Download Act 5 Performance I am providing you with a master script for Act 5. It

Act 5 Performance
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I am providing you with a master script for Act 5. It has been adapted from a former
student script and includes the required quotes from Act 5 (for the sake of your study
guide).
You need to read the script, discuss it as a group, choose an adaptation theme, adapt the
script, and prepare to present your adapted Act 5 on Tuesday.
You will not have to turn in a written script to me, but may want one for your performance.
You may use the scripts (or notecards) for your performance, so you do not have to
memorize lines.
You will have Friday and Monday to prepare in class. All performances will be done on
Tuesday.
Students will use passing period to change into costume if needed, because we will need to
start at the bell!
If you are absent for more than one of the three days (2 prep, 1 performance), you will do an
individual script for a different theme to make up the points.
Performances will be graded on the following: Organization/Appearance of
Rehearsal, Group Participation, Creativity/Originality, Portrayal of Theme, Portrayal of
Important Elements of Act 5, Use of Costumes and/or Props, Time Limit (Maximum of 10
minutes!!!)
Theme Choices: Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Star Wars/Space, Jetsons/Futuristic,
Western, Jurassic Park/Croods, Disney/Pixar, Godfather/Mobsters, Reality TV Show, Percy
Jackson, Jane Austen
Act 5, Scene 1
(Romeo in Mantua)
Romeo: I had a great dream. I dreamt my lady came and found me dead, then kissed me,
bringing me back to life.
(Balthasar, Romeo’s servant, enters)
Romeo: News from Verona! Do you have a letter for me? How fares my Juliet? For nothing can
be ill if she be well.
Balthasar: Then she is well, and nothing can be ill. Her body sleeps in Capulet’s monument. She
is with the angels now.
Romeo: Then I defy you stars! Get me ink and paper and gather the horses. I’m going to the
monument tonight!
Balthasar: Make good choices! Think before you act! This sounds dangerous!
Romeo: Do what I say! Hast thou no letters to me from the Friar?
Balthasar: No sir.
Romeo: Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight. I just need to find a way. Poison would do it!
(Romeo goes to Apothecary’s house. Apothecary enters.)
Romeo: Let me have a dram of poison.
Apothecary: Such mortal drugs I have, but Mantua’s law is death to any he that utters them.
Romeo: The world is not thy friend, nor the world’s law.
Apothecary: My poverty, but not my will consents.
Romeo: I pay thy poverty and not thy will. (Romeo gives Apothecary money; Apothecary gives
Romeo vial of poison.)
Apothecary: Put this in any liquid you have to drink. If you had the strength of twenty men, it
would dispatch you straight.
Romeo: Come cordial and not poison. Go with me to Juliet’s grave, for there I must use thee.
(Romeo joins Balthasar and they head to Capulet’s tomb in Verona.)
Act 5, Scene 2
(Friar Lawrence at Monastery in Verona; Friar John enters)
Friar John: Hello Brother!
Friar Lawrence: Friar John! Welcome back from Mantua. What did Romeo say? Did he send
me a letter back?
Friar John: I was helping an old friend in the city who was sick. The officials quarantined me,
because they thought I was sick too. This delayed my speed and I was unable to deliver the
message.
Friar Lawrence: Then who did?
Friar John: No one; I could not send it off. Here it is again.
Friar Lawrence: Unhappy fortune! The letter was not social, but was really important, and the
neglecting it may do much danger. Friar John, go get me a crowbar!
Friar John: I’m going!
(Friar John exits)
Friar Lawrence: I must go to the Capulets’ monument, because Juliet is supposed to awake
soon and Romeo has no knowledge of our plan. I will write again to Mantua and keep her at my
cell ’til Romeo comes. Poor living child, closed in a dead man’s tomb.
Act 5, Scene 3
(Paris and his servant in Graveyard in Verona)
Paris: Give me that torch. Better yet, put it out so no one sees us. I want you to keep a lookout
over there and let me know if you hear someone coming.
(Paris’ servant moves to other side of graveyard, behind a tree.)
Paris: (Talking to tomb and crying) I brought you flowers my love! It’s too bad we never got
married. (Servant whistles and Paris runs to hide)
(Romeo and Balthasar enter graveyard)
Romeo: Here, give me the crowbar and take this letter to my father in the morning. Leave me
now, for I want to see Juliet alone.
Balthasar: Yes sir.
Romeo: Live and be prosperous.
(Balthasar makes it look like he leaves, but hides to watch what Romeo does. Romeo pries open
the tomb.)
Romeo: This dreadful tomb is filled with my true love Juliet. Thus I enforce thy rotten jaws to
open and in despite I’ll cram thee with more food.
(Paris approaches Romeo)
Paris: Stop thy unhallowed toil, vile Montague! You have no right to be here! You were the one
who killed Juliet’s cousin and caused her to die of grief! You are coming to do wrong to their
bodies, so I will avenge them! You must die!
Romeo: I must indeed, and therefore came I hither. You seem like a nice guy, so just leave me
alone. Tempt not a desp’rate man. I love thee better than myself. Leave or I might lose my
temper!
Paris: No! You are a criminal and I will have justice!
Romeo: If that’s what you really want, then we’ll fight!
(Romeo and Paris fight. Paris’ servant runs for help. Romeo stabs Paris.)
Paris: Please lay me next to Juliet! (Paris dies)
Romeo: This man looks familiar. I think this is Paris, who was supposed to marry Juliet. I’ll
grant his last wish. (Drags Paris’ body next to Juliet’s)
Romeo: Death hath had no power yet upon thy beauty. There is still color in your lips and in your
cheeks. Thou art not conquered. Death’s pale flag is not advanced there. Death is amorous, and
that lean abhorred monster keeps thee here in dark to be his paramour. I will look on you,
embrace you, and kiss you one last time. (Romeo holds Juliet, kisses her, and then drinks the
poison.)
Romeo: O true apothecary! Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss, I die. (Romeo dies.)
(Friar Lawrence enters graveyard.)
Friar Lawrence: Is anyone there?
Balthasar: It’s me, Balthasar.
Friar Lawrence: There’s light coming from the Capulet’s monument? Is someone in there?
Balthasar: It’s Romeo. He’s been there about half an hour.
Friar Lawrence: Stay here while I go look in the tomb. I have a bad feeling about this. (Enters
tomb) What blood stains this entrance? (Seeing the bodies) Romeo and Paris are both covered in
blood! (Juliet wakes up)
Juliet: My dear Friar, where is Romeo?
Friar Lawrence: We must leave! Our plans are ruined, and we can’t change that now. Thy
husband in thy bosom there lies dead and Paris too. I will put you in a convent and there you will
be safe.
Juliet: You go, for I want to say goodbye to Romeo. (Friar exits) What’s this? Poison in my true
love’s hand? Drunk all, and left no friendly drop to help me after? Maybe if I kiss your lips, the
poison will kill me too! (Kisses Romeo)
Paris’ Servant: (In the graveyard, from a distance) Come this way! This is where they were
fighting!
Juliet: They’re coming! Then I’ll be brief. (Taking Romeo’s dagger) O happy dagger! This is thy
sheath; there rust and let me die. (Juliet stabs herself and dies)
(Prince, Paris’ Servant, Balthasar, Friar, Montagues, Capulets all in graveyard)
Prince: What is going on here? The ground is bloody! (Looking inside tomb) What a pitiful sight!
Paris and Romeo are dead and Juliet is bleeding, newly dead.
Capulet: What is going on? Why are people crying?
Prince: Here lies Paris slain, Romeo dead, and Juliet, whom we thought was dead already, is
newly killed.
Capulet: Oh Heavens! Look how our daughter bleeds from Romeo’s dagger!
Prince: Montague, what brings you here?
Montague: My wife is dead tonight! Grief of my son’s exile has stopped her breath. Why else
would I be here?
Prince: See for yourself!
Montague: What is this? A son is not meant to die before his father!
Prince: We’ll get to the bottom of this by talking to the suspicious man we found outside the
tomb.
Friar Lawrence: I am the one most responsible for this mess, though I didn’t hurt anyone.
Prince:Tell us what you know at once!
Friar Lawrence: I will be brief. Romeo and Juliet loved each other, so I married them the same
day that Romeo killed Tybalt. Juliet mourned for Romeo when he was banished. When she was
betrothed to Paris, she came to me for help, threatening to kill herself. I gave her a sleeping potion
so that she could fake death and run away with Romeo. I wrote a letter to Romeo about this, but it
never got to him. I was coming to take Juliet to my cell until she woke, but upon arrival I found
Romeo and Paris already dead. I encouraged Juliet to come with me, but she wouldn’t follow me
and clearly took her life after I was gone. If you find me to blame for any of this, then punish me
with death.
Prince: You are still a holy man. What does Romeo’s servant have to say about this?
Balthasar: When I told Romeo of Juliet’s death, he rushed here from Mantua. He gave me a
letter for his father and insisted I leave him alone in the tomb.
Prince: Let me see the letter. (Balthasar hands letter to Prince) What was Paris doing here?
Paris’ Servant: He came with flowers for Juliet’s tomb. He asked me to keep watch. I warned
him someone was coming, so Paris drew his sword. Then I ran to get help.
Prince: This letter confirms what Friar Lawrence said. He also writes that he bought poison and
came to this vault to die beside Juliet. Capulet! Montague! See what a scourge is laid upon your
hate, that heaven finds means to kill your joys with love! And I, for winking at your discords too,
have lost a brace of kinsmen. All are punished!
Capulet: O brother Montague, give me your hand, for that is what Juliet would want.
(Capulet and Montague shake hands)
Montague: I will give you more, for I will raise her statue in pure gold.
Capulet: As rich shall Romeo’s by his lady’s lie. Our poor children have become the sacrifices of
our hatred.
Prince: Have more talk of these sad things; some shall be pardoned, and some punished; for
never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo.