Trip to Past Brings Renaissance to Life

Bolsa Grande High School freshmen combined a bit of the 1990s with the mood of the 1500s Friday when they staged what they said should have been the Renaissance-era wedding of Romeo and Juliet.

Culminating a Renaissance and Shakespeare unit in Cindy Natter’s college preparatory English class, about 100 students researched and participated in the mock double wedding ceremony uniting Romeo with Juliet and Paris with Rosaline.

With a string quintet playing baroque music, brides Janellie Salgado as Juliet and Audra Arman as Rosaline met their grooms at the altar in the high school’s garden during the mid-morning ceremony.

Instead of white gowns, the bride characters wore authentic garb of the day--peasant-style dresses in subdued earth tones, topped by needlepoint vests. There were no tuxedos for the grooms. The boys wore similar vests and slacks.

The brides clutched bouquets as the couples nervously repeated the wedding vows written from research done on the Internet.

Natter said her students voted to present the wedding as a combined research project after spending the past quarter studying Shakespeare and the Renaissance. Natter divided her classes into subcommittees, giving them specific research topics. Information was gathered on such topics as clothing, flowers, traditional wedding vows and authentic foods.

After gathering the information, students designed the wedding ceremony, reception and all the clothing--most of which was handmade.

Natter, teaching her first year at Bolsa Grande, said the research project helped bring Shakespeare and the era to life.

“Shakespeare can be difficult and it can be hard to get them into it,” Natter said. In addition to staging the wedding, Natter also had students write essays comparing Romeo and Juliet to West Side Story and to modern music with similar themes.

“This turned out just the way it was supposed to,” town crier Michael Hill said of the event. “Lots of work went into it but I thought it was fun. It all fit together.”

Arman, playing bride Rosaline in the wedding, said the affair came off as rehearsed except when her groom, John Bui, improvised by kneeling down to place the wedding ring on her finger, unnerving her.

“I was cool with it until he got down on one knee,” Arman said.

Fifteen-year-old Elena Valesquez, who played a bridesmaid, was somewhat philosophical about the Romeo and Juliet story, and how it can compare to modern problems. “Romeo and Juliet is really sad,” Valesquez said. “It’s sad when the parents don’t approve of the other person. And it’s still going on today.”