William Shakespeare, sixteenth century poet, is present in almost all aspects of our society. He can be found in our textbooks, on television, and in our theaters. His plays portray our life and our culture. They are performed around the world in many different languages, and even to this date are one of the most popular plays performed in modern theaters. To show how much influence his plays have on our society today, other writers have modernized his works to attract new audiences. For example, West Side Story places Romeo and Juliet in New Your City.

During his early years in the theater, Shakespeare wrote primarily history plays, with his romantic comedies/tragedies emerging in the 1590s. One of his most popular romantic tragedies, Romeo and Juliet, was written and first acted in 1595. It is a tragedy about a perfect pair of lovers who are beautiful, young, noble, and who are rich. Romeo and Juliet, the play, no meter how many times seen, always has the audience thinking what would have happened if this or that little thing had been changed, they would still have been alive. To make a play even more influential on the audience it is extremely important to cas

It is clear that by the end of the play the parents played a huge part in their children's faith. Although Capulets (Juliet's Parents) show up more often in the play, Montaques (Romeo's Parents) are present in the conversations throughout the play. Mel Gibson will play the role of the old Capulet, while Michelle Phiffer will play Lady Capulet. On the other hand, Susan Surandon will play the role of the Lady Montaque, while Ed Harris will play the role of the Old Montaque. The intention here was not to have old parents, to make it a bit more interesting and to attract the younger audience. "Shakespeare increased the importance of minor characters to emphasize oppositions and similarities between various characters in the play." (Lamb 18) He did this and with it he made the main characters' personalities more clear. The idea was to try to cast as many popular characters, for both major and minor roles, from different age groups, so that a whole family can enjoy the play. I truly believe that the picks that were made in this paper would get a lot of attention from people and bring a lot of enjoyment to the audience.

Mercutio is probably one character that brings the most laughs in the play. He takes love a lot less serious than Rome does and constantly makes fun of Romeo about it. This teasing between Romeo and Mercutio "highlights the difference in their moods and personalities."(Lamb 55) Mercutio's wit and humor make him much more exciting character than the moody Romeo, and actors often prefer to play his part. The part of Mercutio belongs to no one else but Ben Afleck. He is a young actor who has played in movies such as Armageddon and Boiler Room. He is very interesting actor who does a great job playing witty characters and that is the reason why he was picked for this part. His physical appearance is appealing to many young women today. Although Mercutio dies in the middle of the play, he almost attracts more attention than Romeo because of his personality.

Unlike Tybalt, Paris is a character that is extremely courteous and well-meaning person who wants to marry Juliet. Paris fallows the rules and asks Juliet's father for his daughter's hand, which is defiantly not the case with Romeo. He can be arrogant at times, but for the most part he tries to be a gentleman. However, his intentions for marring Juliet are completely different from

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Approximate Word count = 1604
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)