Lines

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 Tragedy

Title: Modern Tragedy

Group members: Ryan, James, Joseph, Olivia

For this scene, our group will totally change how people think the “tragedy”, Romeo and Juliet. First of all, we will adapt the tragedy to a comedy; sarcasm, hyperbole, and contrast are the whole scene’s “souls”; hyperbole and contrast are actually the ways to express sarcasm. Normally, people feel sad for this unfortunate couple, but does fate really cause the tragedy? Our answer is no. Actually, we incline to blame Romeo and his irrational love; we believe that his personalities and behaviors cause the tragedy. As far as I am concerned, Romeo is an extremely immature, but interesting character, so most of the sarcastic and funny plots will be in his lines and acting. For example, Romeo is a changeable person, and this is one of his funniest characteristics. We are going to express this point by the hyperbolic acting when he sees Juliet. 

We will combine three scenes together, Scene1.5, Scene2.2, Scene 3.1. Our goal is to make the scene logical and funny for modern people, and we stage the scene in modern time. In this scene, Romeo is a irresolute and immature boy; Juliet is a rebel, and hip-hop girl. This makes a big contrast. After they meet, Juliet become a clean and kind girl, but Romeo remains the same. Also, actors will wear funny costumes and act hilariously. In addition, I think the more hyperbolic the acting is, the more funny the scene will be. Thus, this requires actors to read lines and behave extremely hyperbolic. For instance, I think the fighting scene can highly express Romeo's irrationality. To make the scene sarcastic and funny, Romeo will say some romantic words to Tybalt, such as "I love you" or "I don't wanna kill you", but as the mean time, Romeo just grabs the gun and shoots Tybalt. After this, Romeo is so terrified that he runs away, and he finds an excuse for himself. 

In this performance, our group has four members. Ryan plays Romeo; Olivia plays Juliet; Joseph plays Tybalt; James plays Mercutio. To be honest, the lines are not perfectly equal, so for some characters, such as Mercutio and Tybalt, they will have more acting part. 

Three Ideas

1. What did Shakespeare want to say by creating this tragedy?
     a. The scene Juliet and Romeo first met. (Scene 1.5)
     b. Romeo asked Friar Lawerence to approve their marriage. (Scene 2.3)
     c. The last scene. (Scene 5.3)
     d.  The prologue of Act 2.

2. What role did Romeo's friends (Benvolio and Mercutio) play? OR How did they reflect Romeo's personalities?
     a. Romeo, Benvolio and Mercutio's conversation. (Scene 1.4)
     b. The fight. (Scene 3.1)
     c. Some other short conversations, such as "Rosaline conversation" between Romeo and Benvolio,  their short conversations after the ball, and the scene that Benvolio was testifying in front of The Prince. (I won't take the full scenes; I'll just take the important parts.)

3. What do modern people think of Romeo and Juliet.
     a. The scene that they first met.(Scrne 1.5)
     b. Comedy version of Balcony scene.
     c. Comedy version of the fight.
    For this one, I only have two scenes,and I'll change them to a comedy. I'll use a modern perspective to direct the scene. When I was reading the book, I felt this story was so ridiculous, so I'll use a rational(not romantic) and funny way to direct the scene.

Romeo, Uncontrollable Force

What if a tragedy’s ending changes to a happy ending, what will happen? People always think about this question while they are reading. Some people think if the ending changes, the stories will be happy, however as far as I am concerned, Romeo and Juliet is a special case. Even though Romeo and Juliet do not die, they will still have a miserable life, because the only uncontrollable force is Romeo, not fate. 

If Romeo and Juliet do not die, they are happy at the beginning, but they will soon find how miserable their life is. If Friar Lawrence’s plan works, Juliet will run away with Romeo. They may have a little house in somewhere extremely remote; at the beginning, they want to spend every minute with each other. However, after they run out of their money, they will suffer from poverty. Moreover, another problem is how they can live without servants who do everything for them. I assume both of them cannot cook or do any housework. To make a living, Romeo has to find a job, and Juliet must learn how to be a good housewife. In that remote place, nobody knows Montagues or Capulets, so this couple will suffer a lot. Finally, they survive in the big change of their life. They have a baby; at first, they are both glad to have a child. However, indeed, Romeo is not the guy who can change diapers for the baby, so Juliet has to do everything. As time passes, Juliet just stays at home, and eventually she is not as beautiful as she used to be. However, Romeo is still immature; he argues with his colleagues, because they do not do what he expects them to do. Sometimes Romeo fights with people, or even duel, because of some little things. Romeo thinks he is still a great Montague; then, the couple start to quarrel. Romeo is finally bored of Juliet, and he falls in love with someone else, like exactly what he does to Rosaline. He then abandons Juliet. In summary, even if they do not die, the story is still another tragedy. 

The only reason of why their life so miserable is Romeo, and Juliet is just a tragic character. Romeo is extremely immature and selfish. He is so irrational that he kills Tybalt, and he is banished. Juliet can not do nothing, but feel hurt. Romeo thinks that he is so innocent, and he is not grateful at all. He tries to kill himself, because he thinks he cannot see Juliet again. He does not care about his friends or parents; he only cares about himself and his love. He kills two people in the book. When he kills them, he always says he loves them and he does not want to kill them, however he just kills them. The most horrible personality of Romeo is that he can hurt anyone who stops him chasing his love, but he thinks he is right. He does not realize that what he does can only hurt the people who love him. One day Romeo finds someone else whom he loves more than Juliet, he will definitely abandon Juliet. Juliet can not do anything; for Juliet, it is unfortunate to meet Romeo, a person who can only hurt her. Consequently, Romeo’s selfishness and immaturity actually cause their miserable life. 

In conclusion, because of Romeo, the most uncontrollable force, the story becomes a tragedy. Even if Romeo and Juliet do not die in the tomb, they still cannot live together happily. 

 

Questions

Why did not the messenger deliver the letter? 

How did Juliet kill herself? 

What was Juliet and Friar Lawrence's plan? 

How many people did Romeo killed in this book? Name them. 

Evaluate Paris' personality. 

Why does the apothecary sell poison to Romeo? 

Why did Romeo say the poison "cordial"? 

Explain the sentence:"A glooming peace this morning with it brings." 

Do you think Romeo and Juliet were selfish? Why? 

Use your own experience to explain the sentence: "There is thy gold, worse poison to men’s souls, Doing more murder in this loathsome world"

If the ending was happy, what would Romeo and Juliet's future life be?  

If this is not a tragedy, will Romeo and Juliet still be this famous? 

Act 3 Scene 2

Link: https://youtu.be/yCPyn40XPR8
Group: Olivia, Lucie

Be A Real Director

People always say that you can never predict the future. I was so worried about the performance part for this class, but now it seems like I worried too much. Performances is actually an interesting thing. I learned much about performances these days, especially staging. For a good scene, you should not only focus on having excellent actors who perform on the stage, but also have to design the stage and edit the scripts appropriately off the stage. I think it is easier to set the stage, however, I can hardly edit the scripts well. 

First of all, in my opinion, plays is all about pleasing the audience, so when directors stage the scene, they should consider the people who sit in the auditorium. This is the first thing and the most important thing I learned; luckily, I think it is kind of easy to do. When we set the stage, we have to make sure everybody can see. Thus, the stage has to face to the audience, and actors also have to face to people while they are performing. This is actually not so hard for me to achieve, but I have to pay much attention on it. I have to think about which angle is the best angle for the audience to see or which equipments are good for people to understand the scene. For example, when we staged the act 3 scene 2 of Romeo and Juliet, we set the couch diagonally, so it would be better for the audience to see Lucie( Juliet) was propping up in bed. Also, we used a black stick to substitute the real cord, but unfortunately, I did not find it while I was performing. Consequently, when we stage the scene, it is important to consider the people who sit there, so we have to make sure people can fully see and get the scene. 

Secondly, if you want to direct a good scene, indeed well-cut scripts are necessary, but this is the most difficult part for me. I think scripts is one of the most important parts of staging; the stage actually depends on scripts. A good scene should not be too lengthy, so the directors need to edit or delete some lines. Last week, Lucie and I chose Act 3 scene 2 to perform. I thought a conversation scene would be easier for me to stage and perform, but actually it was so hard to edit the scripts. In the book, this scene has one hundred and fifty-seven lines, and we should cut them to a five-minute-scene. This really stumped us, because we thought every line was so important and emotional. In Lucie’s words:“These lines are so cute!” As a result, after we deleted the lines twice, the scene was still too long. In summary, it is so important to have an appropriate script for a good scene, however I lacked of this part. 

In conclusion, I learned many things in this class, and I know I have a lot more to study. It is hard to stage a good scene, because directors have to consider everything. From editing scripts off the stage to performing on the stage, audience is always the most important thing, and it is not easy to do well. After the critique, I think I can do better next time. 

Magic play!

In this whole play, the most impressive scene is that Romeo comes to find Friar Lawrence and asks him to help him marry Juliet. I can clearly imagine how this scene works in Cheshire Academy. 

First of all, if I am the director, I will let Mr. Cirmo be Friar Lawrence, let a outgoing (crazy) person be Romeo. I would like to set this scene in chemistry classroom. When Romeo comes in, Mr. Cirmo is doing a experiment. He is wearing a pair of big goggles, and he is saying something about science or nature. He may say: "Everything in this world has two sides, and it depends on how people do it. Chlorine is a good thing that it can be combined with many other chemicals to produce some useful products, like salt. However, if you smell the chlorine gas directly, it will hurt your lungs and lead you to death. " Then Romeo interrupts, and Romeo will say something about his love. When Romeo says that he already forgets Rosaline, Mr. Cirmo should smile and say something nice, such as "that's my boy". Then, when Romeo tells Mr. Cirmo about his new love and he can even die for Juliet, Mr. Cirmo will drop the beaker which contains sulfuric acid. The acid spills on the floor. Because sulfuric acid is corrosive, the color of floor fades. ( if this cannot happen, I will just play some "zizi" sounds) Both Romeo and Mr. Cirmo are shocked. Then Mr. Cirmo warns Romeo that:"like this dangerous concentrated acid, extreme love will not give you happiness". However, love blinds Romeo's eyes, he cannot take the advice. Because this marriage may build a peaceful relationship between Capulets and Montagues, he finally agrees to help Romeo. 

In this scene, emotions are extremely important. When Romeo first comes in, he should be happy but nervous. Then when Friar Lawrence drops the beaker, he should act shocked. Also, when Friar Lawrence agrees to help him, he should act extremely happy. He can jump and hug Friar Lawrence to express his happiness. I want Romeo to have many body languages; he can make his walking style quite different, like dancing. In addition, I also want Mr. Cirmo to act rational, because in the book, Friar Lawrence is a special priest. He believes in science, and he encourages people to control their lives by themselves. In this version, Friar Lawrence is still a priest, but he has a part-time job in Cheshire Academy, which is to be a chemistry teacher, so Mr. Cirmo always encourages his students to choose what they like to do by themselves, not listen to their parents much. In summary, even though time periods and the identities of characters change, the emotions and characteristics will not change, so it is important to express the right emotions. 

This is my play! 

Death

First of all, there is one thing that needs to be clarified; Juliet and Romeo is married. In ancient time, women could hardly get divorced, especially in rich families, like Capulets and Montagues. Also, women could hardly find a job, so their husbands meant everything for them. It is so cruel that Juliet could not see her "everything" again. Moreover, Juliet is in love with Romeo; she cannot even stand not seeing him for a day. Juliet says:"That 'banished', that one word 'banished', hath slain ten thousand Tybalts. " Indeed, Juliet loves Romeo. Now Romeo is banished, she may not have a chance to see him again. This makes Juliet feel extremely sorrowful. In addition, for Capulets, the name, Romeo only means a cruel killer who kills their lovely relative, Tybalt. Therefore, even though Romeo is not banished, Capulets still can not accept him. These things actually makes Juliet feel hopeless. Even if Romeo does not die, they cannot see each other again, and her family will never accept him. For Juliet, there is no difference between being banished and death. Death is even easier for her, because she will not be tortured like this. Secondly, the word, "death" also foreshadows the sad ending, which is Juliet and Romeo both die. In the end, Juliet and Romeo die together.  

Poem

Darkness and moon come together at night, 

Midnight and death are peaceful as usual.  

Anger's chain reaction

In my opinion, anger is one of the most powerful emotions, because it is hard to control. Emotions always drive people to do some crazy things, especially anger. For example, a man thought his wife cheated on him, and he was so angry. Then, he beat his wife badly. His wife got paralysis, and he also went to the jail. Wife's parents only had this only daughter, and they were so angry. They hired a killer to kill the husband. In result, a family fell apart. One died; one paralyzed; two went to the jail. When the father was interviewed, he said he regretted to do this, however, regret could not change anything. This is a chain reaction, anger allowed the husband to beat his wife, and then the wife's parents killed the husband. They gained nothing from this serie of crimes, except regrets, illness and death.

Smart Changes Are the Best

“If thou wilt not, be my love, And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.” (Page 2201) Romeo and Juliet was one of the most famous tragedies of Shakespeare; it showed the purest love between a young couple. The nearest movie version was directed by Carlo Carlei in 2013.(IMDb) The director kept part of the original scripts, but most of the dialogues were modern language. Also, they set the scenes in late Middle Ages in Verona. I like this adaption, because I think the director adapted the scripts, characters and scenes wisely. 

This version gave me an extremely deep impression, because it kept most of the Shakespeare’s original contents, but they were not all the same. First of all, the director modernized most of the dialogues, nevertheless, he also kept the poetic parts. For instance, almost every normal dialogue was modern language, such as “Good morning” or “Good night”. However, they kept the most significant parts. In the movie, they still used “thee”, “thou” and some other words instead of modernizing them all. Also, they did not change the most poetic dialogues, such as the sentences they said in the garden. I like this kind of partial changes, because they would not be so difficult to understand, but they also showed the essential parts of this famous story. Secondly, in this version, the castings were closer to the reality. For example, Juliet was a little bit fat in the movie. Some people think this Juliet is not as beautiful as other versions’. However, as far as I am concerned, this Juliet was the most realistic Juliet. According to the book, Juliet was a sixteen-year-old girl, so she should be at puberty. When girls are at puberty, they are always fatter than usual. Thus, this Juliet was more logical, and I like this logical setting. Thirdly, the director changed and added scenes wisely, and this made the movie more logical and interesting. For example, at the beginning of the movie, Mercutio was competing with Tybalt, and Mercutio won. Then, the two servants fought for the result of this competition. Instead of fighting for nothing, the competition made this scene more logical. Also, because this movie was filmed in 2013, the technology was much better than before. Therefore, in this version, the settings were extremely fancy. For instance, the house of Capulets was big and luxurious. Also, when Tybalt and Mercutio fought, the dust was floating, which was impressive. The director used advanced technology in the film, and this allowed the movie to be more interesting and enjoyable. Consequently, the partial change of the scripts, realistic actors and the fancy scenes of this version made the movie so distinguishable from others, and it impressed me. 

In conclusion, the team tried their best to make this 2013 version different but brilliant. This movie showed how poetic Shakespeare’s words were, and partial change made it easier to understand. Everything was logical but fancy in this movie, such as realistic actors, revised scenes and beautiful settings. There were numerous versions of Romeo and Juliet, but in my opinion, the 2013 version was the best. 

Citation: 

1. Shakespeare, William (2014-10-15). Romeo and Juliet (Folger Shakespeare Library) (Kindle Locations 2207-2208). Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition. 
2. "Romeo & Juliet (2013)." IMDb.com. IMDb, n.d. Web. 4 Oct. 2015.
3. Picture: Romeo and Juliet 2013. 2013. Fanpop.com. Fanpop.com. Web. 4 Oct. 2015. <http://images6.fanpop.com/image/photos/35800000/Romeo-and-Juliet-2013-romeo-and-juliet-2013-35804022-3000-2000.jpg>.