Relationships

Whether you’re a new teacher or have years of experience under your belt, there is one universal truth for theatre educators: For your program to thrive, you need to have a good relationship with your administrators. Building and maintaining a good relationship with your administration is easy if you know how to make an administrator happy. So, here are five tips that will help your administrator see you in a different light: 1. Do your job.This sounds obvious, but there is no bigger red flag to an administrator than a teacher who does not perform their basic responsibilities. At a bare minimum, administrators expect you to: • Show up to work every day. • Be prepared. • Carry out your designated duties (such as supervising the cafeteria or bus lot) and any other fundamental responsibility that is assigned by your school. Teachers who are unable or unwilling to complete these basic, essential assignments quickly find themselves on an administrator’s bad side, and often find themselves out of a job. You can avoid being labeled a “problem” teacher simply by consistently and competently doing your job. 2. Handle your classroom.Administrators expect teachers to handle basic classroom discipline. Although administrators understand their role as the ultimate enforcers of discipline in schools, they also prefer to be the option of last resort. When a student breaks rules or doesn't meet expectations, administrators expect teachers to attempt to resolve the situation “in house” before any administrators are included. They expect teachers to handle such low level infractions as cell phone violations, unprepared students, or mild insubordination, with consequences outlined in a schoolwide or classroom discipline plan. Once a teacher has exhausted their classroom discipline protocols, and the student still refuses to comply, then it is appropriate to kick the incident up the ladder to admin. With that scaffolding in mind, teachers who cannot handle basic discipline in their classroom without involving an administrator will quickly be viewed as “ineffective,” and will likely be subject to an intervention, or worse. 3. Make their job easier (and yours too).From hosting community events to planning school assemblies, administrators have a lot on their plates when it comes to facility management. As a drama teacher, you have the unique ability to make your administrators’ job a little easier because of your connection to the auditorium. First and foremost, ask if you can take responsibility for maintaining and scheduling the auditorium. Tell your admin you will be happy to handle the calendar for the auditorium, and that you (and your advanced students) will be responsible for keeping the stage and backstage areas tidy. This approach is a win-win, as it puts more control of the auditorium space in your hands, and takes a chunk off of your administrators’ list of daily responsibilities. Plus, you and your students will do a much better job of maintaining the theatre space than people who only see it as auxiliary storage! Ultimately, administrators appreciate being able to pass off excess responsibilities to willing teachers. 4. Volunteer for appropriate projects.Building on the idea of making your administrators’ job easier, look for opportunities to volunteer for projects that are unique to your position. For example, if there is a public meeting scheduled in the auditorium, offer to set up the lights and microphones. If you have the time, volunteer to operate the sound board or other technical components for the meeting. Again, this serves two purposes: You are demonstrating that you are a team player, AND you are keeping an eye on your tech equipment! As a drama teacher, you have special skills and training that other teachers don’t, and any time you can use those skills to help your admin, they will see you in a different light and appreciate you and your program even more. 5. Offer solutions, not problems.This is a big one. Every drama teacher knows that from time to time, things will go wrong: Schedules will be fouled up, facilities will be overbooked, students will be overcommitted. When issues arise that require help from administration, be prepared to offer potential solutions to the problems you are reporting. Admin is confronted with dozens of problems every day, and it is exhausting to constantly have to come up with solutions to everyone else’s problems. So if you can walk through the door with not only a problem, but some potential SOLUTIONS, it will make those conversations go much easier. You may not always get the solution you want, but the fact that you put some thought into solving the problem will make a positive impression on your administration. Additional Reading: Calling All Theatre Teachers: How do I get admin to see that we need money? How to Put on a Play That Your Administration Doesn’t Like

If you’ve ever been part of a theatre production, you know that drama isn’t just about acting — it’s about teamwork, trust, and putting yourself out there. That’s why kindness in the drama classroom isn’t just nice to have; it’s essential. Think about it: theatre requires students to take risks. They have to speak in front of others, step into unfamiliar roles, and sometimes even make themselves look a little silly. That’s not easy! But when students know they’re in a supportive, kind environment, they’re much more willing to try, fail, and try again. So how can we, as drama teachers, actively cultivate kindness in our classrooms? Here are a few simple but effective ideas: 1. Make encouragement the norm.• Start class with a “shout-out” circle where students recognize something great a classmate did. • Encourage students to give positive feedback before offering constructive criticism. (A simple “I loved how expressive you were!” goes a long way.) 2. Model kindness in your feedback.• When giving notes, focus on growth rather than just what went wrong. • Use “and” instead of “but” when offering suggestions: “Your character choices were strong, and if you add a bit more energy, it’ll be even stronger.” 3. Foster a “we, not me” mindset.• Remind students that theatre is a team sport — every role, onstage or off, matters. • Have students switch roles occasionally so they appreciate all aspects of a production. 4. Create a no-mocking zone.• Establish a rule that everyone gets to try things without fear of being laughed at (unless it’s intentional comedy!). • Call out unkind behavior gently but firmly. Drama class should be a place where students feel comfortable being brave. 5. Celebrate effort, not just talent.• Applaud students who take risks, even if the result isn’t perfect. • Acknowledge growth and improvement, not just natural ability. When kindness takes center stage, everything in the drama classroom becomes better: students feel braver, performances improve, and the whole experience becomes more fun. After all, theatre isn’t just about putting on a great show; it’s about building a great community.

Clear relationships onstage make characters’ interactions that much more interesting and engaging for the audience. The audience needs to know immediately how one character relates to another. No matter what the relationship is, whether the characters like or dislike each other, or whether the interaction onstage is positive or negative, students must work together to make strong choices on the stage. The following exercise challenges students to do just that: perform a short scene featuring two characters who are connected in some way. But the wrinkle is… the scene must be performed without words! Instructions:1. Divide students into pairs. 2. Give each pair a relationship for their characters, using these relationship prompts. You can have pairs draw slips out of a hat, or assign each pair a relationship. 3. Give students five minutes to prepare a short (30 seconds to a minute) mimed scene that demonstrates the relationship. It’s up to the students to determine what’s going on in the scene, and how they can clearly demonstrate the relationship. For example, if the prompt is a toddler and a daycare teacher, perhaps the students will have the daycare teacher do a counting lesson, or help the toddler put on their winter coat. They also need to consider how they will make clear choices. How would they differentiate the toddler/daycare teacher relationship from a toddler at home with their parent? 4. Remember: with mimed performances, there is no speaking. All actions and facial expressions must be communicated without words. Encourage students to use large gestures and lots of facial expressions. Make the movements exaggerated. For this exercise, bigger is better! Decide if you want to allow students to use sounds. If you wish, allow them to select a piece of background music. 5. After the preparation time is up, have each pair perform their mimed scene for the rest of the class. 6. After each pair performs, discuss: • • Is the relationship clear? How can you tell? What evidence onstage indicated that? • What worked well? What didn’t work? • How might students show the relationship between the two characters in another way? Rehearsal Exercise: If you are working on a class or school production, have your actors try this exercise as an acting challenge. Have students perform their scenes without speaking their lines — only gestures and facial expressions allowed. Are their movements enough to tell the story?

Sometimes when your students do a playwriting assignment or an improvised scene, they’ll need a prompt to help them choose what kind of relationship their characters will have. Many students, when told to create characters with a “relationship,” think they have to write or perform a romantic pairing, which can be awkward or embarrassing. But have no fear! Below is a list of platonic, gender-neutral relationships your students can choose from: 1. Teacher and student 2. Professor and student 3. Teacher and principal 4. Student and guidance counsellor 5. Student and school bus driver 6. Student and librarian 7. Hairstylist and client 8. Makeup artist and client 9. Celebrity and assistant 10. Celebrity and fan 11. Singer and backup dancer 12. Actor and director 13. Director and stage manager 14. Director and producer 15. Director and designer (costume, lights, etc.) 16. Model and photographer 17. Athlete and coach 18. Chef and server 19. Server and restaurant patron 20. Airline attendant and pilot 21. Airline attendant and passenger 22. Reporter and interviewee 23. Magician and assistant 24. Child and babysitter 25. Store employee and customer 26. Doctor and nurse 27. Doctor and patient 28. Nurse and patient 29. Call centre employee and customer 30. Technical support and customer 31. Housekeeper and cook 32. Two employees at the same store 33. Roller coaster operator and guest 34. Hotel manager and guest 35. Landlord and tenant 36. Superhero and villain 37. Superhero and sidekick 38. Superhero and rescued person 39. Royalty and peasant 40. Royalty and bodyguard 41. Vegetarian and meat-eater 42. Psychic medium and ghost 43. Writer and director 44. Ventriloquist and puppet 45. Pirate captain and naval officer 46. Pirate captain and first mate 47. Author and illustrator 48. Pen pals 49. Driving instructor and new driver 50. Tradesperson and apprentice

For the following exercise, students will start by individually creating and analyzing a new character (or analyzing an existing character). Then with a partner, they’ll come up with a scenario in which the two characters would meet and form some sort of relationship. From there, you can take the work in a multitude of directions. You can use it for new character creation for playwriting or scene work. For example, if you’re doing the Superhero Series with your students, you can use it as a character analysis exercise (how do characters behave when they are confronted with a different character?); you can use it if you’re feeling stuck in a rehearsal rut and want to mix things up (have students analyze their characters and interact with a character they don’t normally interact with); or you can use it as a standalone exercise. Instruction1. Start by having students complete the 20 Character Profile Questions exercise to create a new character. Alternatively, brainstorm a list of existing characters (Batman, Harry Potter, Katniss Everdeen, The Big Bad Wolf, Luke Skywalker, Dorothy Gale, Lisa Simpson) and have students analyze them using the same questions. You can either assign each student a character or allow each student to select a character to analyze. Each student should have a different character. If you are doing a class production and want to challenge your actors, have students complete this exercise by analyzing the characters they are playing. 2. Partner students up by drawing names out of a hat. 3. Have the partners compare their characters and create a list of scenarios (aim for at least five) in which these two characters would have some sort of relationship. The nature of the relationship is up to the students. Often when we say “relationship,” students immediately think of a romantic relationship. This doesn’t have to be the case. Here, a relationship simply means “in relation to one another,” or how the two characters are connected. Here are some ideas on how the characters could have a relationship: • The characters discover they are long-lost siblings. • One character helps the other one do or fix something. • The characters are pen pals. • One character teaches the other one something. • One character is the other one’s boss. • One of the characters causes the other one to have an accident. • The characters are study partners at school. • The characters are having a disagreement but discover they have something in common. • The characters work together to accomplish a common goal (find treasure, put up a tent, win a basketball tournament). • One character entertains the other one. 4. From the list of scenarios the partners have come up with, have them choose one scenario they like best or find most interesting. They will use this to perform a one-minute improvised scene where the characters meet and form a relationship, or as a playwriting exercise in which students write a one-page scene where the characters meet and form a relationship. (If your students are overwhelmed, these location prompts and outdoor prompts might give them some ideas about where their characters could meet.) Since there is a one-minute / one-page limit, students need to get to the crux of the relationship right away, and it needs to be very clear. 5. If time permits, have the class either watch the improvised performances or listen to a reading of the written scenes. 6. Afterward, discuss the relationships as a class: • What was the relationship between the two characters? • Was the relationship clear? • Was it established quickly? • Did it make sense (even if it was silly)? Why or why not? • What worked well within the scene? What didn’t work? 7. Students will complete and submit individual reflections (found below).

Theatre is all about communication and collaboration. Students come together to tell a story and create a collective experience for an audience. When students are working together, it’s important to maintain healthy relationships within their group. This doesn’t mean that the students are all best friends. It does, however, involve trust and respect, a sense of community, and effective problem solving. Healthy relationships are built on trust, which is necessary when creating theatre.When they’re creating theatre, students need to be able to trust each other, no matter what role anyone is playing within the production. They need to be able to be vulnerable with each other and know that others in the production will support them. They need to trust that the actors will perform their lines and blocking accurately. They need to trust that stage management will call the cues correctly and that the technicians will complete their tasks efficiently. On top of that, they need to trust that their director (that’s likely you!) will help them grow in their roles and lead them through a successful production. By developing healthy relationships, students will build trust for each other, and vice versa — building trust leads to healthier relationships. They need to give and receive trust and respect. _Read more about trust: _ • Establishing Trust With Your Students • Warm-Up Exercises for Trust Building Healthy relationships contribute to a sense of community.As we said before, students aren’t immediately going to become best friends when they work on a production. But they will be spending many, many hours together working on the show. They’ll be spending their time, talents, and efforts to achieve a common goal. Through this process, students will bond through the shared experience of putting on a show together. A common bond creates a community. And when others see and sense this feeling of community, they’ll likely want to join in. Which means your drama program will grow! Read more about community: • Community-Building Warm-ups for the Drama Classroom • How to Build Community With Theatre Having healthy relationships will help students solve problems effectively in the heat of the moment.When students do live theatre, the question is not whether something will go wrong, but when. Part of building and maintaining healthy relationships is figuring out ways to solve problems as a team without playing the blame game. How students (and teachers!) react in the midst of a theatrical “crisis” will affect their relationships. When issues arise, everyone needs to remain calm and go into problem-solving mode. It’s the ultimate improvisation challenge! Knowing you have a strong team that you can depend on in the middle of a stressful moment is extremely reassuring. And if a student does panic and react poorly in the moment, having those healthy relationships will make it easier for them to apologize, seek forgiveness, and repair the relationship afterwards. Read more about problem solving: • Problem Solving: When Students Don’t Work Well Together • Problem Solving for Student Directors So how can you help your students develop healthy relationships? Try some of these: • Have students give each other Warm Fuzzies. • Praise your students and let them know you appreciate them. • Have students share their goals for the production with the Wish Jar exercise. • Encourage students to get together as a group outside of rehearsal to practice. • Have students explore their thoughts about healthy relationships by completing journal entries responding to questions on the topic (download some sample questions below). If they’re comfortable doing so, have them share their responses with their classmates. They may be surprised to discover that they have some thoughts in common with others.

Students rely on their teachers to impart lessons with confidence, understanding, and kindness. They need to feel safe in their classroom to learn, make mistakes, fail, and try again. In short: students need to trust their teacher. But trust isn’t so easily earned, especially if you’re a new teacher. Students don’t know anything about you, your background, or your teaching style. It’s up to you to earn their trust. Here are five tips to help you do that: 1. Listen and recall.I’ve been talking a lot about this in the past few blog posts, but listening to your students is so important for establishing trust, connection, and communication. Listen to what your students are saying and recall that information when an appropriate moment comes up. Remembering things like an important upcoming event, an interest, an allergy, a fear, etc. will let students know that you’ve been listening to them. A student who feels heard is a student who feels valued, and they will be more likely to trust you. As well as listening to what they’re saying, be sure to also observe what they’re communicating nonverbally through body language, and note what they’re journaling about. These can provide further insight into your students’ thoughts and feelings. Here’s another article about active listening: Hearing or Listening? 2. Follow through.If you tell your students you’re going to do something, make every effort to follow through. It could be anything from giving extra time for students to rehearse, allowing time to play improv games at the end of class, or making the class popcorn for a screening of a play they’re studying. This is an “actions speak louder than words” opportunity to build trust. Students remember these actions, but they remember being let down if we forget even more. 3. Demonstrate confidence and competence.A great teacher knows their subject inside and out, is organized, explains concepts in ways their students can understand, and thinks on their feet. They’re prepared for class and enthusiastic about their subject. By being excited about their subject, they show students that learning more about the topic is worth their time. They trust that their teacher knows what they’re doing and that they’re not going to be led astray. 4. Admit your mistakes.While you’re an awesome, confident, knowledgeable teacher, you’re only human, and you’re learning too. Show your vulnerability and admit when you make a mistake or don’t know something. If a student points out a typo in one of your handouts or an error on a PowerPoint presentation, accept the note and acknowledge the mistake. If a student asks you a question that you don’t know the answer to, say so. Then find out the answer and get back to them. Showing students vulnerability teaches them that mistakes are how we learn. We are always learning, no matter our age, previous training, or level of experience. 5. Let them lead.Leadership opportunities are a fabulous way for students to learn. They show students that you trust them with their own learning as well as that of their peers. Students can lead warm-ups, direct scenes, create and perform their own monologues and scenes, and take on new and different production roles. Students get a wealth of hands-on learning, a feeling of empowerment, and a sense of pride from being entrusted by the teacher to lead. Further Reading: Warm-Up Exercises for Trust Building

In this round-up post, we’re focusing on relationship skills, which is one of the five areas of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). If the concept of SEL is new to you, check out this article for a basic overview: Social and Emotional Learning in the Drama Classroom: What Is It?. Here are ten theatre games that help students develop relationship-building skills: five for building relationships between students in the drama classroom and five for building and developing relationships in character. Each game has an additional exit slip question that you can use for a post-game written assignment or verbal discussion topic, to help students further delve into the topic of building relationships. Building Relationships in the Drama ClassroomThe Human Knot • Students must work together to untangle a full-class knot. • Exit slip question: How does this game help to build relationships in the drama classroom? The Negotiation • Students must work together to plan and present on a topic in a short amount of time. • Exit slip question: Describe your relationship with your teammates during this game. Were you a leader, a follower, spoken over, a collaborator? (Your relationships with different teammates might be different.) How did that make you feel? Three Games to Help Students Play to the Audience • These three simple games will help students learn audience awareness and theatre etiquette: Trapdoor, Upstage/Downstage, and Act It Out. • Exit slip question: What is the relationship between actors and the audience? How can you use the skills you practiced in this game to improve that relationship? Three “Get To Know You” Games • These three simple games will help you and your students get to know each other: The ABC Name Game, Move Yer Butt, and Mixer. • Exit slip question: How did this game help you develop/improve your relationships with other students? Three Things in Common • This game will help students get to know each other better, beyond surface commonalities. • Exit slip question: What was something unexpected that you learned you had in common with someone today? What else would you like to learn about that person? Building Relationships in CharacterCombining Skills • While students play characters with different occupations, they need to create a working relationship to solve the problem at hand. • Exit slip question: What were the relationships between your character and your team members’ characters? How did you build those relationships during the scene? Imposter • Students play experts in the same profession working together, while discovering that one member of the team is an imposter. • Exit slip question: For the experts: How did your relationship change when you realized one of the team members was an imposter? For the imposter: How did you try to relate to the team of experts? Job Interview • Student A interviews Student B for a job, but Student B doesn’t know what the job is. • Exit slip question: Who had more power in this relationship? Did the power dynamics change during the scene? How did you feel being more/less powerful than your scene partner? Muted Conversations • Two students act silently while two other students play their voices. • Exit slip question: Was it easier for you to relate to your scene partner or your voice partner? Why? Taking Away the Script • Students work in groups on a scene. Partway through the rehearsal, students are informed that they cannot use any words to perform their scene. • Exit slip question: How can you effectively show and develop the relationship between characters onstage without using words?

“Go, counsellor: Thou and my bosom henceforth shall be twain.” Juliet, Act III, scene v There are more relationships in Romeo and Juliet than just the one between Romeo and Juliet. We have relationships between parents and teens, between friends, and between enemies. Read the article and try the exercises with your students. You can download a printable PDF of this article and all the exercises below. Adults and Teens“Away from light steals home my heavy son, and private in his chamber pens himself, Shuts up his windows, locks fair daylight out, and makes himself an artificial night.” Montague, Act I, scene i Romeo and Juliet not only have a relationship with each other, they also have relationships to the adults in their lives. Though the play is several hundred years old, these relationships are very similar to those between adults and teens today. Youth vs age is a running thread, old and new. Juliet observes that if the Nurse were young she would be “swift in motion as a ball,” but as it is she’s old and slow. Change the word choice and it could be taken from a conversation heard in any high school hallway. First are the parent/teen relationships. Romeo’s parents rarely talk to him. They seem as confused by his behaviour as many parents today are confused by their sullen teens who lock themselves in their room. Juliet’s parents demand that she obey them in a “my house, my rules” kind of way. Capulet initially seems protective of his daughter, but later his true nature comes out. It’s interesting how the parents react to their children’s deaths – Lady Montague kills herself at Romeo’s banishment, and the Capulets show intense sorrow at finding Juliet “dead.” But if they truly feel such grief when their children are gone, why aren’t they more connected to them before this moment? One aspect of the parent/teen relationship (perhaps not as prevalent today) is the surrogate parent. Juliet was not raised by her mother but by the Nurse. to the point that the Nurse even breastfed Juliet when she was a baby. Juliet’s mother is so detached from her daughter that when she has the big news at the beginning of the play about Paris, she asks the Nurse to stay and witness the conversation. The Nurse is Juliet’s only confidante and friend. It’s clear that Romeo and the Friar have a bond, and this bond is stronger than with any of his friends. When Romeo is in trouble, he doesn’t turn to his parents. He runs to the Friar. Both sets of parents, real and surrogate, fail to be good parents. Lord and Lady Capulet would see Juliet disowned before disobedient. Romeo’s parents are absent in his journey. Both the Friar and the Nurse put themselves ahead of their charges – the Nurse sides with her employers over Juliet and the Friar abandons Juliet in the tomb so he won’t be caught. What message does this convey about whether or not the teens should trust adults? Exercises • Journal Prompt: Are the adults in your life trustworthy? Are they looking out for your best interests? Compare your relationships with adults to those of Romeo and Juliet. • Journal Prompt: What do you share with the adults in your life? What do you keep secret? Is there an adult in your life that you consider a friend? What do you think it means to be an adult? • Journal Prompt: Sometimes adults don’t want to know the truth, they just want a teen to “present” as a good person. Have you ever had to lie because an adult didn’t want to know the truth? • In groups, discuss the idea of the good parent. Should we cut the parents in Romeo and Juliet some slack because they were only behaving as parents would in that time period? Are we thinking too much in 21st Century terms? Or should a good parent always put their children first? • Compare and contrast Juliet’s relationship with the Nurse with her relationship with her mother. Why does Lady Capulet not want to be alone with Juliet in Act I, scene iii? Why does the Nurse decide to tell Juliet to forget Romeo? • Reflect on Romeo’s relationship with his mother. We learn at the end of the play that she killed herself from grief at his banishment, but we have no text between them. • Reflect on Youth vs Age in the play. Examine the first conversation between Romeo and the Friar (Act II, scene iii) and Juliet’s conversation with the Nurse when she’s waiting to hear news from Romeo. (Act II, scene v) • Montague says that he has tried talking to Romeo to find out what’s wrong with him with no success. In groups, discuss what it’s like when parents try to get information from you. • Using Act I, scene i as a guide, write a modern scene about a parent’s concern for their teen’s behaviour. Have it take place outside the locked door of their son’s bedroom. What do they do to try and get the son to come out? Are they clueless in how to talk to a teenager? • Using Act III, scene iv as a guide, write a modern scene which explores the notion of “my house, my rules.” How would a modern set of parents embody this, compared to Lord and Lady Capulet? • In groups, examine Act III, scene iv and identify the words and images Capulet uses on Juliet. Mistress minion, for example. Would you like to have your father say those words to you? Choose a couple of terms and create tableaux to visualize them. What impact do the words have visually? • In Act IV scene iii, Juliet lies to her parents, saying that she’s realized the error of her ways and will marry Paris. Write Juliet’s inner monologue. What does she really want to say to her father? • In groups, read and examine Act IV, scene v. After Capulet has threatened and screamed at his daughter, after Lady Capulet has told Juliet “go ahead and kill yourself,” they both seem to exhibit genuine despair at her death. Why is that? What are they going through in this scene? Is it genuine? Friends & Enemies“Prodigious birth of love it is to me, That I must love a loathed enemy.” Juliet, Act I, scene v Romeo and Juliet is based on the nature of friends and enemies. [aside: The concept of “enemy” is so strong in the play but the word itself is only used six times. The word “friend” and its forms are used twenty times.] These powerful states are vital to the story – The prologue mentions the feuding families before it mentions the lovers. Everything happens because the two families are foes. Romeo is both friend and enemy to Juliet. When Juliet says goodbye to Romeo in Act III, scene v, she calls him both “husband” and “friend.” The word is used to symbolize someone you care for, even when it’s used ironically: The Nurse wails that Tybalt was “the best friend she ever had” after his death, even though one wonders if they ever had a conversation. The word “friend” takes on a chilling connotation in Act V: Romeo tells the apothecary, who is afraid of selling him the poison, that the world is not your friend. Juliet searches for one “friendly” drop of that poison to end her life and join Romeo in death. In act III, scene i, Romeo declares, “This gentleman, the prince’s near ally, My very friend, hath got his mortal hurt In my behalf.” In my research for this newsletter, I found many remarks that Romeo and Mercutio are best friends. I’m not convinced. Romeo may think so. But he is often so caught up in his own world he doesn’t see the reality of life around him. When Mercutio searches for Romeo in Act II, he mocks Romeo’s state of mind, and mocks the way Romeo speaks of love. “Appear thou in the likeness of a sigh: Speak but one rhyme, and I am satisfied.” Certainly it’s humourous, but there’s a bite to it. And there is a lot of bite when Mercutio curses the two families at his death. There’s a reason Mercutio asks Benvolio (not Romeo) to take him away. Exercises • Journal Prompt: Reflect on the word “friend.” What does it mean to you? Do you consider romantic partners to be friends? • Journal Prompt: Reflect on the word “enemy.” Do you have an enemy? What happened to make that person your enemy? Do you feel the reactions of characters in the play toward their enemies is realistic or exaggerated? • Write a song in which you use the word friend to mean loved one. What images will you use? • Compare and contrast Mercutio and Tybalt. How are they similar? How are they different? • Create a collage of textures, colours and images that represents Mercutio on one side and Tybalt on the other. What are the similarities? What are the differences? • Respond to the statement, “Romeo and Mercutio are not best friends.” Do you agree or disagree? Support your answer with examples from the play. • Write a modern, inner monologue for Mercutio as he lies dying, where he expresses what he thinks of his friendship with Romeo. • When Benvolio describes the fight, he says that Romeo said, “Hold, friends! Friends, part!” This is not what Romeo really said (“Hold, Tybalt! Good Mercutio!”) What does this tell you about Benvolio’s character? • Write a scene in which Tybalt and Mercutio meet up in the afterlife. What would their conversation be? How would they change? How would they stay the same? What would they think about their families and the outcome of the play?