West Side Story

A musical by Dancer and choreographer Jerome

Robbins, Composer Leonard Bernstein Writer Arthur Laurents, Lyricist Stephen Sonheim

Background to West Side Story West Side Story is an adaptation of

Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.

Think of Romeo and Juliet set to music and dancing!

It was produced as a Broadway musical in 1957 and later made into a motion picture.

ACADEMY AWARDS· Best Picture, West Side Story· Best Supporting Actor, George Chakiris· Best Supporting Actress, Rita Moreno· Best Direction, Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins· Best Cinematography, Color, Daniel L. Fapp· Best Art Direction, Color, Boris Leven (Art Direction), Victor Gangelin (Set Decoration)· Best Sound, Fred Hynes, Gordon Sawyer· Best Scoring of a Musical, Saul Chaplin, Johnny Green, Sid Ramin, Irwin Kostal· Best Editing, Thomas Stanford· Best Costumes, Color, Irene Sharaff· Special Award, Jerome Robbins for his brilliant achievement in the art of choreography

Also nominated:Best Screenplay, Ernest Lehman

GRAMMY AWARDS· Best Soundtrack - West Side Story, Johnny Green, Saul Chaplin, Sid Ramin, Irwin Kostal

Partial list of Awards:

Setting for West Side Story

Instead of Verona, Italy, this story is set in New York City in the 1950’s

Instead of feuding families like the Montagues and the Capulets

West Side Story features warring gangs:

The Sharks – Puerto Rican Gang

The Jets – Second and third generation American Gang

The Jets are from Manhattan. They have ruled their "turf" for years, after defeating the Emeralds.

The Sharks are from Puerto Rico. They have just recently come to NY, and want a "turf" of their own.

The Conflict

The theme of prejudice in this musical isdirectly related to the issue of immigration.The Jets resent the Sharks not just becausethey have “invaded” the neighborhood,but also because they have “invaded” theircountry. The Sharks are foreigners with alanguage and customs that are strange tothe “Americanized” Jets.

Some of the characters in West Side Story have counterparts in Romeo and Juliet.

Tony / Romeo

Maria / Juliet

Shakespearean Counterparts

•Chino / Paris

•Bernardo / Tybalt

•Riff / Mercutio

•Anita / Nurse

•Doc / Friar Laurence

Who are the Puerto Ricans?

Where is Puerto Rico?

Puerto Rico is a Caribbean Island

Brief History of Puerto Rico

Originally inhabited by two Native American tribes, the Arawak and the Caribe, Spain conquered the island in 1493 and ruled it for 400 years.

• The native inhabitants became slaves, and as their population dwindled; black slaves were also imported. Frequent intermarriage took place among the Spanish, the Indians and the blacks so that race became less emphasized over time.

•Puerto Rico became a United States possession in 1898 after the Spanish-American War. It was then an island of poor farmers and their families, who mainly grew sugarcane.

•Hurricane devastation and a single-crop economy caused a very high unemployment rate through the early 20th century.

•During World War I, the unemployment rate in Puerto Rico was a staggering 40%.

““To escape the poverty and To escape the poverty and unemployment on the island, unemployment on the island, thousands of Puerto Ricans thousands of Puerto Ricans immigrated to the United States.” immigrated to the United States.”

•“The majority of Puerto Rican immigration to the United States has occurred since the end of

the World War II.

•After the war, the great employment opportunities drew large numbers of Puerto Ricans to New York and other U.S. industrial centers.”

Today, there are more than 2.5 million people of Puerto Rican ancestry living in the United States.

Almost one million of these are living in New York City. Nearly 40% of all Puerto Ricans live in the United States.”

In 1917, Puerto Ricans were granted U.S. citizenship and were able to travel freely between the mainland and the island. Yet, they did not have voting rights or political representation in Congress.

Roberto ClementeGeraldo Rivera

Jennifer Lopez

Famous Puerto Ricans

Puerto Rico Today

Sources http://www.westsidestory.com/site/level2/

archives/fact/faq.html http://www.rzuser.uni-heidelberg.de/~el6/

presentations/Latino_Americans_S1_WS2003/puerto.html

http://www.pcs.org/_images/study_guides/2006_07/WestSideStoryGuide.pdf