in love – that this union is needed to put this ancient grudge to rest – is at once as inspiring as it is doomed. More apothecary than The Apothecary, it is also Whaea Lawrence’s potions that lead to our lovers’ fatal end.
This wouldn’t be the plan, however, without Nurse driving Juliet there. And so, both Nurse and Friar fail to represent the pragmatic cool our balmy Verona nights needed. So giddy they become in the orbit of Juliet and Romeo’s love – behaving like impulsive youths themselves –arranging off-the-cuff marriages or ill-thought-out counterfeit deaths in knee-jerk impulsiveness. In loving their wards too much, they overfeed, pull the trigger on their own wards.
Cast Interviews
During rehearsals, teaching artist Jonathan Price caught up with Isla Mayo and Ryan Carter, to ask them about their approach to their characters.
ISLA MAYO — SAMPSON
How have you altered your voice, body, movements or use of space to portray Samson?
Samson is a male character, so that means holding my body completely different to the way Isla the actor would. I’ve noticed with men they often stand with their feet turned out, so I’m making sure my feet are turned out and I’m a lot more weighted. I’ve learnt to lead with my knees, so Samson leads with his knees and is very chest out, arms
out, and has a bit of a swagger. Another thing we’ve been working with in the room is embodying certain words, for example “sizzling“, “bubbling“ or “pin-balling“. I’ve found that the word “simmering“ really resonates with Samson, because he’s always ready to go and always ready for a fight.
As Benjamin Kilby-Henson notes, Romeo and Juliet is a “sweeping diorama of love“. Is there a particular kind of love that your character embodies?
Samson has a really tight relationship with Tybalt — they’re bros, but Tybalt is the boss, and Samson wants to be like him. So I think Samson’s whole life revolves around validation and wanting to be on the same level as Tybalt. They also have this lust, not in a sexual way, but lustful in terms of “I want that, give me more.“ Getting into fights, almost like a high of being in the zone of violence, or a brawl or something physical is what Samson loves, and also that friendship and tight brotherhood is something that is very important for him.
RYAN CARTER — MERCUTIO
How have you altered your voice, body, movements or use of space to portray Mercutio?
This has been quite a special process because Katrina George and Cherie Moore, who are voice and body directors, have been interwoven into all the early rehearsals. A lot of world-building, animal work, energy, so it happened a lot more organically than normal. We’ve had a lot of time to play and to feel what felt good. When you see the whole group, you see where you fit into the puzzle. Mercutio is always going to be high energy, very physical, running around, staccato, but I think it’s just happened in a nice organic way. Mercutio switches very quickly, from one mood to another, and it’s also all about getting other people’s energy up to meet his.
As Benjamin Kilby-Henson notes, Romeo and Juliet is a “sweeping diorama of love“. Is there a particular kind of love that your character embodies? For example, brotherly love, romantic love, or something else?
At the beginning it’s almost like he’s anti-love. Mercutio is always antilove in the script, almost all of his dialogue is innuendo. But I really like our interpretation because Benvolio and Mercutio have an arc, and an actual relationship, and it adds a lot more subtext to all of the innuendo and give the scenes between Benvolio and Mercutio a lot more colour.
And then it also means that Mercutio’s love is a kind of anti-love, but it’s him not wanting to feel love. It is such a vulnerable place to be and it means you are hooked on someone else which can be a bit of a scary feeling, so I think he doesn’t want that. But then he kind of releases into it.
Other Interviews
Mindfood Article:
This article provides details about Auckland Theatre Company’s glamorous 1960s-set production of Romeo and Juliet, including interviews with the director and cast about their modern take on Shakespeare’s classic love story.
Sexy, Glamorous, 60s-Take On Romeo & Juliet Hits The Stage In Auckland | MiNDFOOD
North and South:
This article features an interview with actress Beatriz Romilly about playing Lady Capulet in Auckland Theatre Company’s Romeo and Juliet, exploring how the character would thrive as a “Desperate Housewife of Verona“ in today’s world and examining the complexities of a mother shaped by patriarchy and her own traumatic past.
Desperate Housewife of Verona
Pacific Media Network:
This article highlights how two proud South Auckland actors, Theo Dāvid and Jesme Fa’auuga, are bringing Pacific representation and authenticity to Auckland Theatre Company’s 1960s-set Romeo and Juliet, showing how Shakespeare’s language connects with Pacific oratory traditions.
From 685 to Verona: Romeo, Tybalt, and the boys from Southside
Romeo & Juliet and the Elizabethan Theatre Form
When we go to live theatre we can often see features of theatre forms in the way the play is scripted, staged, directed or performed. Shakespeare’s plays draw directly from an historically established theatre form; Elizabethan Theatre. Contemporary performances of Shakespeare’s work will always give a nod to the features of the form in the way they are staged, the design elements, directorial and acting choices. Teasing out the features of the form that are overtly or subtly used in the performance can help you understand the play in a deeper way, as well as inspiring your own work in the classroom. Your Kaiako will be able to support a deeper understanding of Elizabethan Theatre, but this series of activities will help you identify some of the features that were used in the performance. This list is not complete and you will be able to identify more.
IDENTIFYING FEATURES: BALANCING THE STAGE
On the Globe Theatre stage actors and directors will use an activity called ’Balancing the Plate’ to ensure that the stage feels balanced in terms of the space between actors and aesthetically for the audience. This involves moving to balance the space between yourself and other actors, while considering the shape of the stage and any set. As an actor you need to imagine that the stage is a plate balancing on a pole, you can’t let it fall.
Practical activity (instructions for Kaiako): the whole class stands in a circle around the perimeter of the classroom. Four students step two steps inside the circle. One student leads by moving, in any direction they choose, clockwise, anti-clockwise, directly across the circle or moving in and out to the
centre. The other three students need to respond and balance the stage accordingly. You can swap students in and out, add numbers and encourage the leader to play with speed, pathways and levels.
Extension: using a portion of script from Romeo & Juliet, play with staging and balancing the space. You may want to tape out an interesting shape on the stage, like a thrust, in the round or a traverse. Consider entrances and exits in your experimentation as well.
Revision activity (instructions for ākonga): Thinking about the performance of Romeo & Juliet and the set on the stage, especially its symbolic symmetrical design elements. Choose three moments in the performance where you felt the stage was purposefully balanced by the actors. Sketch and annotate these moments, make sure your annotations are detailed. Using arrows and lines, note how you think the stage has been balanced. Under each sketch explain in a detailed paragraph what was happening in this moment and how the positioning of the actors communicated some or all of the following:
• Death
• Love
• Status
• Power
• Subtext
• Relationships
THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE/GREAT CHAIN OF BEING
The way Elizabethans viewed the world was often shaped by two concepts; The Wheel of Fortune and The Great Chain of Being. Shakespeare used these concepts in the structure and character arcs of his plays. Within the edit and production of Benjamin Kilby Henson’s version of Romeo & Juliet, both of these features are deeply tied to the tragic inevitably of the character’s deaths.
• The Wheel of Fortune: This concept originates from Roman mythology, where the goddess Fortuna controlled people’s lives with the spin of a wheel. Each person’s life was controlled by this wheel, which was turned at random, meaning that their fate or destiny was out of their hands. This meant that even those who were rich, comfortable and high status, with a turn of the wheel, could find themselves in a completely different position. As Elizabethans deeply believed in fate and destiny, they had to accept this change in fortunes.
• The Great Chain of Being: this is a hierarchy or order thought to be ordained by God during the mediaeval period. We imagine this hierarchy as a chain between the heavens and the earth. Everything has a place, either higher or lower
than other things, beginning with God and moving all the way down to the weeds in the dirt. This included your place in society and how you were viewed by others. It is reflected in the imagery that Shakespeare uses in his writing, in the status of the characters and the disorder that drives the narrative.
Practical activity: Both concepts are heavily tied with status within Romeo & Juliet. Choose a scene from the play with three characters, there needs to be a change of status or fortune within the scene.
• Stage the scene with one character sitting on the floor, one on a chair and one standing. Where the status or fortune of a character changes, shuffle the order. You could do this spontaneously or read through the script first, discussing where you think there are status or fortune changes.
• Adjust your voice and posture according to this status or fortune.
• Share with a group of peers and discuss how this impacts the meaning of the scene.
• How could you use the idea in a more realistic way to stage the scene?
THE
PRESENCE OF DEATH AND THE GREAT CHAIN OF BEING/WHEEL OF FORTUNE:
This performance of Romeo & Juliet has been set in purgatory, in the dilapidated Capulet ballroom, timestamping the moment Romeo and Juliet first meet. This is reflected in the acting, design and direction choices. Kilby Henson has moved Juliet’s monologue from Act 4, Scene 3 and placed it at the exposition. Death starts on the stage with Juliet and then we flash back to the beginning of the play, suggesting that the rest of the play may be Juliet’s memory from this point. Use the following prompt to think about how this setting and the lingering motif of death interacts with the idea of The Great Chain of being and the Wheel of Fortune. Respond to the prompts by writing a short essay, supported by sketches and annotations.
In Benjamin Kilby Henson’s edit the opening moment with Juliet’s monologue can be seen as the moment the fates have spun the Wheel of Fortune. Discuss.
Romeo and Juliet challenge the will of their parents and in turn the Capulet and Montague families challenge the rule of the Prince. When you challenge hierarchy and status, you create chaos in the Great Chain of Being. Discuss.
Amanda Tito’s portrayal of death and characters that catalyze death; The Prince, Petra, The Apothecary, reflect the central characters disrupting The Great Chain of Being. Discuss.
Revision activity: Choose a scene from the performance of Romeo & Juliet where you think the Great Chain of Being and/or The Wheel of Fortune was at play. Use the following prompt to write a short essay, record a podcast as a group or create a short presentation. Do some research into both concepts, so that you can support your argument in a detailed manner.
• Prompt: How did the concept of The Great Chain of Being and/or The Wheel of Fortune impact the characters in this scene? How was this shown in the acting, directing or design choices?
THE LANGUAGE OF HONESTY VS SHIELDING, HIDING AND LYING
Your kaiako will be able to explore the language of Shakespeare’s plays with you in depth, but this way of thinking about Blank Verse (Iambic Pentameter) and Prose will give you insight into Character’s motivations and emotional state.
• Blank Verse: Iambic Pentameter has a ten beat rhythm which sounds like a heartbeat, ba BOOM, ba BOOM, ba BOOM. It
makes sense to think about blank verse being connected directly to the heart, therefore, they are speaking with honesty or sincerity.
• Benjamin Kilby Henson comments in his directorial notes to the actors “Here Shakespeare distills love to its purest form – poetry. Music may be the food of love, but poetic verse is its very life force. Romeo only ever addresses Juliet in verse and vice-versa. So pure is Juliet, in fact, save for one line, Juliet only ever speaks in verse at all. They are ’wedded’ in verse come the famous sonnet and throughout, find beauty and unity in words, just as they do in each other.“
• Prose: If blank verse is the language of honesty then it makes sense that prose might be the opposite of this; lying, hiding or shielding. This doesn’t necessarily mean they are being malicious. They could be lying to themselves about something, or hiding a secret. Often when a high status character slips out of blank verse into prose, we need to ask ourselves what are they shielding, hiding or lying about?
Practical Activity (Instructions for Kaiako): Choose two short scenes, one prose and one blank verse. Divide the class into groups
and assign half the groups with prose script and half the class with the blank verse script. Each group needs to unpack the scene using the ideas outlined above, annotating their script and then bringing it to life using these ideas as the subtext and emotional motivation for the performance.
Revision Activity (Instructions for ākonga): In groups discuss Romeo & Juliet’s use of language throughout the play and how it changes. Think of specific scenes where a character was using blank verse or prose, and discuss how they communicated honesty or lying, hiding, shielding through their acting choices; body, voice, space and movement. What themes, symbols or ideas can you identify? Brainstorm your ideas, find appropriate quotations and share them back with the class. Collate all your ideas to support your revision near exam or portfolio creation time.
THE LANGUAGE OF LOVE - POETRY
Romeo & Juliet is a play that delves into the power of love in its myriad forms; romantic, familial, platonic, passionate, harmful, violent. The language of the play, as well as its use of poetry and structure are the provocative base for these characters and this story to bloom and burst into life.
EXPLOSIONS OF LOVE THROUGH THE USE OF RHYMING COUPLETS:
“In Romeo & Juliet, Shakespeare uses more rhyming couplets than any other of his tragedies. Rhymes are harmonious and coupled, therefore the very essence of pure love.“Benjamin Kilby Henson
“Rhyming couplets are two lines written in iambic pentameter that end in the same sound, or a rhyme.“
- Royal Shakespeare Company. Throughout the script love lifts off the page through the use of rhyming couplets, especially in the moments where Romeo and Juliet profess love for each other. Like in A Midsummer Night’s Dream where the use of poetic structure creates the magical nature of the forest, the couplet’s serve to allow the audience to buy into the heightened states of romance represented in the play.
Practical activity: As a class watch this video: What are Rhyming Couplets? | Text Detectives | Royal Shakespeare Company to understand the power of the rhyming couplet.
In small groups choose one these scenes and identify the rhyming couplets:
• Act 1, Scene 3
• Act 1, Scene 5
• Act 2, Scene 2
• Act 2, Scene 3
Discuss the following in reference to the scene your group is working on:
• What imagery are the rhyming couplet’s evoking? Note these words down on some craft paper and discuss what these words make you think of and how you connect them with the major themes or characters of the play. Reference information presented in this education pack.
• How does the image of death hang over these moments?
• Create a new script with just the lines from the scene that are rhyming couplets, get up into the space and have a play with this text. What is Shakespeare trying to communicate through language here?
sonnet. This sonnet allows their love to burst onto the stage energetically through poetry but also seals the pair’s fate as ’star crossed lovers’.
LOVE BLOOMS AND DEATH HAUNTS THROUGH SONNETS:
(You will need to discuss the rules of a sonnet with your Kaiako before beginning this activity.) Sonnets are used a couple of times within the text of Romeo & Juliet. Most audiences will know the famous opening sonnet beginning with “Two households, both alike in dignity…“ which sets the scene, as well as outlining the tragedy of the ensuing performance. Love, death, violence and family are intertwined in fourteen lines. Love and death are also captured the first time that Romeo and Juliet speak to each other, their lines combine as a shared
Practical activities: Using the shared sonnet from Act 1, Scene 5, get into groups of four. You will explore the text using proximity. One student plays Romeo, one plays Juliet while the other two students watch. If you are performing stand at opposite sides of the space. With each line take steps towards one another to end in close proximity. You can play with how many steps you take on each line, pace and length of steps and ending proximity. The audience pair may want to offer suggestions, including around voice, posture and facial expression. Play with the sonnet, layering in new elements thinking of your drama techniques; Voice, Body, Movement and Space. Discuss how this exercise makes you feel as either an audience member or as an actor. You can then swap pairs.
• Reflection questions: What themes or ideas does this exercise draw out? How does it help you connect to what you saw on stage?
In groups of 4 - 6, playing with drama conventions and interesting staging, considering how you balance the stage, bring to life the Prologue / Opening sonnet. Think about the mood you are communicating to the audience. Create a response to your performance by staging the last lines of the play:
A glooming peace this morning with it brings; The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head: Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things; Some shall be pardon’d, and some punished: For never was a story of more woe Than this of Juliet and her Romeo. (5.3.305-310)
Perform to your peers and discuss; how the poetry of the text makes you feel as an audience member and how these two sections of the text book end the play and why they are important.
OTHER FEATURES:
Use this chart to make a note of other features of the Elizabethan Theatre you or your kaiako/teacher might know of. Think of ways that you could play with the feature practically in class and where Auckland Theatre Company’s cast used the features in the performance as discussion material for revision.
Feature Description of the feature A scene where the feature used What the use of the feature made you think about
REFERENCES:
“Creative Shakespeare; The Globe Education Guide to Practical Shakespeare. Fiona Banks, 2014.“ Royal Shakespeare Company: https://www.rsc.org.uk/ shakespeare-learning-zone/romeoand-juliet/language/key-terms#
Exploring “love in all forms“ with Benjamin Kilby Henson
When you are revising for your live performance exam, you will want to unpack what you think the Director intended to communicate through their choices. These activities will help you brainstorm and collate your ideas, as well as providing evidence or quotes to support your explanations and discussions around the exam questions.
PRE-READING AND LISTENING:
• Read Benjamin Kilby Henson’s director’s note, interview and the designers interviews:
• Highlight ideas that interest you
• Circle quotes you think would enrich an answer in an exam
• Underline and annotate ideas that link to a specific moment in the performance.
• If you recorded the post show forum, find excerpts where Benjamin Kilby Henson answered questions:
• Write down ideas that interest you
• Record quotes you think would enrich an answer in a your portfolio or exam
• Record moments in the forum that surprised you or provided more context form something you saw on stage.
Use these notes to inform your response to the next activities.
THE EDIT:
From the first moments of this contemporary performance of Romeo & Juliet we are thrown into the passion of the narrative. While the opening sonnet has always been a powerful opening refrain, Kilby Henson has shaped the audience’s experience in a new way with his careful and beautiful edit of this text. Discuss the impact this has had on the audience as a whole, as well as your individual and personal response. As a class complete the following:
• On the whiteboard map the narrative of the original edit and Kilby Henson’s edit, especially how they diverge from one another
• Discuss the main points of divergence
• Discuss the impact this had on the characters individual narratives
• Discuss how this edit brought a new lens to the story, what did it make you think about? How does it connect socially and politically to our world today?
Extension: combine your thoughts into a short reflection focusing on your personal experience of the performance. What you thought about at the time and what you have thought about since.
LOVE IN ALL ITS FORMS:
Create a directorial intentions chart or brainstorm that allows you to explore the different types of love Kilby Henson has identified in his director’s note. Think about how he has used the script or characters to bring this to life on stage and what this made you think about or feel. You can choose to do this as a class brainstorm or create a mind map or a chart as a group. Your headings should be:
• Type of love
• How was this represented on stage - character, script, directorial or design choice?
• Did this deviate from the original text, if so how?
• What did these choices make you think and feel?
DEATH AN INESCAPABLE FATE:
While death is inherently woven into the text from the first lines of the play, Kilby Henson has made some intentional choices around how death is physically represented on stage by Amanda Tito. He has cast them as; Death, The Prince, Petra, The Apothecary. Use this table individually, in pairs or in small groups to discuss this choice. Once you have noted down your ideas, share them with others:
Character
Directorial choices and drama techniques used by Tito on stage
Death
The Prince Petra
The Apothecary
Extension activity: Explore the antithetical ideas of love and death present in Romeo & Juliet in a short essay, voice note or perhaps in a medium like sketching and annotating.
Make sure to use specific examples from the performance and also supporting evidence from this education pack or the post show forum. You could use the following to get started: the Directors Vision, Explainer Essay and this link from the Royal Shakespeare Company What is Antithesis? | Text Detectives | Royal Shakespeare Company
How they doom Romeo and Juliet, include quotes
The purpose of this choice
Discussing DesignItalian Passion in the 1960s
When we are thinking about the design or technological elements of a production, we need to explore how this supports the story being told, heightens atmosphere and tension or creates mood. Shakespeare created a vivid world for Benjamin Kilby Henson and the designers to work from, this section will support you to explore the design choices made and what they communicate to the audience. Whether you are doing Level One or Levels Two/Three, you are encouraged to complete the activities in this section.
For this interpretation of Shakespeare’s epic love story, Kilby Henson and the designers have established a purgatory space laced with Italian influence and inspired
by the 1960’s. They asked a question; “What is the single location that will hold this massive story“ and came up with the answer in a “dilapidated capulet ballroom (a space of renovation). Everything happens in this internal space, the confinement of Romeo and Juliet’s purgatory. The place where they meet for the first time, stamped into the lives of these people.“ This time stamp is evident in the costume choices, the symmetrical design of the set, as well as the lighting, sound and prop choices. It also establishes the lingering presence of death; death as the instigator of this purgatory world sealing the fate of these star crossed lovers
SHAKESPEARE, ITALIAN PASSION AND THE 1960’S
Kilby Henson and the design team have drawn inspiration for their contemporary version of Romeo & Juliet from the fun of the 1960’s, the fiery passion of Italy and evoking love in all its forms. They also play with ideas of symmetry on stage to reflect the two warring families and the symmetrical storylines that are represented. Kilby Henson mentioned the following during his design brief:
• It’s just cool, especially to dive into that era of fashion
• Era of love, holds this beautiful fairy tale very well
• Important with Shakespeare to have some kind of mystical distance, romanticism about that era and decade. It is one step removed from the audience in order to hold the heightened state of the script
• European/Italianette feelingset in Verona. The audience are framed up by this backdrop, like a painting - extreme violence, extreme passionate love in a very hot environment
• Death is ever present, death is the instigator of this purgatory world
Use the following activity to think about the set and stage design: Sketch and annotate the set/
stage OR create a comprehensive mood board. Your annotations must include reference to how Kilby Henson’s vision was realised on stage, including colour palette, specific design choices, layout, use of symbolism and motif. Incorporate notes about how this made you feel as an audience member, what you thought about and how you reacted at the time, and what you have thought about since.
Extension: Use the following activity to think about the similarities between The Globe Theatre in London and Auckland Theatre Company’s stage design.
Activity: Split into small groups. Find images of The Globe Theatre in London, birds eye and front facing. If you have been provided with images of the set by Auckland Theatre Company, ensure you have some printed out, otherwise, sketch the stage. With the images side by side, identify where Auckland Theatre Company have drawn inspiration from an Elizabethan style theatre, where it feels completely different and brainstorm what you think the stylistic intentions of the design were. Share the ideas that your group came up with, with the rest of the class, adding to your brainstorm.
THE COLOUR PALETTE
A very distinct colour palette has been chosen for this contemporary performance of Romeo & Juliet. The set, the costumes and the lighting feed into a 1960’s stylistic intention that supports the themes, ideas and symbols within Romeo & Juliet. Use the following activity to unpack your ideas and observations.
Activity: Draw a big circle, with a smaller circle on the inside. Create a colour wheel of all the colours you observed onstage, shading them into the circle. Then using arrows from each block of colour, group the characters that you observed wearing those colours. Further annotate your diagramme, thinking about each group of characters, what do they have in common? Is there a theme, motif or symbol that connects them? You could add in notes about how they connect to the colours of the set or the lighting palette used on each character. Share your diagramme with a peer or group and continue to add to it. By the end of this activity your original colour wheel should be surrounded by a web of annotation, where you will be able to identify themes, observations and ideas, which you will be able to include in your exam answers or in your portfolio.
Short essay question: In order to
establish a sense of purgatory, the characters’ costumes are time stamped at the Capulet Ball. How do the costumes and set work in conjunction to establish a sense of purgatory? What do you think Kilby Henson and the designers intended you to understand through these choices?
THE IMPACT OF SOUND
Sound throughout the performance was directly connected to the dialogue, the characters emotional motivations and what is happening thematically. It provides punctuation points for important moments, creates mood and atmosphere and builds tension. Use the following activity to unpack your thoughts, ideas and observations around the sound design of Romeo & Juliet.
Activity: As a class, roll some large craft paper along the floor OR use a whiteboard. Draw a line horizontally from one end of the page or board, to the other. Below the line plot the main action beats of the play. Above the line, annotate when sound plays an important role. Describe the sound in detail, evoke what type of sounds you heard. Add notes about whether it foreshadowed something, built tension, mood or atmosphere or whether it was connected to a character. Add in quotes where you
can. Once you have finished your sound timeline take a photo and make sure you save this for revision purposes.
SKETCHING AND ANNOTATION
Sketching and annotation are an important part of your exam responses, often they can add information or allow you to expand on your ideas in your written answers. Use the following prompts to create a bank of detailed sketches and annotations:
Prompts:
• A moment where the set was used by the actors to create impact. What other technologies were at play?
• A moment where technology was used to create mood or atmosphere.
• A moment where a character was isolated. How did the use of technology impact this moment?
• A moment where use of technology revealed new information.
A moment where the ensemble was on stage. What impact did the technology have on the tension of the scene?
Shakespeare’s Characters in the Classroom
When you are thinking about an actor’s performance to write about in an exam or portfolio setting you will want to build a comprehensive profile of how they used their body, voice, movement and use of space. Details about motivation, ideas or symbols they highlighted and moments of subtext that pointed to themes or relationship dynamics. You will want to link these details to specific moments in the performance, describing what was happening on stage and linking to big ideas and wider context.
These activities will enable you to build a kētē of information about characters you found compelling or who were integral to the narrative:
Each character within Romeo & Juliet has their own narrative arc, relationships and tensions. It is important to understand why the character is behaving the way they are, what has happened for them prior to the play beginning that makes them who they are and what they are communicating to the audience.
Deviating from the script with character: Kilby Henson brings dynamic new elements into his production of Romeo & Juliet. Paris and Lady Capulet are having an affair, Benvolio and Mercutio’s love blooms and is as equally ill fated as the leads, something happened between Lady Capulet and Montague and death invades the story at every turn with Amanda Tito’s Prince, Petra and Apothecary. This activity will help you to build character profiles, understand their relationships and unpack how they might deviate from other interpretations.
Character description: name, age, type of person that they are
Costume and makeup: colour, material, what this says about their personality, how it impacted posture and movement
Interpretation and deviation: make notes about how the director and actor have interpreted this character. Discuss how this might deviate from other interpretations
and make notes on the intention behind these choices
Relationships: who they are connected to and why, are there surprising elements?
Motivations: what motivates their character and where do you think these motivations are coming from?
Actors use of body, voice, movement and space: think about what feels new, fresh and also classic about the actors choices.
Subtext: think about specific moments where a character was communicating through subtext. What type of love did this character represent: familial, plutonic, romantic, paternal/ maternal
Fatal flaw: a trait that will mean the character will meet a fatal end by the play’s conclusion.
Use this activity to discuss these characters and relationships in small groups. Choose one of the following:
• Lady Capulet: her relationship with Juliet, her affair with Paris, the impact of her mothering
• The Surrogates: Friar Lawrence and The Nurse; the impact these two characters have on Romeo and Juliet
• The solo parent dynamic: Montague and Lady Capulet and their relationships with their children, their affair prior to the narrative beginning
• Mercutio and Benvolio: how their love story walks in step with Romeo and Juliet
Complete the following:
• Describe a key scene where these character dynamics were at play in detail
• Sketch and annotate the moment, ensuring you note motifs, symbolism and key lines of text
FAVOURITE QUOTE:
New layers for classical characters: Kilby Henson has crafted a specific edit of this classic text for a contemporary audience. In doing so he has looked at character dynamics and relationships with a new lens.
• Discuss the impact the choices and layers had on you as an audience member. What did it add to the story? What did you think about at the time and what have you thought about since?
Take your content back to the class and have a class discussion about these character layers and how they invigorate a 2025 audience.
Romeo & Juliet and Level One NCEA
“Drama transforms the tangible into the intangible.“
This section of the education pack is designed to support Level One drama students navigating the new Level One external Achievement Standard 91943 - Respond to a drama performance. Unlike the Level Two and Three external standards, which are an exam, you will be constructing a portfolio, over a period of time in class and it will be based around three key aspects;
• Key message of the performance, the use of drama components and your own personal response about how you connected to the performance, capturing the wairua (spirit) of what you watched.
This portfolio will be presented as a slideshow or PowerPoint and can be a mixture of written and audiovisual material - the main question
you should ask yourself as a student is; how do I communicate my ideas, thoughts, and feelings about what I saw, the best? With that in mind, you are encouraged to collect your thoughts, discussions and do your research in a range of formats. Such as voice notes, sketches and annotations, brainstorms, mood boards, recorded physical responses and writing.
Kaiako and ākonga please ensure you read this year’s assessment specifications carefully as you prepare to submit this assessment. You can access the specifications via this link: NZQA Assessment Specifications - Level One
Below are three activities to support you to expand your ideas and support you during the teaching and learning phase of unpacking the performance.
KEY MESSAGE:
In pairs, small groups, or as a whole class, discuss and brainstorm the following prompts:
• Why this edit of Romeo & Juliet? What do you think Kilby Henson was trying to say? Why choose this play for a 2025 audience?
• What do you think the director was trying to communicate through the choices they made? How does this connect with what the playwright has written?
• What do the characters in the performance represent and what do they communicate to the audience?
• What do you think the designers are trying to communicate through their choices? How does this bring the playwright’s ideas to life?
Once you have brainstormed around these questions, you could journal, voice note or record thoughts around the following questions:
• How do you identify the key message of a performance?
• Can there be multiple key messages?
• Think about your interpretation of the performance - what was the key message to you?
• What physical evidence from the performance connects to the key message? This could be a scene, a moment between characters, dialogue, a moment where the use of technology highlighted an idea.
• Describe these examples and sketch them in specific detail.
USE OF DRAMA COMPONENTS:
Drama components are techniques, elements, conventions and technologies. Make sure you have explored this language and terminology with your kaiako/teacher.
Now that you have fleshed out what the key message might be, you need to connect it with the choices that the director, designer and actors have made and how they have used the drama components in combination.
Brainstorm in small groups, or in pairs:
• How an actor used drama techniques in a moment that communicated the key message
• How elements created a sense of mood, atmosphere or tension
• How conventions were used throughout the performance
• How technology enhanced the story being told
WAIRUA OF PERFORMANCE AND PERSONAL RESPONSE:
In the unpacking on the NCEA website for this standard, this aspect of the assessment is unpacked in detail. Your teacher will support you
in understanding this and guide you to explore, research and develop your ideas.
“The wairua of the performance is experienced as the intangible energetic and emotive qualities that carry the spirit and intention of the play. How the wairua is expressed by the performers provokes a response from the audience and allows them to reflect on the ideas and themes of the play based on their own life experiences and perspectives.“
- 1.4 - Unpacking
• What thoughts, ideas and feelings did the performers provoke in you?
• What have you reflected upon since watching the performance?
• What have you been thinking about (head) and feeling (heart) since?
• What did your gut/sense of intuition communicate to you as you watched the performance?
• What life experiences or perspectives do you bring? What connections did you make?
REFERENCES
Drama | NCEA
Level One External Specifications
Romeo & Juliet and Level Two and Three Revision Questions
If you are a Year 12 or 13 student who attended the production of Romeo & Juliet you will likely have had your Live Performance exam in mind as you watched the performance. You are encouraged to look at the questions written for Year 11/Level One students in the previous section. With this in mind, the questions below will support you to revise for your exam at the end of the year but will also enrich your thoughts, feelings and ideas about the performance of Romeo & Juliet and may expand your own work that you develop in the classroom.
You are encouraged to explore the questions both individually and with your peers.
Note: When answering the following question you will want to find and provide physical examples from the production. A physical example is when you describe, with specificity, what is happening on stage at the time. Get down to specific detail, for example, explaining how the actor/ performer is standing or moving, how far away from the audience they are, what is happening with technology, where exactly they are in space, etc.
The more detail, the better!
DRAMA TECHNIQUES: BODY, VOICE, MOVEMENT AND SPACE:
• Describe how an actor who you found interesting or compelling used drama techniques in a specific moment in the performance.
• Describe how Lady Capulet and Juliet used proximity during scenes together.
• Discuss how the actors playing Romeo and Juliet use drama techniques during solo moments on stage. What were they aiming to communicate? What did you understand at that moment?
• Explain another actor’s use of drama techniques and how they created a sense of authenticity within the performance (use this question to focus on characters outside the leads.)
• Choose specific moments where you felt the actor used their body, voice, movement, and space in combination to create impact, focus, or to support an important idea.
• Discuss why you think authenticity is important in a contemporary performance of a classical text
• Thinking about the actors and the way they created their characters:
• How did they use techniques to create a sense of time and place?
• How did they use techniques to communicate their history?
• How did the actors playing Benvolio and Mercutio OR Lady Capulet and Paris use drama techniques to communicate subtext in their performance? Use a specific moment and example to discuss this use of subtext.
• Discuss what you found compelling about the actor playing Tybalt’s use of drama techniques in the performance. Choose a specific moment to focus on.
CHARACTER:
• Discuss what the character communicated to the audience; how did the actor portray them? Plot their character arc and describe how they use techniques to communicate this.
• Discuss the purpose of the characters:
• What impact do they have on the narrative, as well as the audience and actors’ relationship?
• How does the actor’s use of techniques communicate their purpose in the performance?
• Explore the ensemble of characters as a whole: what purpose do they serve in the narrative?
• Discuss the changes that Benjamin Kilby Henson has made to the character relationships, as opposed to their original representation. What was he trying to communicate? Why do you think he made these changes or highlighted these specific storylines?
DIRECTOR/DESIGNER CONCEPT:
• Discuss the design choices in the opening or closing moments of the performance. Why were these choices important in setting the scene or closing out the narrative?
• Discuss the purpose of the performance and how the themes or ideas link to what is happening in this version of Romeo and Juliet’s world; socially, politically or historically. Why the 1960’s? Link your ideas to specific moments or examples from the performance.
• How did the way the performance was realised impact the style of delivery of the narrative/story?
• How does the content of the play challenge and serve the audience?
• Discuss how the director brought the story to life using Drama Components - Elements, Conventions, Techniques and Technologies.
• What do you think Kilby Henson is asking you to think about in the way he has directed Romeo & Juliet?
• How did the acting and staging choices affect you as an audience member?
• What was the impact of the way the design, directorial, and acting choices worked together? Choose a moment that surprised, shocked, or excited you to talk about.
• Discuss why the use of sound and lighting design was integral to this performance? Focus on the mood created by sound choices, use of colour and the shapes created by the angles or composition of lighting.
• How did the acting and staging choices affect you as an audience member?
• What was the impact of the way the design, directorial, and acting choices worked together? Choose a moment that surprised, shocked, or excited you to talk about.
• Discuss why the use of sound and lighting design was integral to this performance? Focus on the mood created by sound choices, use of colour and the shapes created by the angles or composition of lighting.
DRAMA CONVENTIONSSTRATEGIES ESTABLISHED TO MAKE MEANING AND CONNECT TO WIDER CONTEXT:
(NB - make sure you are familiar with what the established Drama Conventions are by discussing this with your teacher)
• Identify a moment in the performance where Drama Conventions were used to create focus, mood or atmosphere:
• Explain how the convention or combination of conventions were used in the performance
• Discuss the impact of the use of the convention or combination of conventions in this moment
• Discuss how meaning was created for you, as an audience member, in this moment
• Discuss how the use of a convention or combination of conventions in a specific moment helped you think about the big ideas and themes of the play.
• What was the wider context (socially, historically, politically or geographically) that this moment linked to?
DRAMA ELEMENTS AND HOW THEY DRAW OUR ATTENTION TO THEMES, MOTIFS AND SYMBOLS:
• What were the main themes, questions and ideas evident in the performance? Link these themes, questions and ideas to specific moments or examples from the performance.
• How were design and directorial elements (props, setting, AV, costuming, audience positioning and interaction) and the Drama Elements used to build the performance? How did this make you feel as a member of the audience?
• Identify recurring symbols or motifs throughout the performance. Explain why they were important in helping you understand ideas being communicated in Romeo & Juliet?
• How do these themes, symbols, or ideas link to the wider world of the play and what impact does this have on the audience?
• Were there choices that Kilby Henson made that made you think about something in a new light? What impact does this have on the audience and you as a member of the audience?
TECHNOLOGY:
LINK YOUR IDEAS TO SPECIFIC MOMENTS OR EXAMPLES IN THE PERFORMANCE.
Think about lighting, set, sound, props, costumes, make-up and how this helped bring you into the world of the play.
• How was the set used to create a sense of purgatory?
• How did the use of lighting, sound and set express that the play might be taking place in Juliet’s memory?
• How was costume and set design used to timestamp the moment that Romeo and Juliet met? What was the purpose of this decision?
• How was technology used to create the atmosphere in the performance?
• How was technology used to highlight important ideas, themes and symbols in the performance?
• How was contrast and/or focus created or built through technology and why was this important?
• How did the use of technology help you gain a deeper understanding of the themes of Romeo & Juliet?
• How did technology highlight the different viewpoints expressed within the performance?
• Discuss why this was impactful, exciting or challenged your expectations.
• How were costumes used to communicate the characters’ purpose in the performance?
IMPORTANT NOTE:
When you are writing about Set or Costume, you need to be specific about the following details and also sketch what you see. Imagine the person you are writing for has not seen the production and create a vivid image in their mind of what you saw:
• For example: Set/Props
• The size, shape and dimensions of any set pieces or props used
• The materials used, their textures and the colours