In Class Writing

I think that the presentations really helped me feel more comfortable about my acting skills and helped me be more creative. They showed me that it's okay to over exaggerate and to make a fool of yourself and not feel like your doing something wrong. I think that the presentations about improv really helped too because I was not very good at it the first few times I tried it, but practicing some exercises and trying to get myself to think quicker for a comeback really helped. I also think that it helped with my lines because before when I forgot a line I would get really flustered and embarrassed, but now I just kind of go along with it and I have learned to not get at frustrated if something doesn't go exactly as planned.

Performance Log #1

Today in class we worked mostly on blocking. We also worked on our reactions and pronouncing our lines the way we wanted. We mentally set up the stage and wrote a diagram of how we wanted the stage to be set up for our performance and we also practiced our entrances and exits to the scene. We talked about our costumes, what era we wanted to represent/be in, how we wanted our clothes to give off a certain vibe and tell a story without having to tell people who we are. We decided that it is going to be fairly modern and I am a very wealthy, respected girl and Dilyara is my maid but also my friend. She is going to be wearing a "maid" costume by dressing in older, semi-dirty clothes that show that she is of a lower status than me and I am going to be wearing a dress of some sort that is not too fancy but at the same time shows my authority over Dilyara. What I tried to do to get a better feel for the character is visualize myself as the character and react in the way I think she would react. I also kind of created a mental note to remind myself that as this character, this is my first love and I am very young, so I try to remind myself to exaggerate my excitement every time I talk about Romeo or every time he is mentioned. Also, since we haven't used costumes yet, I try to visualize Dilyara as an older woman because, in this scene, she complains a lot about being sore from having to walk and run errands for me. I think that visualization is key for me as an actor. I am a very hands-on learner so I try to do things as physically possible to really be able to get a handle on the assignment. I think that Dilyara and I are reacting to each other very well. We still need to go over a few things and read the lines a little more carefully but for the most part, we seem to be great partners. Tomorrow I think we should go over the script more and really exaggerate our emotions and make them clearer. I also think that we should work on memorizing our lines better so we can work on more blocking. We seem to have a lot of similar opinions and I think that is goo because there isn't a conflict as to what we want to portray in the scene and we don't bud heads in any way.

Character Portrayal

In the scene Dilyara and I are doing, I am playing Juliet and Dilyara is playing the nurse. The scene is about me (as Juliet) wanting to know whether or not Romeo will marry me. I had sent the nurse to give Romeo a note asking this and she comes back but is reluctant to tell me. She tends to tease me a lot, starting to tell me one thing then switching conversation topics. I tease her back, though, saying that I feel bad for her because she had to travel such a long way and she is sore and old. I imagine the scene takes place in Juliet's room and Juliet is waiting on her bed for the nurse to come back. The main motivation for my character is her love for Romeo. She wants to know so bad if Romeo will marry her and she knows that the nurse knows what he said that she is willing to do anything to get the information out of her. Before this, Romeo and Juliet had only a few encounters, but each one seemed very meaningful to both of them. So it makes sense that it would be very important for Juliet to know if Romeo will marry her or not. Almost immediately after this scene is when the climax happens; Romeo gets exiled and they cannot marry. This is also the main conflict in the play, which ties it back to the main goal which is for Romeo and Juliet to marry.

Viola Spolin Powerpoint

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1StzKt-LTC9pvjEJkAA4BxobY8BQRIeHi7q0Fv29Ljeg/edit?usp=sharing

R & J Take Home Quiz #4

A) Act 4 is all Juliet. She considers options, defies her parents, gets advice, goes against the advice of one trusted counselor and agrees to trust a more unknown one, makes a decision, faces real fears, chooses to make sacrifices, chances death, takes an unknown potion, embarks on an adventure that risks exile or worse. Discuss her character and personality. What does this act reveal about her that we didn't know before? How has her character changed since we first met her in act one? Be specific. Also, while Juliet is going through all of this, what is Romeo doing? How are their characters contrasted by this juxtaposition? What is Shakespeare perhaps suggesting about gender in this act and how does that also contrast from how the gendered "normal" world was presented earlier in the play?

In act 4, a lot happens to Juliet. Before she met Romeo, she was a sweet, innocent girl who always obeyed her parents' rules; but she turned into a girl who defies her parents, and sneaks around with Romeo. She starts making her own decisions and comes across new experiences that she didn't know of before. This act reveals a lot about Juliet through her actions. I think that it mostly shows us how she can easily be persuaded by someone. Before she met Romeo, she never really could think for herself because her parents were always telling her what to do, but then when she got to know Romeo, she automatically was persuaded to do anything in her power to keep them together. I think that is because Romeo showed her how much he loved her and it made her believe that she loved him more than she actually did and they were meant to be together no matter what, even if it means death. I think that Romeo and Juliet contrast because he is so strong willed and Juliet is more of a "go with the flow" type. I think that when Shakespeare was writing Romeo and Juliet, it was a time when women were inferior and weren't supposed to think for themselves, so he wrote Juliet in that exact way. In a way, I think he was kind of showing women (very subtly) what would happen if they decided to rebel and make their own path in society at the time, which ultimately was that they would fail and in some cases die.

F) Choose either Romeo or Juliet and analyze their portrayal in the film. What characteristics are highlighted and how? Be specific? Is this faithful to the original play? Why or why not?

I think in the film, Juliet's innocence was highlighted, and as a result, she was portrayed as a younger girl who didn't really care about much of what she could/couldn't do until she met Romeo. I also think that it was made very obvious that her parents have more power over her. I think that Juliet was portrayed that way because they wanted to make it seem like she was very influenced by not only her parents but Romeo and the nurse as well. I think that it is faithful in most ways because in the play her innocence was always highlighted. I also think that her defiance was highlighted in the movie more so than the play. In the movie, her and Romeo's scenes were very private especially in the "balcony scene" when Romeo shows up and they fall in the pool. In that scene, it is very obvious that she is excited to see Romeo and wants to spend time with him but she keeps bringing up how she has to go and she doesn't want her parents to see him, but even as she says those things, she stays with Romeo and hides him and tries to spend as much time with him as possible. In the play, I think that it isn't shown as much that she wants to be with Romeo and is willing to defy her parents as much.

D) Is the ending believable? Do you think R and J would really kill themselves over their thwarted love? Why or why not? Go deep into this analysis and don't just explore the surface.

I think that the ending isn't as believable as it could have been. I don't think that they would really kill themselves over love unless there was more chemistry shown between them. I know that the ending would be more believable to me if there was more background to either of their mental history. I understand that Romeo's parents had subtly mentioned before that they were worried about Romeo, but to me, that meant that he had never acted the way he had been acting before. I think that for them to actually kill themselves, Romeo would have had to have more of an obvious mental illness for him to kill himself if he was that much older than Juliet and I think that it would need to be shown exactly how much of an influence Romeo had on Juliet. I also think that he would have had to spend more time with her and have much more of an influence on her. Branching off of the influence idea, it reminds me of Charles Manson. I think that Romeo needs to be portrayed more like him and show how convincing he can be and how much of an impression he can have on Juliet, especially when she is so much younger than he is.

Romeo and Juliet Scene

Juliet

(Juliet sits/lays on the couch waiting)
The clock strook nine when I did send the nurse;

In half an hour she promised to return.

Perchance she cannot meet him—that’s not so.

From nine till twelve

Is three long hours, yet she is not come.

Had she affections and warm youthful blood,

She would be as swift in motion as a ball;

Enter Nurse.

O God, she comes! (Juliet jumps up to greet the nurse) O nurse, what news?

Hast thou met with him? O Lord, why lookest thou sad?

Nurse

(Nurse sits on the chair across from Juliet on the couch) 
I am a-weary, give me leave a while.

Fie, how my bones ache! What a jaunce have I!

Juliet

I would thou hadst my bones, and I thy news.

(Juliet takes the Nurses' hand) Nay, come, I pray thee speak, good, good nurse, speak.

Nurse

Jesus, what haste!(the nurse pulls her hands away) Can you not stay a while?

Do you not see that I am out of breath?

Juliet

How art thou out of breath, when thou hast breath

To say to me that thou art out of breath?

The excuse that thou dost make in this delay

Is longer than the tale thou dost excuse.

Is thy news good or bad? Answer to that.

Nurse

Well, you have made a simple choice, you know not how to choose a man. Romeo! No, not he. Though his face be better than any man’s, yet his leg excels all men’s, and for a hand and a foot and a body, though they be not to be talk’d on, yet they are past compare. He is not the flower of courtesy, but I’ll warrant him, as gentle as a lamb. Go thy ways, wench, serve God.

Juliet

No, no! But all this did I know before. (Juliet gets up and slowly walks around to the back of the Nurse)

What says he of our marriage? What of that?

Nurse

Lord, how my head aches! (Nurse starts rubbing her temples) What a head have I!

It beats as it would fall in twenty pieces. (Juliet starts rubbing the Nurses' shoulders)

Ah, my back, my back!

Beshrew your heart for sending me about

To catch my death with jauncing up and down!

Juliet

I’ faith, I am sorry that thou art not well. (Juliet starts and kneels in front of the Nurse)

Sweet, sweet, sweet nurse, tell me, what says my love?

Nurse

Your love says, like an honest gentleman,

An’ a courteous, and a kind, and a handsome,

And, I warrant, a virtuous—Where is your mother?

Juliet

(Stands up furiously)
Where is my mother! Why, she is within,

Where should she be? How oddly thou repliest!

“Your love says, like an honest gentleman,

‘Where is your mother?’”

Nurse

O God’s lady dear!

Are you so hot? Marry, come up, I trow;

Is this the poultice for my aching bones?

Henceforward do your messages yourself.

Juliet

Here’s such a coil! Come, what says Romeo?

Nurse

(Nurse stands and puts her hands on Juliet's shoulders)
Have you got leave to go to shrift today?

Juliet

I have.

Nurse

Then hie you hence to Friar Lawrence’ cell,

There stays a husband to make you a wife.

Now comes the wanton blood up in your cheeks,

They’ll be in scarlet straight at any news.

Go, I’ll to dinner, hie you to the cell. (Nurse waves Juliet off)

Juliet

Hie to high fortune! (Juliet hugs the Nurse) Honest nurse, farewell. (Juliet runs off)

Exeunt.

Blogpost #4

In the film, there is a scene missing in the last part. There is no fight between Romeo and Juliet's cousin, Tybalt. Also, Juliet kills herself using a gun, while in the play she stabs herself. In the movie, it was a lot more dramatic when Romeo was trying to get into the church. He held a man at gunpoint just to get the police to back off. I feel like the movie was a lot more dramatic in the way they had Romeo and Juliet die. There was this moment when Romeo realized Juliet was still alive right as he was drinking the poison and it made me feel like there might be some hope that he would stop and live. Also, in the movie, when Juliet wakes up it seems very suspenseful/unbelievable because Juliet obviously saw that he was sad and crying, and she just woke up with a smile and didn't say anything. I also noticed that he obviously was avoiding looking at her when he was talking about taking the poison just as she was waking up. I feel like the director could have made it look better by either having Juliet wait a few seconds longer to wake up fully/open her eyes. I also think that the director could have had Romeo take a little bit longer for the poison to react. Maybe he takes the poison and he lays down next to her and she wakes up only to find him already dying. The movie definitely left me more sad afterwards than the book. I think it was because it is sometimes hard to visualize words on a piece of paper, but when you see what actually happens it is easier actually feel the emotions.