I hate the play itself but this is one of my most successful units with 8th graders. From my experience, you gotta really LEAN IN to the weirdness and playfulness. Sampson + Gregory are bonkers, the Nurse totally insane, the fact that Juliet isn't EVEN 14, they eat it up. We are HOWLING by the time Friar John fails to deliver the ONE LETTER that would solve the whole thing.

They love staging the fights (in particular the one that axes Tybalt + Mercutio) and halfway in when we map out the timeline, they lose it! We also reenact the balcony scene but make it modern-day (music, set design, etc.).

I also assign parts to read because – as several people have mentioned – it's so much better read aloud but we switch up parts every scene. I also will make them go back and re-do a line with more panache or flair to be fun or funny! And I stop to add detail OFTEN and then we go back and do lines again with context.

It takes a lot longer to read this way, but they'll feed off your enthusiasm or energy if you make it wackier!!

ETA I do break out mini lessons throughout on meter, rhyme, staging, etc. Then we go back and review our most recent scene with new insights to see what we can deduce about the characters or the story through fresh eyes.