How Romeo + Juliet Shook Up Shakespeare for a New Generation

I was in my ninth grade English class when I watched Romeo + Juliet for the first time. It was the early 2000s: the era of flip phones, AIM, and Myspace. Shakespeare had long carried the reputation of being tough to teach, as language has evolved over the centuries. But in the new millennium, literature teachers were facing unchartered territory in the battle for students’ attention spans. When my class watched Romeo and Juliet, Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 film adaptation, it didn’t offer much help in translating the words of the 16th-century playwright for a 21st-century audience. So when my teacher… Read Full Article