The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 17.0751  Thursday, 31 August 2006

From: 		Susan St. John <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: 		Tuesday, 29 Aug 2006 17:10:05 -0700
Subject: 	Chorus in R&J

I have run across a wikipedia.com article about the Greek Chorus that 
states "Use of the chorus can be seen not only in ancient Greek 
tragedies, but also in more recent works such as Shakespeare's Romeo and 
Juliet, the musical/film Little Shop of Horrors and Leonard Bernstein's 
one-act opera Trouble in Tahiti."

I realize that wikipedia is not the most prestigious or reliable of 
resources, but the idea confused and intrigued me.  The only thing I can 
find that they could possibly mean is the Prologue speech.

I am wondering if anyone here would agree that that speech serves a 
similar purpose to the chorus in a Greek tragedy.  I would have thought 
the chorus in Henry V would have been a more appropriate example.  As I 
teach both Greek and Shakespeare plays in my theatre program, as well as 
musical theatre, I would love to draw some correlations, but the R&J 
link had never occurred to me.

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance,
Susan St. John

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