Since the beginning of the school year, the year 9 students have been working on deconstructing and exploring the complex text of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ by William Shakespeare. After lots of hard work and an extended essay, this scheme of work was closely followed by the observation and deconstruction of the famous musical movie of West Side Story which is a modern adaptation of ‘Romeo and Juliet’.

The language in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ was what we particularly focused on when studying the play. This close analysis helped us to identify the links between West Side Story and ‘Romeo and Juliet’ when watching the movie. Our classes watched the musical and assessed the similarities and differences between the two masterpieces. We explored how similar meanings can be created in different ways.

We looked into deeper meanings in the film like symbolism through colour, movements, sounds, choreography, camera angles and lyrics. Consequently we had another assessment about how conflict is presented in both texts. It was the first time that year 9 had to work on extended essays of this length and our stamina was put to the test! However everyone exceeded expectations with their level of commitment and dedication.

As a reward Mrs White and Mrs Rigby organised a trip to the Grand Theatre of Luxembourg on the morning of the 16th January for a tour of the whole theatre including places where normal guests aren’t allowed to go like backstage, orchestra, light control room, on stage, and under the stage. Everyone had a great time and realised how many different opportunities there are to work in theatre.

This was not all though! The year 9 teachers managed to get us tickets for the West Side Story performance in the evening which was lucky considering the tickets were all sold out. Everyone was dressed smartly; both classes were present as well as some year 10, 11 and 12’s. Everybody was excited; arguably we had the best seats on the balcony with a panoramic view of the whole stage. During the performance we recognised what we have been studying for the past three months and enjoyed every single bit of it.

During the intermission everyone was talking about how amazing it was and how we didn’t want it to finish! When the show was over, we couldn’t stop talking about it and arguing over our favourite parts. We thank the teachers for organising this amazing trip for us.