Japaneseamerican database. They are using the word registry but it is the same thing as what came down on us. A database. How many lived in that household and what we did. Database, theye came down with a curfew. All japanese have to be home by 7 00 p. M. And stayathome until 6 00 a. M. We were imprisoned at night in our homes. Our bankwe discovered accounts were frozen. Our life savings became inaccessible. That was followed by the soldiers coming to take us away. That must never happen again today. [applause] can watch the rest of that event from the Muslim Public Affairs council at 9 00 eastern on cspan. The president ial inauguration of donald trump is friday, january 20. Cspan will have live coverage of all the events and ceremonies. On cspan and cspan. Org. Listen live on the cspan radio app. Tonight on cspan, from the shakespeare theater, a mock trial on the deaths of romeo and juliet. That is followed by a discussion of the life and legacy of sandra day oconnor. Later, a look at the history of the bill of rights. The shakespeare theater in washington, d. C. Hosts a regular series of mock trials, drawing inspiration from the works of william shakespeare. Earlier this month send alito samuel alito presided over the trial to determine who is legally liable for the deaths of romeo and juliet. This is one hour. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Bard Association winter mock trial. Before we began, take this time to silence all Electronic Devices that may disrupt this evenings proceedings. Photography and video recording is strictly prohibited. Thank you for joining us at one of the homes of the Shakespeare Theatre company for winter mock trial presented by the Shakespeare TheatreCompany Affinity group known as the Bard Association. This is a special event for us. This is our 25th mock trial. [applause] even in this town that is quite a lot of leering. [laughter] tonights performance in trial is based on the production of romeo and juliet that was presented on stage just a few months ago. You know the work well. That made it a challenge of doing a trial based on that particular play. It is the famous story about two lovers in the world, one in which shakespeare has one of his earliest poetic masterpieces. We follow the two starcrossed lovers cataclysmic choices until the tragic end. After being caught in between the two feuding families, the montagues and the capulettes. Was it fate or somebodys fault . Were those responsible to make up their friends and families and participants of higher powers . Could this have been prevented . Was somebody to blame . We almost had to cancel the night even know it is such an important event in our repertoire. I dont know if you got the feed, but 100 fedup. Com, the one that said she was funding her campaign from a Drug Trafficking ring. Romeo and juliets death a hoax. [laughter] [applause] but we worked it out and here we are. At the conclusion of the night you were very much a part of this as well as being the audience. You are our collective jury. You will be asked to serve as the final jury vote with the following question, assuming the parents and also Friar Lawrence bear some legal resource ability for causing the deaths, who is more legally liable for the deaths of romeo and juliet . Please vote. Friar you believe lawrence blue for the parents. With that let me know introduced the participants for this evening. First, and a special thanks always to the help we get from the United StatesSupreme Court justices marshall, pamela token. [applause] and counsel for the defendant, elizabeth b. Prelager, assistant to solicitor general and debbie solicitor general michael jaden. [applause] counsel to the plaintiff, for lord and Lady Montague. [applause] the Supreme Court of the principality of verona, u. S. Supreme Court Justice send alito, presiding united court of appeals for the d. C. Circuit judge thomas griffith, judge kavanagh, judge robert wilkins, and from the District Court please welcome judge jackson. [applause] and now i turn it over to the marshall. All rise. The Supreme Court of the principality of verona is now in session. Please be seated. We will hear argument in the case of lord and Lady Montague and lord and lady capulet versus Friar Lawrence. Counsel, are you ready . Mr. Chief justice, and may it please the court, plaintiffs seek to hold Friar Lawrence liable for spiritual malpractice. With all due respect, the only answers to a higher authority. If the court finds this baseeless claim liable, the floodgates will the open. Will lady capulet sue if he spills in a fast food drivethrough . Will lord montague seek damages it is right cleaner loses his favorite pair of pantaloons . As explained in the amicus brief filed by the tort reform association, this has to stop. Even the court could articulate duty and care in this context, the friar does not reject. Plaintiffs claim his plan to help romeo and juliet was convoluted. It was a bit of a hail mary. But the plaintiffs are wrong to say it was foreseeable that the plan would fail. In fact, the friar looked at all the polls before implemented this plan and they uniformly showed the plan would succeed. [laughter] the New York Times had it at 99 . [laughter] this is just a case of massive polling failure. I can assure you that Friar Lawrence and 52 of corona are still smarting about it. The parents bear responsibility for the tragic fate of their children. At first by perpetuating this silly feud, they basically ensured romeo and juliet would fall in love. Everyone knows teenagers do the opposite of what their parents want them to do. And the psychological literature bears that out. Im speaking about taylor swift. She wrote an amazing song about romeo and juliet called love story, for which she will win the nobel prize in literature next year. Her song replaced the tragic ending with a happy ending, and this court cant rewrite history like that. We are not the ninth circuit. [laughter] i think it is fair to say maybe she had when she wrote that song, justice kavanagh. Is interesting you mentioned the prize. I am troubled by Friar Lawrences motives. He very readily agrees to perform this marriage because he thinks it may bring about peace between these two warring families. I think he was really what he was interested in primarily was winning the novello depache. People will go to any end to do that. I dont think the record accords with that characterization, chief justice. I think its clear that friar confronted civil strife, people biting their thumbs at each other left and right. He just wanted to make verona great again. [laughter] [applause] that brings up an interesting question to me. Isnt there a jurisdictional question lurking here. Isnt the prince the real culprit . He allowed the feud to ruin verona. Couldnt he have solved the problem by building a wall . [laughter] between the capulets and montagues. He probably couldve persuaded manchua to pay for it. We cant determine blame without taking up a real political weston should the prince have built the wall . Your office argued for an extensive application of the political question doctrine. Perhaps we should follow that case and follow the panel of the d. C. Circuit, what say ye . I think the question is on point. What i would say is if it is a political question, those two should have never proceeded. We wouldve respected this courts decision. Isnt everything a political question . These days, yes. I would like to get back to Justice Alitos point. I think Friar Lawrence was in this for himself. He wanted to be the hero. You dont get many activities opportunities to save the day and he was not going to throw away his shot. Tell me why isnt that something we should take into consideration . I think his motives were entirely pure. Keep in mind romeo and juliet came to him. They dragged him into this mess. He would not be the one really instigating this for his own glory. I think that means the parents are the proper focal point of scrutiny. They are the ones who bear responsibility for what happened to romeo. You mentioned the taylor swift song. Yes, she wrote a song that you read another song called bad blood. Wasnt Friar Lawrence aware the fact we were in this situation . He certainly was, but again its not his fault the parents did not have channels of communication open with her children and were not able to communicate with them. It wasnt so hard. All the parents had to do was friend their kids on facebook. Teenagers love that. Maybe if they had done so they wouldve realized summit was up that something was up when they saw both romeo and juliet had listed the relationship status as its complicated. [laughter] what was Friar Lawrence doing growing these herbs . [laughter] is verona a jurisdiction where people are allowed to do that . For medicinal purposes like these, absolutely. [laughter] i think this court can take judicial notice of the decriminalization that is speaking at principalitys right now. You call the friar a blameless clergyman. Wasnt there a better way for him to pursue peace between the montagues and capulets . How about a sermon . Bingo at the parish . Or a potluck dinner . Why did he have to do this . He tried all the steps first and believe it or not none of them did the trick. This was the only thing that was left. It was not like it was so complicated. A simple four step plan makes juliet appear dead and then get word to romeo and having come back it up in the crypt and live happily ever after. [laughter] i am getting he could have used a better means of communication, a security mail server or whatever. [laughter] save everyone a lot of hassle. He really regrets that choice. [laughter] you talk a lot about parents knowing their children. It seems like Friar Lawrence, if he had waited two days before he executed this plan, romeo would have found another woman. Paris seemed like a nice guy. 24 hours later the whole thing would have blown over. Then it wouldnt be the greatest love story of all time. We have to resist that version of the facts. There was one thing that bothers me about your argument. You compare it to the hatfield and mccoys. How old are the hatfield mccoys when they were married . They were quite young as well. Maybe not quite as young. No, they were 18, 19. That is what is different about this case . She is 13. It is true juliet was a tender years, but i think that shows thats eighthgrade. [laughter] an eighth grader. Keep in mind, the plaintiffs were trying to marry her off to paris. They wanted to do that to get her instant celebrity because he was a kinsman of the prince. History is replete with examples of that kind of celebrity now not working out for young women. Drew barrymore and Lindsay Lohan and miley cyrus invented twerking. I really hope i dont have to define that term for you. [laughter] thank you. If it pleases the court, im sure opposing counsel would do a demonstration. [laughter] it is my understanding that Friar Lawrence really wanted to get a reality show out of all of this. Doesnt the record reflect that is what his motive was . He is in negotiations for that now, but i think that has nothing to do with the events here. If anything it would only help him pay a judgment in this case. I think its important to keep in mind what kind of teenagers romeo and juliet were. That shows again the parents were not in sync with their kids. These were millennials. They were millennials of the 16th century. Everyone knows trying to marry juliet up to paris, you cant push millennials out of the house too soon. They are supposed to live at home until her 20s. They might go off to college but they come back home again. [laughter] they stay on their Parents Health insurance until they are 26. We will see what happens without one. [laughter] is it your argument it is not for seeable she might actually die during the plot in which she faked her death . That is exactly right. I think that is an airtight legal defense. It just was not for seeable that something could go wrong with this plan. [laughter] straight up. [laughter] i think is well when youre looking at the parents culpability, romeo is frankly a pretty violent young man. It raises a lot of questions about what these parents did. Did they lot him watch too many episodes of game of thrones . Maybe he played too many violent video games. Do you think the friar was profile encouraged. He knows juliet has threatened to commit suicide if things did not work out with romeo, and that he sees her in the crypt and romeo is dead. He says well, im just leaving. I wouldnt say that shows consciousness of blame, maybe more cowardice. That does not make them liable in this case. Keep in mind there is no aide if you have to put yourself in a kind of grave danger. He thought maybe he would be tortured or put to death were banishment. He chose his life over hers . No one was to be banished. [laughter] the plaintiffs have launched all these allegations about him and try to impugn his character. To that i would say, when they go low the friar goes high. [laughter] really, really high. Literally. [laughter] that brings me back to my first point. This court cant find this liable because it would not encroach on religious liberties. The friar testified in this case. What is the religious liberty interest here . The religious liberty interest of a cleric to marry off a 13yearold against her parents wishes . Isnt the nature of the claim . It doesnt sound so good when you put it that way. [laughter] im just looking for clarification. Let me reframe the claim slightly if i could. I think this is a claim of a religious counselor who is trying to aid with his Ecclesiastical Council was he involved a lot of weddings of 13yearolds . Was this part of his ministry . It seemed to accord with the period of the time. What you have to look at is that very sacred counseling relationship. I dont think this court can craft or articulate a duty of care to governance. I think it is clear from the most revered of president s the , lemon test, 11 by jurist around the world and commentators that this would be a clear entanglement with religious doctrine. It is something the court cant embark on. Parents get to tell their 13yearolds about their romantic life. How is that for a rule . I think teenagers can be very receptive to that one. My instinct is there definitely that will be a go. We will let Friar Lawrence no that is something to do. Is part of your defense that juliet was going to kill herself anyway after being forced to marry paris . That is right. She told the friar if you did not do something, she would commit suicide. Everyone knew she was just blowing smoke. It is like threatening to move to new zealand. It is true 13yearold girls can be unpredictable, but i think the fryer reasonably judged this one was a real threat. He took reasonable measures to try to forestall the harm. The fact his plan was unsuccessful and he did everything in his power to keep that from happening, it means he cannot be held liable in this case. Did the sleeping potion have a Clinical Trial before it was used . [laughter] the friar was in the preliminary stages of testing that one. It has now been pulled from the market. [laughter] i reserve the rest of my time for rebuttal. [applause] court,it please the crooked Friar Lawrence with his small hands and by his negligent behavior has created a sad winters tale. This negligent behavior clearly is not much ado about nothing. This is a tragedy of errors where measure for measure, the fault indisputably lies with Friar Laurence. Specifically, he was negligent and crooked in four respects. First, in the attempt to resolve a dispute between two gentlemen, he married a volatile young romeo to a 13yearold juliet behind their parents back. Second, he gave a 13yearold juliet a potion of weeds and flowers from his mystical garden. Counsel, i am confused about why you are bringing this case. I thought the families were happy with what happened at the end. They put statues in the town square. Why is it not alls well that ends well . Why is it not that . Mr. Racine it is about the money. [laughter] mr. Racine we are here because under the law, the wellrecognized tort law, negligence occurred. A breach of duty was in fact occurred, and we want to get paid. [laughter] does the church have deep pockets . [laughter] mr. Racine as i understand it, your honor, the churchs pockets are quite deep. [laughter] mr. Racine with your honors ruling, we can go and find those pockets. [laughter] mr. Racine sadly, unlike anthony and cleopatra, these two starcrossed lovers never made it to their 12th night. All because of the secret marriage, a perilous potion, reckless planning, and as one of your honors indicated, cowardly abandonment. The responsibility for this tragedy falls squarely on one mans shoulders, the man who admitted the tragedy of romeo and juliets death was in his own words, miscarried by my fault, and as is the case of our countrys first treasury secretary, alexander hamilton, the world is going to know his name. [laughter] mr. Racine what is his name . Friar laurence [laughter] do you think your clients have any responsibility here . Mr. Racine to be honest with you, your honor, i dont particularly care for my clients. [laughter] possibly with good reason. Mr. Racine that is why i am not arguing they dont have 30 responsibility. What would you say about the behavior of mr. Capulet when he finds out juliet will not go ahead with marriage to paris . He calls her words i do not even know what they mean. [laughter] young baggage, disobedient wretch, that i understand, and a whining mammoth. What is a whining mammoth . [laughter] is that like a woolly mammoth . What is it . Mr. Racine your honor, i can submit a supplemental brief on the definition. But this is the point, your honor. It is that type of behavior on the part of father capulet and indeed of lady capulet that was in dire need of true Spiritual Counseling. Spiritual counseling that crooked laurence refused to give. [laughter] he said if you do not marry county paris is this guy a county . If you do not marry county paris, i will throw you out of the house and you can die in the streets. Is that the way parenting took place back then in verona . Your honor, we have come a long way in regards to our parenting. As i indicated to you, most importantly, had crooked laurence understood the gravity of the culture, the gravity of the circumstances, the strife that had occurred, he would have called a timeout, not rushed to marry young juliet to romeo. And instead, sought to counsel the parents on the real meaning of love and how to love their children. Counsel, counsel what kind of Family Forces their daughter to marry a guy named paris . [laughter] they call those families francophones. [laughter] counsel, why shouldnt we find the montagues and capulets breached a duty to act as normal parents do when faced that faced with something the teenagers want but the parents do not want . Every parent understands teenagers do exactly the opposite of what the parents tell them to do, so all they had to do in the situation was just tease juliet about liking romeo. The whole thing would have been over in 15 minutes. Right . They should have said to romeo, why dont you invite juliet over to dinner so we can get to know her . Right . Hindsight is 20 20 indeed. The reality is, the only person who knew all of the facts, knew about the love of romeo for juliet, knew about juliets love for romeo, knew that both romeo and juliet were suicidal, was not the parents, but was instead my friend. But counsel, there are two problems with your attempt to evade responsibility. You are being nice. [laughter] there are two i want to mention now. [laughter] the first is your client lord capulet concedes romeo and juliet were sacrifices of their families. Families enmity. But more than that, more important than that, the prince blames the families. Judge griffith what deference do we owe the executive in its analysis of the causes of this social unrest . Mr. Racine well, i dont think the prince deserves any deference. This is a prince, after all, who was not elected. Right . No poll put him in office. And this was a prince who had done what . Nothing but sat on the throne while there was strife and violence in verona over generations. With respect, your honor, the prince has not earned any deference. There is a certain amount of common sense that cant we just take judicial notice the parents of romeo and juliet messed up bigly . [laughter] mr. Racine we may, your honor. A 30 bigly mess up. Judge griffith i dont think 30 is bigly. [laughter] judge griffith maybe you can give us a brief on that. [laughter] mr. Racine what is your email address . [laughter] mr. Racine so, your honors, as i listen to my exceptional opposing counsel argue this is a case that involves some sort of Spiritual Counseling privilege, please, i ask you to go through those papers, and when opposing counsel gets back up to the podium, ask her to give you examples where crooked Friar Laurence actually rendered Spiritual Counseling. You will find none. And the reason you will find none is because there was no Spiritual Counseling going on. There was an attempt by Friar Laurence instead to become the hero of this saga, sacrifice people, all so he could be the person who would have solved the problems of verona. Dont you have another significant problem that shakespeare himself assigned the blame for the deaths of romeo and juliet to the parents . That your argument against the friar relies entirely on snippets of the text and overlooks shakespeares purpose. Now, after king versus burwell, dont we have to look at the purpose of the text . Or the you think the d. C. Circuit got it right . [laughter] mr. Racine i know you are more of an originalist than i am. But sir, in reality, here with respect to shakespeare, shakespeares judgment that the parents are liable would be correct if you believe that shakespeare wrote the bible. [laughter] im not exactly certain what that means. [laughter] it has a certain air of authority to it. I like it. [laughter] what about the liability of the capulets and the montagues for perpetuating this feud . Do we even know what the feud was about . You know, with respect, i believe the feud was more about their servants who sought to climb up society. The way they thought they could get up to the level of the capulets and montagues was to war with each other in the streets. There was a rumor that it all dated back to a bitter election. [laughter] there were allegations of the use of private Carrier Pigeons and that mantua interfered with the election. That is when they got rid of the idea of elections and brought in the prince. Is that true . Mr. Racine you know, there is authority in the record for that proposition, particularly if you put a little dab of that poison in your pipe. [laughter] has that been decriminalized . [laughter] mr. Racine in the district of columbia and the state of verona, it is perfectly legal to grow up to three mature plants of the poison in ones house. Yes, your honor. What about the parents reaction when they discover that their children are dead . In about 60 seconds, they say, oh, well, the kids are dead, but we will build nice statues of them. [laughter] mr. Racine your honor, i must say i was the second lawyer they contacted. [laughter] mr. Racine a gentleman named abbe lowell was the prior, and i have since advised them otherwise. [laughter] mr. Racine your honors, i think that the record is clear. What the record demonstrates is that crooked Friar Laurence, only after his own desire to be the hero of verona, put the lives of two young people at great risk. He knew that they were dangerous. He knew that they were suicidal. He came up with a half cocked plan, did not fulfill it, and allowed this tragedy to occur. But the plan was good, except that friar john was low energy. [laughter] and he did not make the delivery. Mr. Racine indeed. The friar how can we blame Friar Laurence for that . Mr. Racine i think that is a fair question. And to be sure, father john should have been properly benched that night. The reality is, of course Friar Laurence knew of friar johns fallibilities, and that is why Friar Laurence should have moved heaven and earth to have an alternative plan where he would have his guard wait at the family crypt so as to warn romeo that wait a second, romeo wasnt there an issue with the bridge going to mantua . He wanted to go there but it was closed that night. [laughter] there was something about mantuan i dont know. I thought the problem was friar john lived on the red line. [laughter] [applause] thats what it was. Mr. Racine indeed, the safe track program persists. Yes. [laughter] mr. Racine that is not a matter for the office of attorney general. [laughter] mr. Racine i see that my time is almost up. I hope it is. [laughter] mr. Racine and i ask you once again that when my talented opposing counsel comes up here, if she cannot belt out her favorite taylor swift line, ask her to at least point out specifically where in the record there is evidence of Spiritual Counseling. There is none. And that is why i asked the court to affirm the jurys finding that liability rests mostly, 70 , with Friar Laurence. Thank you. [laughter] [applause] ms. Prelogar mr. Chief justice, i will be brief because i understand there are drinks after this. [laughter] ms. Prelogar i have just two points and one sonnet i would like to make in rebuttal. [laughter] ms. Prelogar first, it is a little hard to tell which way the court is leaning from the questions tonight. And although i firmly believe Friar Laurence did nothing wrong in this case, and the plaintiffs are entirely to blame, and i hope this court agrees with me when it retires to deliberate, it is my understanding the audience also gets to vote tonight. And so, im just going to put it out there, whatever happens, i hope i win the popular vote. [applause] [laughter] ms. Prelogar it is a small consolation prize these days, but i will take it. [laughter] ms. Prelogar i would also like to respond to opposing counsels point that the friar is the only one who knew about all of the elements of this plan. I think that shows there was a total absence of parental supervision in this case. I mean, were romeo and juliet the original free range kids . [laughter] ms. Prelogar where were the parents during the infamous balcony scene . Where were they during romeos sleepover . Did they really think the kids that when romeo invited juliet over to netflix and chill, the kids were going to pop in a movie and relax . I dont think so. [laughter] ms. Prelogar finally, i just have a hodgepodge of concluding thoughts i really did put in sonnet form. Iambic pentameter is persuasive. No one denies the tragedy for sure. Two lives too short before their final breath. But moneygrubbing parents are not a here, nor specious trumped up claims of wrongful death. [laughter] ms. Prelogar the friar tried to help every turn with guidance drawn from sources high above. His selfless, blameless acts should not be spurned, for there is no stopping passionate young love. The plaintiffs are the cause of these events. Their foolish, reckless rivalry, their feud, a textbook case of parents negligence, resulted in their childrens morbid mood. The jurys verdict swerved so far off course. Respectfully, i ask that you reverse. [applause] all rise. The Honorable Court will now deliberate. Please be seated. As the honorable bench deliberates, our audience will cast their vote by placing a red or blue token in the baskets that are circulating. The question is, assuming the parents and the friar each bear some legal responsibility for causing the suicides here, who should be held legally more liable for the deaths of romeo and juliet . Friar laurence, red. Or the parents, blue. Please vote red if you believe Friar Laurence holds more liability. Please vote blue if you believe the parents hold more liability. Now again, only vote once. [laughter] ms. Talkin remember, it is red if you believe Friar Laurence holds more liability and blue if you believe the parents do. Now, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome back abbe lowell for tonights discussion. Thank you. I am pleased to be part of this. One of the things i am pleased about is to have a small part in this entire theater company. One of the things about it is that there are so many people that do so much that we never get a chance to see. I am now going to introduce two of those people. I would like to bring to the stage two of my friends and the people that make this theater possible. First, the director of opera and theater, including the play romeo and juliet, allen paul. And the other, our drama expert, mr. Drew listonberg. I welcome them onto the stage. [applause] mr. Lowell i know you know allens work. Even if you do not know allen. He has been responsible for a great deal of our successful plays and especially our musicals. A funny thing happened, kiss me kate, and a very musically oriented romeo and juliet. I do not know if you know what we do. He is our resident drama torgue, dramaturg. What is a dramaturg . It is the person who knows the history and background of what we do. I would tell you he is the guy that makes sure we get it right. I thought it was a special might to not only introduce two people who really make this place happened but also to take the theme of our play and see where we go with it while the judges deliberate. So i think my first question is obviously to you, allen. How do you and your colleagues take on the challenge of putting on and making fresh a play that everybody who sits in the audience knows and knows well and probably have seen in one way, theater, film, or in any other way will double times . Well, it is because of a huge amount of my own jewish neuroses. [laughter] what do you do with this play . Every time i talked about it, someone would say you should change the ending so that they live. [laughter] mr. Lowell but then we would not have a mock trial. Mr. Paul the truth is for a shakespeare director, when everyone in the audience knows how the play ends, what do you do . I realized the journey of how you get to the end of the play was the interesting part and how to put in as many unexpected twists and turns as possible. The thing i learned is that we know romeo and juliet is a tragedy, but the characters in the play do not know they are in a tragedy. They are actually, besides the violent surroundings, they are in love as the play begins. What we know about is when bad things begin to happen, they do everything they can to hang onto what they can do to get themselves out of a terrible situation. It is not a tragedy until the end, which is interesting to me at least freed me from my own straitjacket neuroses about how to do it. A certain point you give up the idea of and with expectations of what happened. You do the version of it that you feel passionate about. For an audience filled with the number of lawyers, what was the basic traditional role in verona, and the prince have as much absolute power as betrayed in the play . Recount. I have actually going to start a gofundme to investigate. I want 7 million. Back to the question did the prince and the church have that role. In talking about that, given the nature of shakespeares police demos this a bit of a knock on the church . What is interesting to me italian setting for the shakespeare audience is everyone wouldve known this is a catholic country. This was a generation after henry viii had converted all of england forcibly to protestantism. Shakespeares father himself we believe was a catholic. Hear lawrence as soon as believes, he swears by holy Saint Francis who is a catholic saint. Probably the most unambiguously catholic figure in the whole canon. The forbidden fruit. I suspect shakespeares audiences wouldve looked at Friar Lawrence a lot more skeptically than modern audiences, who see him as a kind father, only cares about the wellbeing of the young. Shakespeare put this in the nature of the Catholic Church is much more or less part of what youre saying. Does the prints have the ability to have that role, given the power of the two families . Did they own him . Think access politics has always existed to a certain extent. Is a lot shakespeare got wrong about italy. I think you once said you could milan by way of the ocean, even though they are both landlocked cities. Notion noy were princes in his day. There were dukes. A bunch ofe time was independent city states with these warring families. And as a state state of constant civil war with these families duking it out. Let me follow up quick on that one. People know this because you have been here because you have read and study during so many of shakespeares plays take place of places outside of england. Especially a number in italy. He never went there. How did he figure that out . Craze in his life for stores that were set in italy. I think part of it was the urban fruit of the catholic italy. Machiavelli was a big thing in his day. There were characters like iago, don john and much ado. These villages, machiavelli and characters. Shakespeares audience, like us, had these things they associated with italian people. We thought they were passionate. There was a lot of romantic ardor. Romeo and juliet or sort of the first two passionate italians in the english tradition. Argument, you also heard a bit about what i am going to ask you. There are so many parts of the play that are out of sync with us in our times parental decisions on marriage, classical roles of women and men that are not very easy for us to understand, given time passage. What were the price of the play that you felt you wanted to present that were most relevance to our era, and what we would take from the play as we went back and saw it . Is it is about teenagers who feel disconnected from everyone around them. It is shocking to look back at it and sin no that teenagers have felt that way for 400 years. Juliet is living in a house where her father walks around, not out of meanness, out of his own narcissism, believe in what she should do. She has a mother who has a hard time connecting with her. Anyone who has been in a house with a teenager knows that even the best of parents can have a very difficult time connecting with their children. I think what youre seeing is an extreme where something is going wrong with juliet. She did not have anyone to reach out to. Hink that that scene is a unfortunately going on right now. There is also the theme of suicide. Any teenager you talked to today will probably have known someone who suicide has affected. There is an interesting thing about the play, the character has aolio benvolio friend romeo, who i think mesa sect is suicidal. May suspect is suicidal. Is it your responsibility to Say Something . A lot of the experts we spoke to if someone informed i suicidal friend, would they lose trust . , suicidal showed no friends are grateful to have the help. This is something shakespeare was on to 400 years ago. Unfortunately, we are still dealing with it. Those are things you emphasized in a number of ways. They really do become apparent that they last beyond what might be the other anachronisms. Detriment to go back to the portrayal of the power of the church, whether it was mocking it or not. Also, of the nonelected leader. Accurate depictions of what was that era at the time . Fastakespeare play very and loose, especially when it came to italy. What is interesting, and what connects to alans observation about the internal suicidal nature of these teams is that the church in the play, Friar Lawrences cell forms a sort of quasilegal world of its own. It is a place where romeo goes where he wants advice, where both of them actually wind up going to get married, to seek a sort of extralegal sanctuary. The privileged place in the world of the play, away from the outside world of the prince and of the warring families. There is a lot of responsibility vested in Friar Lawrence. I think shakespeare is kind of asking the audience is this an ok thing . Have the power of playing god with these teenage lives . He is a very fallible human being. He has a very human reaction. He freaks out and runs away. After telling her come with me, i will bring you to safety. In the original version, julia goes back and dies in a convent. There is catholics of all throughout the history of this play. We are on the verge of a new administration. It always underscores that washington is such a unique ways in the country. Grown up here, you perfected your art here. You have presented so many different works on the stages in this space. Unique fromthing the point of view of a director that is unique of the audiences in washington that you have to play to or have to avoid playing to that you wouldnt do if youre in other places . Room. K at this we are so attuned to everything. It is impossible to produce a play, director play and not know who the audience is going to be. I was thinking about that, because i was thinking about what you might see on our stages and how politics might affect us. And one thing i was surprised to think about was that shakespeare was, in many ways, one of the most political and least political writers. When shakespeare was writing he took all of these characters in history and plays that the audience would have known richard five, richard the third about the human decisions that went on behind who they were. And i think the audience he wrote for was acutely aware of their history. He would use them as a way to discuss current events. But a lot of times he wanted to move beyond politics and he wanted to see with the basic what the basic human decision that you want for mcbeth r. Macbeth are. It is going to be an interesting time to do shakespeare on the stage and see how political or human it actually is. Before you go, you can reserve the ability to come back and watch the performance that they will put out in the spring of macbeth itself. A little plug. With that let me tell and ask you all to do what i did when i started, between the people behind the stage and give thanks to the people on the mock trial community that write the scenarios. You have made this very special and they make it special every week. They did it again tonight. Thank you very much. [applause] all arise. Please be seated. Well we have deliberated and we have reached a decision. Before i announce that, let me just say i do speak for everybody when i say this, that the attorneys tonight were absolutely tremendous. [applause] and from now on im going to expect all of the briefs from the Solicitor Generals Office to be in iambic pentameter. [laughter] judgment, we have a divided judgment. Fortunately a majority of this court believes in the evolving standards of parenting that marked the progress of a maturing society. [laughter] even though two of us are back in the 16th century. [laughter] so the judgment is reversed. [applause] and since this is a principality, it doesnt really matter how the people voted. [laughter] i would like to read my dissent. [laughter] i must confess i struggled with a jurisdictional issue but my colleagues persuaded me it was not a political question. And to me it came down to an issue of religious liberty claim versus parental rights. And in my view, and Justice Wilkins joins me in this, just religious liberty claims cannot defeat parental rights. [applause] thank you, parents, out there. [laughter] please welcome back abby to read the jurys decision. [laughter] i want to think ill the participants at the judges who gave their time. What you see them do on stage is because they too have read the briefs, taken the time, studied the law of verona, and we owe them a special thanks once again. [applause] this is my favorite part, i always hope i can bring this with me to the courtroom. They say i cant