Project Script

Scene 1.5

In this scene, we are going to show the scene that Romeo and Juliet first meet each other.

Settings: Club, LOUD MUSIC, CROWD

Characters: Romeo(James), Juliet(Olivia)

Costumes: Casual

At least five people are acting funny.

Romeo is talking to his friends. He saw Juliet and came to her.

Because of the loud music, people can't really hear each other. Romeo and Juliet repeat the lines again and again. Juliet shakes Romeo. People are dancing. Romeo’s friends make fun of Romeo.

R: My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand. To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.

J: Good pilgrim. For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch, and palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss.

R: Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?

J: Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.

R: O then, let lips do what hands do

J: Saints do not move.

R: Then move not.

(He kisses her)

my sin is purged

J: Then have my lips the sin that they have took.

R: Sin from my lips? Give me my sin again.

(Kiss again)

(Juliet exits)

2.2

Juliet acts creepy(obsessed with Romeo)

J: O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name. What’s in a name? Romeo would, were he not Romeo called, retain that dear perfection which he owes without that title.

R: I take thee at thy word!

(Runs to Juliet’s house and climbs up to the balcony)

Music: Mission Impossible

I never will be Romeo! (his face and clothes are dirty)

J: (Juliet shocked as hell) What man art thou that? So stumblest on my counsel?

Art thou not Romeo and a Montague?

R: Neither. If either thee dislike.

J: (Worried, and shocked) the place death, considering who thou art, if any of my kinsmen find thee here.

R: Thy kinsmen no stop to me.

J: They will murder you thee!

(Nurse calls from within)

(Romeo is frightened and tries to hide somewhere)

J: Stay but a little, I will come again.

(Juliet exits)

R: O blessed, blessed night!

(3 seconds later she comes back)

Three words, dear Romeo, and good night indeed.

R: If my heart’s dear love...

(from inside) Nurse: Madam!

(Romeo is frightened again and almost crying)

J: I come---- A thousand times good night.

(She exits)

Scene 3.1

Characters: Romeo(Joseph), Mercutio(James), Tybalt(Ryan).

(though it is modern time period, they use sword to fight)

Walk in peacefully. (With a good mood)

Tybalt: Gentlemen, Good e’en.

M: Make it a word and blow.

T: You shall find me apt enough to that sir, an you will give me occasion. Mercutio, thou consortest with Romeo.

M: What? dost thou make us minstrels? An thou make minstrels of us, look to hear nothing but discords. Here’s my fiddlestick ; here’s that shall make you dance. Zounds , consort!

M: Well, peace be with you, sir. Here comes my man . Romeo, the love I bear thee can afford No better term than this: thou art a villain.

Romeo walks in

R: Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee Doth much excuse the appertaining rage To such a greeting. Villain am I none. Therefore farewell. I see thou knowest me not.

M: Tybalt, you rat catcher , will you walk?

T: What wouldst thou have with me?

Start fighting

R: Tybalt, Mercutio, The Prince expressly hath forbid this bandying in Verona streets.

Romeo holds Mercutio.

Tybalt stabs Mercutio.

M: I am hurt. A plague o’ both houses! I am sped .’tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as the church's door. M Why the devil came you between us? I was hurt under your arm.
I thought all for the best.

R: This day’s black fate on more days doth depend. This but begins the woe others must end. Now, Tybalt, take the “villain” back again That late thou gavest me, for Mercutio’s soul.

T: Thou wretched boy that didst consort him here Shalt with him hence.

They fight, Romeo stabs tybalt.
Remember: when Romeo stabs SLOW MOTION
Tybalt dies.
Romeo is horrified, and he runs away.

Modern Interpretation of Romeo and Juliet

I want to examine mostly comedic feature by irony and sarcasm. As a person who lives in modern time period, I feel like this story actually does not make sense and is a little bit off from the reality. Thus I want to redesign the scene to make it more believable even to the people in modern days. What I thought best for the expressing tool was to change into comedy. To do that, I think very critical analysis is needed. Also, because I have to completely redesign the setting to make it believable but I am not allowed to redesign the language, this analysis will help me think not only critically but also creatively.

The scenes that I am going to explore are 1.5 which is Romeo and Juliet's first meeting, 2.2 which is the famous balcony scene, and 3.1 which is Romeo and Tybalt's fight scene. As I cannot change the language, it will be difficult job to show comedic mood. Therefore thorough staging and performing (acting) will be needed. I am thinking (they are not decided) For staging of 1.5, I will need some people to make dance party's loud atmosphere. Then actors act in the loud place so they cannot hear what they are saying even though what they are trying to say is really poetic, beautiful, and romantic words. It will seem more realistic. For staging 2.2, balcony is maybe on really high position so they have to talk on their phone. It will show modern time setting and show that love making through balcony is only possible in the book. The problem is how am I going to set the high position though. For staging 3.1, they are fighting with the sword even though it is modern time period. When they are trying to kill each other, they both are really hesitant about actually killing a person. Also, maybe kids are playing toy gun game next to them. It will be really sarcastic.

For scene 1.5 and 3.1, I will need a little more people than in my group because I want to show how crowded the background is. Perhaps I need around 6 people for both scenes. Two for Romeo and Juliet and four for random people, but in scene 3.1 one is for Mercutio. However for scene 2.2, I only need Romeo and Juliet but they need to be really good actors. Lastly to ensure an equal share of amount of work, we will have time to figure out the setting individually, and for the people whose idea is not chosen, I can make them bring costume or stage properties.


               a. How many people are required and who do you propose to play which parts?

               b. How will you ensure that each group member has an equal share in creating and performing in this project?

Ideas

How did the feud affect Romeo and Juliet? (Maybe not my idea but it is a really good topic)

Were Romeo and Juliet in true love or just infatuation?

Sub Characters' Role and Effect.

Contrast between Light and Dark 

Shakespeare's figurative languages, foreshadowings 

The "death" as a problem solver 

Longer Essay : Why did this tragedy happen?

2. Romeo and Juliet's tragedy, I think, was a result of circumstance and strong personalities.

Firstly, on the basis, there was a great grudge between Romeo's Montague family and Juliet's Capulet family. They have hated each other for a long time and that hatred was really serious that the two families even killed each other. In the circumstance, it is pretty obvious that Romeo and Juliet's romance will never flow smoothly. Even in the beginning of their pure crush, they had to worry about their future. "Is she a Capulet? O dear account! My life is my foe's debt" said by Romeo (Act 1 Scene 5 Line 131) and "My only love sprung from my only hate! Too early seen unknown, and known too late!" said by Juliet (Act 1 Scene 5 line 152) clearly show that they had a huge problem before they started to love each other; it was a family-family conflict. Also as teenagers, they could not simply neglect what their parents said, so the problem might be felt bigger for them. However, they began their brave and reckless journey despite the fact that is mentioned above.

After since they started to love each other and got married, one big problem appeared. Romeo killed Tybalt who was a cousin of Juliet. It was totally unexpected for both Romeo and Juliet. "O, I am Fortune's fool!" (Act 3 Scene 1 Line 142) said by Romeo shows that he actually did not mean to necessarily kill him and so forth his very naive personality as he failed to control his emotion. For punishment, he got banishment to Mantua. The news sounded worse than the death of Romeo to Juliet, and then making the matter worse, Juliet's parents forced Juliet to marry Paris when Romeo was in banishment. Juliet said to Lady Capulet that "Or, if you do not, make the bridal bed in that dim monument where Tybalt lies"(Act 3 Scene 5 Line 212). She really did not want to marry Paris that she would rather choose to die. Her mind was set to Romeo, and she was obstinate about it. Then, poor Juliet talked with Friar Lawrence to resolve this problem.

The period of this tragedy dotted after Juliet decided to follow Friar Lawrence's plan. It was very uncertain and risky, but under the circumstance, she had no other choice but to take the risk. Friar Lawrence's plan to resolve the problem was to make Juliet be fake-dead to avoid the wedding and send a letter on which the plan was written down to Romeo to take her and run away. However, unfortunately the letter did not reach to Romeo, so the plan failed. What is worse is that I don't this tragedy could have been prevented. They were too young and weak, and the circumstance they had did not give any other choice that they could choose.

There was too harsh circumstance for them to overcome. Also there were also their naive and immature personalities. These factors led to the inevitable tragedy of two beautiful young lovers.

Questions

What was Prince's punishment to Romeo? 

Where did Romeo and Juliet fall in love with each other?

Why did Romeo kill Tybalt?

Why did Juliet "die"?

What did Juliet use to kill herself?

Is nurse really supportive to Juliet?

How do you think about Friar Lawrence's plan?

Whose fault is it? The family fight or Romeo and Juliet?

If Juliet went to Paris, would it end the conflict?

Are Romeo and Juliet in true love? 

Do you think Romeo and Juliet's love is tragedy?

If it was modern day, do you think the ending would be different?

Acting is Hard!

As our English class read Romeo and Juliet and other sources of acting, now I feel a lot more comfortable than before. Before I take this class, I had no relationship with acting, staging, or directing. Maybe last year's winter musical would be the only one experience of staging but I did not act there, so technically I did not know any. Acting was what I always have been interested in, so I like acting in our class, and because I like acting, I started liking staging and directing my own scene. Especially being a group and making or modifying a scene were really fun for me. 

While I act and direct the scene, an easy thing to do was line making. Line is one of the most important factors of performance because it is the direct way to convey character's emotion. For me, distinguishing between relatively not important line and important line (which have to be said in order to make the story flow smooth) was pretty easy. When I think about the large story, it is very straightforward that some lines must be said, and some lines are not necessary. For example in Act 2 Scene 6 of Romeo and Juliet, there is a line said by Friar Lawrence "These violent delights have violent ends. And in their triumph die, like fire and powder, which as they kiss, consume. The sweetest honey is loathsome in his own deliciousness and in the taste confounds the appetite. Therefore love moderately. Long love doth so". In this case, the line after "violent ends" is just long describing of violent ends, which is not necessary in terms of story. After eliminating what I get is "These violent delights have violent ends. Therefore love moderately". This way, it is easy to understand and more direct. 

The hard part for me was line saying. It is ironic. Especially Romeo and Juliet, I think that line saying becomes harder because of hard language. As the language is harder, saying line without mistake and with emotion is so hard. Also in order to add some motions while I act, it is better to memorize my lines, but because of the language I usually can not do that. However that is what makes me motivated. Last time when we watched the other class' scene, their fluency and naturalness made me want to be better. If I could understand the whole language, speak perfectly, and put my full emotion when I act, I definitely will improve in the future. 

In my opinion, a good scene is made up of (if it is a scene with more than one person) characters' active interaction and perfect interpretation, and clear line speaking and effective movement. Characters' active interaction will keep audiences awake and entertained, and make them fully put themselves into the performance, and in order to do that, their perfect interpretation about the story has to be on the basis because they must know what they are acting and what they need to express. In addition, line needs to be clearly spoken otherwise audiences will have no idea what the actors are talking about and they will get no sense about the story. Effective movement is also really important because it will be used along the line speaking to effectively express what they want to say, and for audiences it makes the scene more interesting to watch.

I still need a lot more practice and experience to improve and I really hope that I will improve through this class. 

Act 3 Scene 1 Cheshire Academy Adaptation

Starts from line 36
Benvolio - Ben,  Mercurio - Joseph, Tybalt - Ryan, Romeo - Jack, Prince - Mr. Dykeman, Lady Capulet - Ms. Simon 

This is all fiction.

2015/10/08
In front of JJW building during the afternoon activity
Ryan is so mad at Jack because he likes Ryan's sister Cherrie, so he is trying to beat him up.

Ben Oh Yeah, here comes the Motter.
Joseph Who cares.
Ryan (to his friends) Come closer, I gotta talk to them. Good afternoon guys, I'd like to talk with you guys.
Joseph Just say it man.
Ryan Dude can you just go and play with Romeo.
Joseph What? Who do you think I am? Am I look easy on you? You cannot be that ignorant if you have known me man.
Ben Dude, it's public men. Let's talk at somewhere private.
Joseph Whatever, let them watch us.

Jack enters.

Ryan Well, here comes my man. You EVIL man.
Jack You don't know me well bud. I am not the person that you are thinking of. So, Goodbye.
Ryan That doesn't convince me at all. (raising his fists to fight)
Jack Well, it should, beautiful Motter. You should be satisfied.
Joseph Dude Ryan, you frick, (raising his fists to fight just like Ryan) just come fight me. You better hurry up or I will smack you first.
Ryan Why would I.... ok I'll fight you.
Jack Stop it Joseph.
Joseph Come on.

Ryan and Joseph fight, Jack tries to stop the fighting but doesn't work.
Eventually Joseph's both arms are broken and his tooth is shaking.

Ryan Let's go my friends, this guy is too weak.

Ryan and his friends exit.

Joseph Hey Jack watch them. I still can fight but they are too afraid haha.
Jack Hey you are injured so bad can't you see?
Joseph Come on man it's nothing. I am a man. (He faints)

Joseph is sent to the hospital and his injury seems pretty serious.

LATER...

Ben Oh shoot Joseph got injured sooooo bad. What should we do?
Jack Well, we gotta revenge.

Ryan enters.

Ben There comes our enemy.
Jack It is time to bring our fury back to you Ryan. Today, either you or I must die.
Ryan What the heck are you talking about. Of course It is you who will die.

They fight, and Ryan gets really serious injured as Joseph.

Ben This is bad Jack. Run!
Jack Oh no I did foolish thing.

Ben and Jack exit.

Students enter.

Students Oh my god. What happened to him? Who did this? We gotta talk to Mr. Dykeman.

Next day, CC is held. Enter Mr. Dykeman, Mr. Marshall, Ms. Simon, their dorm families and all.

Mr. Dykeman Ben, who began this fight?
Ben I am not lying. It was Ryan. He tried to evoke fighting with Jack. Although Jack tried not to fight in a gentle and smooth manner, it didn't work to Ryan who was out of control. Eventually, he fought with Joseph and injured him. But by soon, he came back to Jack and fought again. Again, I am not lying.
Ms. Simon (Motter Dorm Parents) Ben is part of VDP family. That affects him to speak false. I beg you Mr. Dykeman. Please keep the justice.
Mr. Dykeman For this incident which is really hard to tell who shall pay for this chain reaction, I will ask Jack to leave our school. We are not kicking him out but asking you to leave our school by your will. I will not change this decision and I will be deaf to any excuses from now.

They exit.

Image of Death

The word ''Death" does not sound good. As soon as I hear the word, the first feeling I have is fear. It is widely known as a negative word which has such images of darkness, sadness, hell, and blood. In spite of the reputation, however, death occasionally gives positive images such as peace, rest, and heaven. In act 3 scene 2 of Romeo and Juliet, Juliet uses the word "Death" several times to describe her cousin Tybalt's death. However her using of the word "Death" sounds a little different. She is sad about her cousin's death of course, but she seems more sad about Romeo's banishment. Her great sadness towards Romeo's banishment makes her feeling on Tybalt's death seem less sad and even a little apathetic.

 "When she said "Tybalt's dead," "thy father" or "thy mother," nay, or both, which modern lamentation might have moved? But with a rearward following Tybalt's death, "Romeo is banished." To speak that word is father, mother, Tybalt, Romeo, Juliet, all slain, all dead." (line 129)

In class writing Iambic Pentameter

In quiet night all full of memories,

The moon is only shining in the dark.

Anger

Why is anger such a powerful emotion?

Anger is powerful emotion because it literally can make oneself powerful. If someone gets angry, one can really be a different person or even a monster in an extreme way. Therefore, anger should be controlled by ourselves otherwise this dangerous emotion would destroy ourselves. 

Have you ever experienced a situation where anger got out of control in a chain reaction? What could have prevented it?

I can not think of my experience, so I will just give one situation happened in somewhere in the world. A boy was playing an online game where other people and he should be worked perfectly as a team. And one player made a mistake and the boy got angry so bad, so the boy sweared him harshly and the person responded with even harsher swear, and eventually the boy found out where the person who made the mistake is, went to him, and killed him with a knife. It was a terrible situation and maybe the boy had a mental disease. However the point is that the emotion anger could led one person to get out of control and to commit homicide. If he learned or trained himself to control it, he would not kill the other guy. It really is up to us. 

One Creative Adaption of Romeo and Juliet

A film that I watched is called Romeo + Juliet. Actually our class watched the first few scenes of the film in class. Watching in class, my classmates and I were surprised at the incredible beauty of Leonardo DiCaprio which is obviously one of the greatest characteristic of this film. This film was released in 1996 and directed (adapted) by Baz Luhrmann, who also filmed The Great Gatsby with Leonardo DiCaprio in 2013. The director must love to adapt films that have base on the fiction. Among many other adaptations of Romeo and Juliet, this film kept the lines and language used in the original Romeo and Juliet but set time background differently. It was unique that they used not modern English in modern time. 

The film was pretty good. I liked it. I actually had watched it when I was 12 but I definitely do not remember how and what it was. I guess this time, it was even more interesting than before because I knew the basic plot and even some lines so it was a lot of fun to find the things in common between the film and my background knowledge. This film was basically modernization version of everything except the language, so I could find some fun facts and some strange facts about it. Firstly, they used gun instead of dagger (or knife or maybe sword). Every scene that has to deal with knives in the original has substituted knives for guns. For example, when Tybalt kills Mercurio, original play version uses a sword while this adaptation uses a gun. Also, when Juliet killed herself, original version uses Romeo's dagger while this adaptation uses Romeo's pistol. This shows the different time period as well as different level of technology development from original version. However, although the film version is modernized version of the original, there was something intriguing in some aspects. The question is : why did not Friar Lawrence send Romeo an e-mail instead of physical letter? At the first scene of the film version, it shows that there are many skyscrapers which shows that the time period is pretty modern, and it looks modern enough to use e-mail as their tool of communication. If they used e-mail, there would be no problem with postal office and Romeo and Juliet might live well. Secondly, prologue and epilogue through the television was smart choice. It not only showed its time period but also started and ended the film more impressively. I can not imagine that chorus comes out and does the prologue and epilogue just like the original. It will be really weird. However, through the reporter in television, it made me curious about what is going to happen next, and this film became more natural and smooth and not awkward. Lastly, I liked the way they did not change the words because language is one of the most remarkable characteristics of Shakespeare's plays. By keeping the language, they conserved the beauty of Shakespeare's piece which is really important factor of adaptation. Shakespeare used a lot of figurative language and strategies. For example, Juliet's saying "ghostly confessor" which somehow foreshadows her death is one of them. 

I can say this film is really well made. Its modernized interpretation created a lot of interesting things that are little different from the original. 

Source:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117509/