Tuesday 15th Septmeber 2015 - West Side Story Research

http://www.westsidestory.com/

West Side Story is based on the Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet, however instead of being set in Verona, Italy it is set in New York City. As well as this the two gangs are not the Montague's and the Capulet's but the Jets and the Sharks, the Jets are Americans and the Sharks are immigrants from Puerto Rico.

Arthur Laurents - (July 14th 1918 - May 5th 2011) Born in Brooklyn, New York City he is a writer mostly known for west side story, rope and the way we were. He went to Cornell University and had won tow Tony awards one for author of the best musical and besg director, he has also been nominated twice more. He once quoted "I love to write and i had something to say"

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0491306/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm

Leonard Bernstein - (August 25th 1918 - October 15th 1990) Born in Lawrence, Massachusetts he is one of the first American-born conductors to gain worldwide recognition for composing the score for the musical West Side Story. From 1945 to 1947 he conducted the New York City Center orchestra, as well as this he became a guest conductor across the USA and Europe. He once quoted “Music can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable.”
http://www.biography.com/people/leonard-bernstein-9210269

Stephen Sondhiem - (22nd July 1930 - Present) He has won seven Tony awards for his songwriting. Musicals that feature songs written by Stephen Sondhiem include "Into the woods", "Company" and "West Side Story". In 1989 he was awarded the  London Evening Standard Theatre Award's Special Award for Lifetime Achievement to Theatre. He has the same birthday as the musical composer "Andrew Lloyd Webber". He once quoted "My idea of heaven is not writing".
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0814227/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm

Romeo And Juliet - This play was written by William Shakespeare in 1595 and tells the story of two lovers who come from opposing families, their love is forbidden and however plan to run away with each other but ends in a tragedy as there are multiple deaths including both Romeo and Juliet. The musical West Side Story is based on this play, it shares some of the same themes such as forbidden love and tragedy, however there is a heavy focus on song and dance that both feature heavily in this musical.

Puerto Rico Immigrants -

http://lcw.lehman.edu/lehman/depts/latinampuertorican/latinoweb/PuertoRico/1950s.htm

This graph shows the level of immigration of Peurto Rican people into the US, it shows us that the highest level was in the !950/60s, this is when West Side Story was set and therefore backs up the idea that some of the Americans were getting fed up with the amount of people coming into the country. Many people moved after the second world war, because they were able to fill the jobs that were previously filled by Americans who had lost their lives in the war. This helped the Peurto Riccans as they wanted to move to another country where they would have ore chance of a better life for them and their families, which included better education and heathcare facilities as well as more employment opportunities.

Polish Immigrants -

Many polish people migrated into the US because they were jewish and trying to escape the rasicm in Europe at the time. By 1920, 23% of the worlds population of Jewish people were living in America, this gave them a chance to have better employment opportunities as they were being discriminated against in their own country. By the 1950 second and third generations of Jews were living in America as American citizens. This meant that they thought they had more of a right to be living in New York than the Peurto Riccans, and this cause conflict between the two nationalities. This conflict is the basis of the background story in West Side Story, the two nationalities take the place of the Montagues and the Capulatets in Romeo and Juliet.