2016年12月16日星期五

The Birth of Rebellion

If the person you love can never be the person your parents ask you to marry, how will you choose? Will you make the same decision as Romeo and Juliet did? Further more, if the person you love even is you family’s enemy, will your fate be as dramatic as it is written by Shakespeare? Over decades, love and hate had already became a hot discussion topic no matter on stage or in the book. So as I finished reading Romeo and Juliet, I chose Act 3 scene 5 to perform in order to show my own adaptation of Juliet’s changes through her rebellion against her destiny encouraged by Romeo's love. By focusing on body language and facial expression of Juliet, I tried to comprehensively portray her as emotional and sensitive as a person in the real world.

In Act 3 scene 5, Juliet has just said goodbye to her banished husband, Romeo. Then Lord Capulet and Lady Capulet who are completely in the dark about their daughter’s secret marriage, forced Juliet to marry Paris. Because of this dramatic setting, Juliet starts showing her rebellion against the strong power and the assigned destiny. Moreover, this is a turning point of Juliet’s personalities from fragile to staunch, naive to intrepid, and all of these tremendous changes are driven from the love given by Romeo. At the beginning, there is a reputation of “f” sound in Juliet’s line: “be fickle, fortune. /For then, I hope, thou wilt not keep him long, but send him back”(3.5.62-63) which creates a beat for this line and gains readers attentions. And this line passes a very strong willing that Juliet wishes her Romeo could come back. When Lady Capulet comes in, Juliet holds her true face back immediately because her mother is not on her side. And it is an irony that she tells Lady Capulet that she wants to kill Romeo in person to revenge for Tybalt’s death. Every word spoken out of her mouth actually is foreshadowing which is like a little girl holds a huge secret lying to her parents. However, it is extremely cruel for Juliet to twist the love into hate just for hoodwinking her parents, “O how my heart abhors to hear him named, and cannot come to him, to wreak the love I pore my cousin, upon his body that slaughter’d him!” (3.5.99-102) Only Juliet herself knows that she is saying she wants to take any chance to meet Romeo again, and she cannot bear the taste of miss any more.

Further more, when Lord Capulet’s parts are added in which intensifies the conflicts because the overwhelming atmosphere brought by Lord Capulet are forcing Juliet, and the tension between Juliet’s lover and her family is torturing this little girl which pushes her to make a step to shake off her shackles. “Good father, I beseech you on my knees, Hear me with patience but to speak a word”(3.5.158-159) Actually, at this moment, Juliet understands it is impossible to change her stubborn father’s mind. However, she still does not want just give in like this, and the love in her mind encourages her to say no to her parents. Even if there is only a little hope, she would still take any chance to do it. Unfortunately, since Juliet's parents care about power and status more than Juliet’s happiness, Juliet’s words do not work at all but further angered her father. The only two choices Lord Capulet provided are marry or get out. “Young baggage” is the word Lord Capulet used to blame Juliet which is a metaphor to show how unbearable Juliet is in Lord Capulet’s eyes when she refuses to follow his instruction. Naturally, Juliet fails to convert her parents and needs to make a tough decision between Romeo and her parents. As a result, These two strong emotions collide and finally break out in Juliet’s mind. Juliet’s rebellion is aroused by both the desire for love, and heavy pressure, and its power was unimaginable strong which can change Juliet’s personality. The scene I chose in which Juliet stands right in front of a dilemma and starts to change mentally. And it was the embryonic beginning of her rebellion.

We performed this scene in the black box, and the way we organized the stage is we put a bed on the up stage because this scene takes place in Juliet’s bedroom. And on the down stage where faces the audiences directly is the balcony, since this is the most possible way to avoid showing my back to the audiences when I performed Juliet. Besides, there were also a wardrobe and other decoration which could show the wealthy of Juliet’s family. For costume part, I, as Juliet, planned to wear a long white dress which could clearly show Juliet’s pureness and beauty. Moreover, I decided to draw an Art Nouveau style red rose tattoo on my arm. It is my own modernized adaptation which shows Juliet’s rebellion spirit in her deep soul because it is a little bit surprise for a noble girl having tattoo, and the rose pattern symbolizes the charming love and bloody death.

I, as Juliet, long for my husband Romeo, and when he left, the feeling of loss tore my heart into pieces. Therefore, I used affectionate voice, prolonged content words like “fortune”, “fickle” and “send him back”, and slowed down my talking speed to show how much I missed my Romeo and called his name in the distance. Also, I used knitting my brows and crossing my hands in front of my chest these kinds of body languages to enhance my character’s emotions. And it came out nicely that I made my acting tally with the actions Juliet supposed to have. Then before talking about slaughtering Romeo, I told my mind to the audiences, “villain, that he be many miles asunder.” (3.5.81) I sighed deeply and looked up to aside half closing my eyes to show that I was worrying about Romeo’s security and circumstance; “God pardon him! I do, with all my heart”(3.5.82), I suddenly opened my eyes and raise up my left hand upon the sky which is the God’s position; then I put the hand on my heart and my fingers slowly clenched the cloth while I was saying “yet, no man like he doth grieve my heart” (3.5.83) to emphasis how terrible my heart was suffering in silence for hate the person I love and conserve this harsh secret in mind.

At this time, Lady Capulet told me I had to marry Paris whom I did not like at all, so I was hit by this shock which felt like as if a knife were piercing my heart. In order to portray that I slightly bent my knees and stepped my feet with my legs trembling, shook my head and came closer to Lady Capulet when I said “I will not marry yet”(3.5.121), also, I rose my voice and talked quickly for those “if I do, I swear, it shall be Romeo” (3.5.121) lines to show that I was extremely determined when I rejected to betray Romeo, and no one could force me to do that even they are my parents; then there was a subtle but important detail which was I hesitated for a second before I added “whom you know I hate” (3.5.122). For this part, I, as Juliet, was trying to show I was vacillating between whether I should just telling Lady Capulet the truth to cancel inappropriate marriage or not; however, I was too afraid thus I was under their control for decades; although my mind was determined for love, I still could not get over the obstacle. So I batted my eyelid unnaturally, compressed my lips several times and show a bitter face to the audiences in order to reflect this mental activities.

Then, Lord Capulet came in and forced me to accept this marriage, and his words were like fuel added on the fire. I turned my hands into fists and said “love can never be of what I hate” (3.5.147) between clenched teeth. I twisted the edge of my dress and looked him in his eyes unshakably telling him that I could not obey this time. When he yelled at my face, my gaze was cold, angry and desperate which was totally different with how I looked at Romeo in eyes. This deadlock reaches the limit of both me and Lord Capulet’s patiences.Under this great pressure, I kneeled down to beg Lord Capulet, and actually, I stood still for a second, walked back few steps and turned around before I kneeled down, and these created a feeling of formal which indicates that I was really meant to beg Lord Capulet to change his mind, for my desire was strong enough to support me to do so. I tried to let tears come out of my eyes, and I, as Juliet, was sacrificed for love and changed for love.

For me, every character is like a container, and as an actor, I need to shape myself first in order to fit the shape of the container perfectly. Juliet is like a long neck flask, delicate and graceful, but it is actually made by diamond which is not only shining but also hard. And I did a good job on imitating her emotions by putting myself into the situation she is facing, following the decisions she made and taking the consequences of her decisions. However, the part I still need to improve is learning Juliet’s way of talking and Juliet style’s actions. Since Juliet grows up in a rich and strict family, she must be cultivated and poised, but in my performance I added too many arms and legs’ movements which means I did not act as steady as Juliet supposed to be. However, I depicted the strong and stubborn side of her personality which means I showed a changing Juliet to audiences successfully. The amazing thing is I learnt a lot from performing Juliet such as using body language and facial expression properly to shape myself to the character. Juliet, a character should be portrayed like a real person but also should be exaggerated more than a real world person. The way to truly perform her is to experience her feelings and emotions physically first which can finally turn into the understanding of the spiritual level of this literary figure.

2016年12月15日星期四

Background information

Edwidge Danticat:
She was born on 1. 19. 1969 in Haiti, and her famous works are "Breath, Eyes, Memory", "Krik?Krak!" and "The Dew Breaker." Later, she immigrated to U.S.

History of Haiti:
Before the revolution, Haiti was a very big slaves raising place. And then in 1789 the Haitian Revolution started.

(picture from wikipedia)

Rafael Trujillo:
He was a soldier and a Dominican politician. During Feb 1930~May 1961 he was the ruler the Dominican Republic. And he was president from 1930~1938, 1942~1952. And the time he ruled was called the bloodiest eras in Americas. "Trujillo's rule brought the country a great deal of stability and prosperity throughout his 30 year reign." (wikipedia)

Boukman:
Dutty Boukman was a slave in Haiti and he was seemed as the leader of Haiti's revolution. He was a self-educated slave and he even taught other slaves how to read and write. His nickname was "book man".

Voodoo:
"Voodoo is a fusion of magical religious practices from Africa that takes on different characteristics and emphasis when practiced in various location. "
"This spiritual expression is a blend of African animism, spiritism, and indigenous religion, and in some circumstances contains elements of shamanism, black magic, and witchcraft. "
http://www.religionfacts.com/voodoo

Papa Doc:
He was born in April 14, 1907 and died in April 21, 1971. He was the president of Haiti for 14 years. When he was president, he reduced the size of army and organized a group called "Bogeymen" He authorized a violent murder military called "Tonton Macoute"

Baby Doc:
(3 July 1951-4 October 2014) He was the president of Haiti from 1971 until he was overthrown by a popular uprising in 1986. He was the son of Papa Doc. He helped improved the relationship between U.S.

Tonton Macoute:
Tonton Macoute was under controlled of Duvalier. It had something to do with the political and it killed tons of people who was political opponents, such as burning them. And it was extremely cruel people of any identity all had risk to be murdered.

Dominican Massacre:
1937.

2016年12月12日星期一

Notes

2016年12月6日星期二

Written course draft 2

Written coursework draft 3

Romeo and Juliet, A famous play written by Shakespeare, which is a hybridization of love and hate. It talks about the feuds between two families, Capulet and Montague, are settled down by the deaths of two star-crossed lovers --- Romeo and Juliet. In Act 3 scene 5 which was the scene I chose to perform, Juliet changes a lot through her rebellion against her destiny encouraged by Romeo's love; in order to perform Juliet, I focused on body language and facial expression to comprehensively portray her as emotional and sensitive as a person in the real world.

In Act 3 scene 5, Juliet has just said goodbye to her banished husband, Romeo. Then Lord Capulet and Lady Capulet who are completely in the dark about their daughter’s secret marriage, forced Juliet to marry Paris. Because of this dramatic setting, Juliet shows her rebellion against the strong power and the assigned destiny. Moreover, this is a turning point of Juliet’s personalities from fragile to staunch, naive to intrepid, and all of these tremendous changes are driven from the love given by Romeo. At the beginning, there is a reputation of “f” sound in Juliet’s line: “be fickle, fortune. /For then, I hope, thou wilt not keep him long, but send him back”(3.5.62-63). Since the reputation of “f” sounds like preying, it passes a very strong willing that she wishes her Romeo could come back. When Lady Capulet comes in, Juliet holds her true face back immediately because her mother is not on her side. And it is an irony that she tells Lady Capulet that she wants to kill Romeo in person to revenge for Tybalt’s death. Every word spoken out of her mouth actually is foreshadowing which is like a little girl holds a huge secret lying to her parents. However, it is extremely cruel for Juliet to twist the love into hate just for hoodwinking her parents, “O how my heart abhors to hear him named, and cannot come to him, to wreak the love I pore my cousin, upon his body that slaughter’d him!” (3.5.99-102) Only Juliet herself knows that she is saying she wants to take any chance to meet Romeo again, and she cannot bear the taste of miss any more. Juliet’s rebellion is aroused by both the desire for love, and heavy pressure, and its power was unimaginable strong which can change Juliet’s personality. Further more, when Lord Capulet’s parts are added in which intensifies the conflicts because the overwhelming atmosphere brought by Lord Capulet are forcing Juliet, and the tensions between Juliet’s lover and her family is torturing this little girl which pushes her to make a step to shake off her shackles. As a result, These two strong emotions collide and finally break out in Juliet’s mind. The scene I chose in which Juliet stands right in front of a dilemma and starts to change mentally which was the embryonic beginning of her rebellion.

We performed this scene in the black box, and the way we organized the stage is we put a bed on the up stage because this scene takes place in Juliet’s bedroom. And on the down stage where faces the audiences directly is the balcony, since this is the most possible way to avoid showing my back to the audiences when I performed Juliet. Besides, there were also a wardrobe and other decoration which could show the wealthy of Juliet’s family. For costume part, I, as Juliet, planned to wear a long white dress which could clearly show Juliet’s pureness and beauty. Moreover, I decided to draw an Art Nouveau style red rose tattoo on my arm to show her rebellion spirit in her deep soul, and the rose symbolize the charming love and bloody death.

I, as Juliet, long for my husband Romeo, and when he left, the feeling of loss tore my heart into pieces. Therefore, I used affectionate voice, prolonged content words like “fortune”, “fickle” and “send him back”, and slowed down my talking speed to show how much I missed my Romeo and called his name in the distance. Also, I used knitting my brows and crossing my hands in front of my chest these kinds of body languages to enhance my character’s emotions. And It came out nicely that I made my acting tally with the actions Juliet supposed to have. Then before talking about slaughtering Romeo, I clarified my mind to the audiences, “villain, that he be many miles asunder.” (3.5.81) I sighed deeply and looked up to aside half closing my eyes to show that I was worrying about Romeo’s security and circumstance; “God pardon him! I do, with all my heart”(3.5.82), I suddenly opened my eyes and raise up my left hand upon the sky which is the God’s position; then I put the hand on my heart and my fingers slowly clenched the cloth while I was saying “yet, no man like he doth grieve my heart” (3.5.83) to emphasis how terrible my heart was suffering in silence for hate the person I love and conserve this harsh secret in mind.

2016年12月3日星期六

sample essay grading

Sample 1

Grades:

Analysis of Lit Features: 5

Performance: 6

Language: 4

Total: 15

The thesis only focuses on the literary features which is the analysis of the main character, Richard III, and his personalities, but it does not include the writer’s own performance part. Besides, in the analysis parts the writer writes almost about Margaret rather than Richard which does not fit the thesis. I assume that Margaret is the character the writer performed.

For the body paragraphs the writer uses 10 paragraphs to analyze the literary features including wording, characters’ emotions and the ups and downs of the play. The ratio of amount of summary verses amount of analysis is good, since the writer mainly focuses on analysis.

The interesting part is the writer talks about staging and puts a little graphic on which can clearly show what he tries to show. (Margaret actually is the the writer’s character) The writer describes his/her performance very detailed and also tells the goal of each action, so we can see the process of his/her performance. However, the writer still could add some adjective words rather than simply repeats the actions like “ I cried, I walked”

Also, the writer does not include in text citations (act, scene & line number) Finally, the writer does not have a very clear and responsible ending paragraphs. He should make a strong conclusion instead of just talking about where he/she did well.

Smaple 2

Grades:

Analysis of Lit Features: 5

Performance: 6

Language: 5

Total: 16

The thesis of this paper is pretty efficient which not only includes the analysis and performance. We can clearly recognize that Ophelia is the character the writer performed, and he/she focuses on the characteristic of the Ophelia by taking some main events out and analyze them.

Organization is not clear, the writer supposed to write the paper in three different parts, since he/she chooses three different scenes to perform. However, the writer does not separate them clearly. This paper’s body paragraphs are partial literary analysis and partial performance, and sometimes both elements appear in one paragraph. It feels like the whole paper is always analyzing the character. Besides, the writer does not talk much about what he/she actually did on the stage but goes back to portray the character’s personalities. The organization is a little bit confuse because it is hard to separate the literary analysis part and the writer’s own performance part. And the reason is the writer uses both “she” and “I” randomly which confuse readers a lot.

Actually, the words the writer uses are fancy such as “unit-climax” which makes the paper sound very professional, but the writer does not deeply describe his/her own performance which means it is not detailed enough. For example “my movement become more frantic and marked” the writer does not explain how can he/she make his/her movement like that. The writer should talk about how exactly he/she moved his/her body parts.

The ending paragraph is pretty well and the writer includes his/her opinions about performing Ophelia, and still on the track of making a conclusion of both literary analysis and performance.

No citation at all.

2016年12月2日星期五

First Draft

A famous play written by Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, which is a combination of both love and hate. It talks about the feuds between two families are settled down by two star-crossed lovers --- Romeo and Juliet. This thrilling play has inspired audiences for decades. Juliet, a dramatic character in Romeo and Juliet, changes a lot through her rebellion against her destiny encouraged by Romeo's love; in order to perform Juliet, I focused body language and facial expression to comprehensively portray her as emotional and variable as a person in the real world.

In Act 3 scene 5, Juliet has just said goodbye to her banished husband, Romeo. Then Lord Capulet and Lady Capulet who are completely in the dark about their daughter’s secret marriage, forced Juliet to marry Paris. Because of this dramatic setting, Juliet shows her rebellion against the strong power and the assigned destiny. Moreover, this is a turning point of Juliet’s personalities from fragile to staunch, naive to intrepid, and all of these tremendous changes are driven from the love given by Romeo. At the beginning, there is a reputation of “f” sound in Juliet’s line: “be fickle, fortune. For then, I hope, thou wilt not keep him long, but send him back”. Since this sound is like a preying rhyme, it passes a very strong willing that she wishes her Romeo could come back. When Lady Capulet comes in, Juliet holds her true face back immediately because her mother is not on her side. And it is an irony that she tells Lady Capulet her desire to revenge for Tybalt’s death and to kill Romeo in person. Every word spoken out of her mouth actually is foreshadowing which is like a little girl holds a huge secret lying to her parents. However, it is extremely cruel for Juliet to twist the love into hate just for hoodwinking her parents, “O how my heart abhors to hear him named, and cannot come to him, to wreak the love I pore my cousin, upon his body that slaughter’d him!” Only Juliet herself knows that she is saying she wants to take any chance to meet Romeo again, and she cannot bear the taste of miss any more. When Lord Capulet’s parts are added in, the clash reaches its climax and finally break out in Juliet’s mind. The conflicts between her lover and her family is torturing this little girl which pushes her to make a step to shake off her shackles. As a result, These two strong emotions collide which change Juliet completely. The scene I chose in which Juliet stands under the great pressure and starts to change mentally which was the embryonic beginning of her rebellion.

I, as Juliet, long for my husband Romeo, and when he left, the feeling of loss tore my heart into pieces. Therefore, I used affectionate voice, prolonged content words, and slowed down my talking speed to show how much I missed my Romeo. Also, I used knitting my brows and holding my hands in front of my chest these kinds of body languages to enhance my character’s emotions. And It came out nicely that I made my acting tally with the actions Juliet supposed to have. Then before talking about slaughtering Romeo, I clarified my mind to the audiences, “villain, that he be many miles asunder.”I sighed deeply and looked up to aside half closing my eyes to show that I was worrying about Romeo’s security and circumstance; “God pardon him! I do, with all my heart”, I suddenly opened my eyes and raise up my left hand upon the sky which is the God’s position; then I put the hand on my heart and my fingers slowly clenched the cloth while I was saying “yet, no man like he doth grieve my heart” to emphasis how terrible my heart was suffering in silence for hate the person I love and conserve this harsh secret in mind. At this time, Lady Capulet told me I had to marry Paris whom I did not like at all, so I was hit by this shock which felt like as if a knife were piercing my heart. In order to portray that I slightly stepped my feet with my shaking legs, shook my head and came closer to Lady Capulet when I said “I will not marry yet”, also, I rise my voice and talked quickly for those “if I do, I swear, it shall be Romeo” lines to show that I was extremely determined when I rejected to betray Romeo, and no one could change my mind even they are my parents; then there was a subtle but important detail which was I hesitated for a second before I added “whom you know I hate”. For this part, I, as Juliet, were thinking about whether I should just telling Lady Capulet the truth to cancel inappropriate marriage; however, I was too afraid thus I was under their control for decades; although my mind was determined for love, I still could not get over the obstacle. In order to reflect this mental activities, I compressed my lips several times and show a bitter face to the audiences. Then Lord Capulet came in and forced me to accept this marriage, but I still did not give in. I twisted the edge of my dress and looked him in his eyes unshakeably telling him that I could not obey this time. This deadlock reaches the limit of both me and Lord Capulet’s patiences.Under this great pressure, I kneeled down to beg Lord Capulet, and actually, I stood still for a second and walked back few steps before I kneeled down, and these created a feeling of formal which indicates that I was really meant to beg Lord Capulet to change his mind, for my desire was strong enough to support me to do so.

For me, every character is like a container, and as a actor, I need to shape myself first in order to fit the shape of the container perfectly. Juliet is like a long neck flask, delicate and graceful. And I did a good job on imitating her emotions by putting myself into the situation she is facing, following the decisions she made and taking the consequences of her decisions. However, the part I still need to improve is learning Juliet’s way of talking and Juliet style’s actions. Since Juliet grows up in a rich and strict family, she must be cultivated and poised, but in my performance I added too many arms and legs’ movements which means I did not act as steady as Juliet supposed to be.

The amazing thing is I learnt a lot from performing Juliet such as using body language and facial expression properly to shape me to the character. To experience their feelings and emotions physically first which can finally turn into the understanding of the spiritual level of the literary figures.

Grading for sample 3
First, I did not find a clear thesis statement for the whole paper.
And it kinds of combine the Analysis of Lit Features and Performance together because when the writer wrote the Analysis part, the writer mentioned "audiences"

Analysis of Lit Features: 3 (too long and redundant)
the writer did not analyze the lit Features deeply and too much summary

Performance: 5
the writer used "I decided to end the scene" which is the director's language
Talked too little about the writer's own performance.

Language: 3
confused

Thesis:
(new one)
Juliet, a dramatic character in Romeo and Juliet, changes a lot through her rebellion against her destiny encouraged by Romeo's love; in order to perform Juliet, I focused on intonation, body language and facial expression to comprehensively portray her as emotional and variable as a person in the real world.

(old one)

For performing Romeo and Juliet, intonation, body language and facial expression are important ways to comprehensively portray a character, Juliet, as emotional and variable as a person in the real world, when she rebells her destiny and makes huge changes.

2016年11月28日星期一

video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GCQN63jXFI&feature=youtu.be

First Draft

Write coursework draft 1

Romeo and Juliet project

Talking about the scene&character:

This scene starts in the morning as Romeo has just left the balcony. And Lady Capulet comes to Juliet to tell her that she has to marry Paris, a “young noble gentlemen” whom Juliet does not like at all. Juliet refuses to marry, and then Lord Capulet comes in, and he is extremely angry with Juliet’s rebellion.

I performed Juliet in this scene whose emotions changed a lot through line to line. At first, Juliet should show how much she missed Romeo. And it was a irony when she told Lady Capulet her desire to revenge for her cousin’s death, and she would kill Romeo in person. Only herself and audiences know the truth, so it is very important to make her sound like foreshadowing which is like a little girl holds a secret lying to her parents. Mental activities should be shown in my body languages and intonation. And then when Juliet knows that she has to have a second marriage with Paris, she is shocked, and then the only thing she wants to do is to cancel this inappropriate marriage.

About staging&costume:

For Juliet, she is a pure and naive girl who has never got in touch with a man and never tasted the feeling of in love. So I choose white for the main color of her dress. And in her deep soul she is strong for love and does not afraid of death or power stronger than her, so I draw a tattoo on my right hand to show this kind of rebellion feeling. The tattoo is a deep red rose which both symbolize the charming love and bloody death.

In Juliet’s bedroom, there is a bed located at up stage, and a door on the right stage. The balcony is facing the audiences at down stage. And there is a shelf next to the bed.

My own performance:

My emotions were full and strong. When I said “ O fortune, fortune, all men call thee fickle.” and “ For then I hope, thou wilt not keep him long but send him back.” I used affectionate voice, and I prolong and slow down my talking speed to show how much I missed my Romeo. Also, I knitted my brow and put my hands in front of my chest. When I talked with Lady Capulet about killing Romeo, I told my mind to the audiences, “villain, that he be many miles asunder. God pardon him! I do, with all my heart.” I sighed to show that my heart was suffering of keep that harsh secret. I even could not tell my own parents. And then I turned back to the Lady Capulet. “ madam, from the reach of these my hands, would none but I might venge my cousin’s death.” I clenched my fist and changed to strong and determined voice for proving my position to my mother. But I was still sitting on the bed at this time which indicate that my position was not that “true”. And then, in order to reach my goal--come to Romeo, I told Lady Capulet I want to carry out the mission of poisoning Romeo by myself, and it is the only way which can make me feel satisfied, and I stood up at this moment. When Lord Capulet came in, I looked down to the ground to show my modest and fearfulness, but when he forced me to marry Paris, if not he would drive me away, which light up the rebellion fire in my mind. I twisted the edge of my dress to show my emotions to audiences that I was not giving in. Under this great pressure, I kneeled down to beg Lord Capulet, and actually, I stood still for a second and walked back a few steps before I kneeled down. This was a feeling of formal which means that I was really meant to beg Lord Capulet to change his mind, and my desire was very strong. When Lord Capulet was blamed me, I stared at his eyes with angry and helpless, so I bited my lips.

Cooperate with partners:

Many eye contacts with partners were useful and necessary. Since we practiced many times, our lines were remembered pretty well. So we can recited our lines fluently and naturally. In order to make the scene look reliable, we associated partners in many different ways. For example, I stood up and walked to the door when Lady Capulet came in. And she touched my should when she was trying to cheer me up because she thought I was gloomy and sad for my cousin’s death. One other example is when I heard Lady Capulet would say cheerful things, I held her hands to show that I really wanted to hear some happy things.

 Experience gained:

Put myself into the character, Juliet is the daughter of a rich noble man, so she should be well-educated and well-behaved. Some of my body languages were over exaggerated which means the emotions went beyond my character, and this probably made the character seem unrealistic. Besides, we should not only memorize the lines but also understand it, so that we can know how when and why do those certain lines out, and this helps our performance a lot. Feeling of character, feeling of stage can make me become a trained and experienced actor.

Review of Bushnell

Warriors Don’t Cry November 16th

School field trip to the Bushnell, a solo show of a black woman produced by Jessica Maria Kight, an energetic and powerful actor. The story starts at “the center of a violent civil rights conflict” (Melba Pattillo Beals) and presents Melba’s high school memory to the audiences. Also, elements such as violent, racism and segregation are completely showed.

As a liter and Perf IB student, I not only focused on the meaning of the play but also learnt from the actor herself. Technically, this show contains a very strong political taste in order to emphasis the segregation between the blacks and the whites at that specific time period; how did this violet and non-equality grew in the school where supposed to be a pure and peaceful place. White people looked down to those black people and treated them as slaves and beasts. Rights and respectfulness did not belong to the blacks at all. As both teachers and students teased Melba, she was suffering an affront.

Maira, the performer of the show, completed the various emotions of different characters all herself--Melba, grandma, teachers and so many others. Different character have different personalities, but Maira separated them successfully and clearly brought them to audiences. When she was Melba, she stood still, looked straight forward and rise her voice which made her sound like a bright young girl; when she was grandma, she bended down, put one hand on her back and used low and shaking voice to pretend she was a old old lady; when she was teacher, she stood pretentiously crossing her legs to show the edges and curves of her body and used waving voice to show how scornful she was. Because of Maira’s performing skills, the play was full of ups and downs instead of boring. There was no stage changing, no other actor, so the only way for her to caught audiences’ attention was her acting skills. When I think back, I can always remember how powerful she was.

Learning from this play, “n word” was ear-piercing. In order to be accurate and truthful, this word was used a lot. Was racism be solved completely? I believe it is still there. Not only for black and white.

2016年11月15日星期二

Warriors Don't Cry

Characters list:

Melba Patillo Beals, Grandma India, Link, Conrad Patillo

Lois Patillo, Will Patillo, Kelli Beals, Virgil Blossom, Minnijean Brown, Nana Healey, Mrs. Higgenbottom , Andy, Mrs. C. Daisy Bates, General Clinger, Vince, Bill Clinton

Plots

Warriors Don’t Cry begins when Melba and eight other black men and women in their forties return to their home state of Arkansas to meet the then-governor, Bill Clinton. Melba, the narrator and author, explains that the group, called the Little Rock Nine, is visiting Central High School in Little Rock. As teenagers in 1957, the nine of them were the first African-American students to be integrated into the school.

When Melba is twelve years old, the Supreme Court rules that separate schools for whites are illegal, a ruling called Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. In the year after the ruling, Melba sees very little change in segregation. She is still at an all-black high school, but she and sixteen other black students sign up to attend the white school.

Because of the threat of violence, the number of black students who will participate in the integration is decreased from seventeen to nine. Several times in the few days before school is supposed to start, lawsuits are filed that threaten to stop the nine students. Governor Faubus declares that he is going to send the Arkansas National Guard to the high school, though he does not say whether they are there to protect the nine or to stop them from entering the school. Grandma India begins to stay awake at night with a shotgun near her. Finally, a few days after school has started, federal court judge Ronald Davies orders that the students be allowed to attend.

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/warriorsdontcry/summary.html

2016年11月14日星期一

Scene Reflection

One thing I noticed is when I was actually on stage performing the scene, some new emotions and ideas came up suddenly, so our record version is very different with our practicing. In order to list my advantages and disadvantages clearly, I separate them into two paragraphs below.

 Since I am not a native English speaker, and I was a little bit nervous when we filmed, my pronunciation was really weird. I felt sick about that. Besides, I was so not like Juliet which means I still did fully put myself into my character, and I could not bear it any more. For example, when I set on the bed talking with Lady Capulet, my legs were wide open, and my sitting poster had nothing to do with graceful. I do not think the daughter from a rich noble man sat like I did. If I could try again, I must correct my behavior. Besides, my talking speed of the part I talked about I would poison Romeo myself was a little bit too fast, since this part was talking about a plan, and it was foreshadowing, so I need to speak slowly and strong. Near the ending, I started sobbing too late. In my opinion, I shall start crying as soon as Lord Capulet’s second long monolog starts.

Actually, I can hear myself clearly in the video due to I raise my voice, and this is an improvement. I am not surprised about that because I practiced it so many times, and I was very familiar with my lines, so I was confident enough to speak them out loud. The other thing is, I paid much attention on my facial expressions and body languages, and I think I did it pretty well. For example, when I said, “Villain that he be many miles asunder, god pardon him! I do, with all my heart. And yet no man like he doth grieve my heart.” I sighed first, and then I winkled my eye brows, and looked down to the ground in order to show my mind was very depressed, struggling and how hard I missed Romeo. And also added an action which I never thought about before was shaking head when I said, “Indeed, I never shall be satisfied with Romeo.” Because I did try this detail before during practices, the linking of my lines and Lady Capulet’s lines cannot match. However, when I added that little head-shaking, the conversation seemed much reliable. I think I controlled my attitude toward Lord Capulet was quite good at first. When “she” entered, I took a step back and nodded my head in order to show modest. And also when “she” blamed me, I squeezed the edge of my sweater (I mentioned I should do that in my pervious blog), and it worked. This detail showed Juliet’s emotions that she wanted to rebel, since she did nto want to obey her parents to marry Paris. Also I kind of like the part where I walked a part a little bit and hesitated before I kneeled down because Juliet was thinking how she can change her parents’ mind to cancel this marriage, and the first solution she came up with was to begging her father. The block of lines, hesitated, showed her thinking process. This was one more good thing. I shook Lady Capulet’s hands when I was begging her, and it looked like that was how Juliet will beg her mother.

 (After all, I think we did not bad. I need to thank my partners, and apologize for all the mistakes I made. )

2016年11月13日星期日

The Dead review

“The world… is like the surface of a frozen lake. We walk along, we slip; we try to keep our balance and not to fall. One day there’s a crack, and so we learn that underneath us is-an unimaginable depth.”

---James Joyce “The Dead”

 The story happens during a Christmas home party. Family members and friends gather together singing, drinking and dancing. Memories and stories are told by different people. Since I am doing Romeo and Juliet project recently, and I get stuck on how to put myself into the character, so I mainly focused on actors acting skills. Actually, I learnt a lot from those professional actors.

 Start from the staging. The staging is very interesting and surprising this time because they put audiences’ seats around the stage, and there is no clearly boundary between the stage and audiences area. This new change make the distance between audiences and actors become much closer, and in fact I was very excited and impressed by this change. When Gabriel Conroy came to our side and spoke, I felt like he was close enough to touch which gave me an amazing feeling. Those characters are alive! It is like the scene with origin staging is 2 dimensions; however, the new staging makes the scene become to 3 dimensions.

 Talking about the characters, they all have very different and personalities. One thing I learnt from them specifically is they are good at responding to each other. When Aunt Julia and Aunt Kate are singing, all other listeners wave their heads or clap their hands naturally following the music, they are not just sitting or standing still without and reactions which make me think of my own character. Besides, take Aunt Kate as an example, when she speaks the first time, she uses her finger pointing and talks with fast speed and trembling voice. Because of these, she looks a lot like an old white woman, and audiences can easily recognize her identity.

2016年11月12日星期六

Log #3

This was our last practice week, so we took it really serious. Since I have already memorized the script, there was another problem came up which was I am not good at put myself into the character. This was a general problem there are three situations under it. (Also the drama “The dead” inspired me a lot because I focused on every character’s acting when I saw the play. So I learnt from them.)

First, always focus on my lines, and the most important thing in my head is to speak out all my lines correctly. Because of this, my voice volume is very small. I was not confident enough to raise my volume; as a result, audiences could not hear me clearly sometimes. Actually, this problem is very easy to solve. Practice again and again to make sure I can recite every single line without thinking. I usually practice with Nancy after class and after school, and I am quite sure that I improved a lot.

 Second, I cannot always react to my partners’ lines properly. For example, Lord Capulet has a very long monolog which is blaming Juliet. When we went through this part, I just kneeled down without any reactions. And it was really unrealistic. It seemed like what Lord Capulet said was none of my business. My partner told me that I need to really imagine that my parents force me to marry with someone I do not like, and if I refuse I would be throw to the street and die. Should I cry? Should I make decisions and rebel them? It is really hard to imagine because I am lack of experiences. I need to reflect my mental activities through my tiny body languages. Such as cry, bite my lips, scratch the ground, squeeze the edge of my dress are all good choices. Facial expressions are also important to show my character’s emotions.

 Three, I did not act like Juliet. My actions, intonation and attitude are not very Juliet’s style. Since we used the old style script that means we should not modernize the performance also. I should act like a rich noble man’s daughter during Shakespeare’s time, so I need to stay gentle and graceful even though when I am mad. I show let audiences recognize that I am Juliet according to my actions rather than from the plots. If I am reach this goal that would be wonderful. I need to pay attention to every single detail just to make my reactions as reliable as possible.

 As a conclusion, in order to make our performance successful, we need to not only to focus on myself, but also cooperate with my partners. Their acting is very nice and professional. I afraid I would mess up when we record our final draft. However, the only thing I can do is to improve myself by practicing as much as can, keeping thinking all the time, staying in the character and responding to others properly. I believe we can finish this project perfectly.

2016年11月11日星期五

Drama Tonight !!!!!!

2016年11月5日星期六

performance Log 2

Log 2

As an actor, I improved a lot this week because I not only can recite my script, but also know about my disadvantages on controlling emotions and speaking speed.

 On Monday (10.31), we first ran through our scene in front of the whole class, which gave me the feelings of “on stage” and “performing”. More than just practiced the script one time, I was able to see other groups’ performance, and actually, they inspired me a lot. For example, I learnt from Sam that how to add some actions with emotions to link my lines and also how to use the materials on the stage properly. And the most important thing was I received many useful advises and feedback from my classmates which let me know where I should improve. I list some of them below.

* Speak more loudly and slowly.

* Solidifying our movements, so they are not awkward (Julia).

* Enrich Juliet’s emotions more than just yelling and angry(Sam&Julia)

* Practice the pronunciation more (Kathleen)

* Make some reactions when Lord Capulet is blaming Juliet (Ms. Guarino)

After performing, I read those feedbacks carefully and remember them in my mind. They helped me a lot.

 And then on Wednesday (11.2) I analyzed the emotions of the scripts in class. To my surprise, there are too many different emotions in this scene of Juliet which made me run out of colors to code them. So I realized that I need to be emotional and always be ready to change my emotions during the scene. This is a wise way to make my acting reliable and interesting. By this time, I understood more about my character, Juliet. I found of the answers why she should be sad of frustrated in a certain time. For example, when Lady Capulet tells Juliet that she needs to marry Paris on Thursday, Juliet should be shocked at first rather than just angry. The anger needs time to process. Every emotion comes up because of some certain reasons. They are not just coming from nowhere.

 During the following days, I spent a lot of time on memorizing my script, and it is kind of difficult for me because Juliet’s lines are always in between Lady Capulet and Lord Capulet, so it is hard to remember its order sometimes. I practiced writing them down many times and corrected them by myself. Besides, I also recorded them in my phone and played them again and again in the morning or any other time when I am free. After school, I sometimes practiced reciting the script with Nancy because she is my partner—Lady Capulet. We checked each others’ lines, and it really is a good way to remember the scripts. Since I paid enough time, I finally can remember them right now.

 Because memorize the lines is the first necessary step, I am pretty sure that I am on the way of performing my character well. The next goal is to add more actions, correct my pronunciation and be familiar with the staging.

2016年11月2日星期三

emotions

2016年10月28日星期五

performance log *

Performance Log#1:

This is like a rehearsal diary of my acting project.

Summary of the plot: I act Juliet in the Act3 scene 5. In this scene, Juliet has just said goodbye to her banished husband and experienced the feeling of lost, and then her parents come to tell her that she is going to marry Paris on Thursday, otherwise she does not belong to this family anymore.

 Goal: I need to express that I am going to fall apart when I hear this news. In order to tell the audiences how badly I (Juliet) refuse to marry Paris.

 On Monday (10.24), I learnt many acting method from some famous actors and directors. And I started to think of how I am going to apply those methods in my acting. As a beginner, it is true that I afraid to show myself on the stage, moreover, I am acting an important character whose emotions change dramatically in this scene. It is a challenge for me, but I really would like to challenge it. So I read the script several times after school and practiced it in my head. I marked which place I should start to change my emotions, and which place I need to stand out the character’s personalities. By doing this, I can fully understand the character I play and also clear about the moving processes of the plots.

 On Thursday (10. 27), my partners and I went to the black box to set up the staging things, and finally we got agreement on the stage layout: we had a bed on the upper right stage; a door on the left and another door on the right because we want the Lord Capulet and Lady Capulet enter from different door to show that their different identity, and how close their relationships are with Juliet (Juliet’s mother enters from the door which is close to Juliet’s bed). And we put a dresser next to the bed as a decoration. Last, we imagine that the window with balcony is located at the down stage where the audiences are, so that when we want Juliet to face the balcony to indicate that she is thinking of Romeo, we can let her face the audiences directly. 
After we have done with the staging arrangement, we practice our lines together and figured out the pronunciation of many tricky words. We also assigned the rough version of our body actions: For my part, I begin with sitting on the bed facing to the balcony. Then when Lady Capulet comes in, I stand up to talk to her. Lady Capulet and I talk about revenging for Tybalt’s death (we sit on the bed). The part of Lord Capulet, Lady Capulet and I arguing about marriage happens in the middle of the stage facing the audiences.

 On Friday (10.28), we went to the black box again for class. For the first half period, I tried to memorize my script because remembering the lines is a really important step which could push the whole team to go a lot more forward. Then we went to the back stairs to do some rehearsal.

 During this week, I think the biggest change of myself is that I am more like an actor day by day. I did not have a lot experience, but this kind of identity improve gives me very amazing feelings. And I think the second step is try to get into my character and make it alive.

2016年10月26日星期三

Apply the acting method

After learning about those famous directors and actors, I think one thing that I really need to use in my acting is to put myself in the scene and respond to other characters' actions truthfully instead of just remember the lines. For example, I act Juliet, and I need to think of that I am Juliet. When Romeo leaves me, I need to recall my own experiecnes about saying goodbye to someone I love, so that I can express my true emotions out to make my acting seems real. Also, I need to put my emotions into actions, in order to tell audiences what I am thinking and what I am feeling right now. And I also need to understand the character fully to figure out what causes those responding emotions, which I mean is the historical pasts of the character.

2016年10月25日星期二

About my character and the way of portraying her

I am playing Juliet, in the Act 5 scene 3. At this moment, she has just said goodbye to her banished husband and left the feeling of lost and hurt. I am going to use as many facial expressions as possible to show her sadness at the being of the scene. Make my body looks heavy and tired to create a feeling of depressed and lost. What is going to happen in the scene is that her parents will come in her room to let that she has to marry Paris on Thursday; otherwise, she does not belong to this family any more. This is a very dramatic scene will is challenging how strong Juliet’s heart is, and definitely this news will beat her so down, so she is mad and frustrated in this scene. What I need to is to focus on the big change of Juliet’s emotions when she knows the news.

The Juliet’s overarching goal is to be together with Romeo happily forever, and their marriage can receive best wishes from both families which can stop the generations fighting between them. If we focus on this scene, her motivations are changing following the waving of the plots. At first, she does not want Romeo to leave, and she has already started missing him right after he left. Then when her mother tells her that she is going to assign someone to poison Romeo secretly, for reaching the goal of seeing Romeo again, she responds her mother as she wants to be the one to kill Romeo in person. By doing so, she also wants to protect Romeo from being poisoned by the murder. Under this condition, she could not speak her true feeling out because she needs to think of her parents’ position, enemies of her lover, so she can only speak out her heart in a foreshadowing way which makes her words sound conversely to her mother. So I need to pay attention on my intonation to make sure it is high, waving and weird which will let it sound a little bit sarcastic. Because audiences know what does Juliet really mean when she says those things about killing Romeo but her mother does not. Therefore, it is important to control the way of saying that.

 However, Juliet’s emotions could not stay in control after the news of marriage brings up. She is completely shocked and cannot hold herself together. So at this moment, her motivation changes to avoid being married Paris. Actually, this is a very tough goal, for she could not tell her parents the truth that she has already married Romeo, and if she marries Paris, she is double married. And she has no reason but her cousin’s death to convince or persuade her parents. In fact, she cannot even delay it. In order to reach her goal, she cries horribly to beg her mother and father. Here, I need to show how much Juliet does not want to marry Paris. I have to really open her up because she is crazy at that moment. Cry is the basic thing that I need to do in order to portray my character.

 At the end of the scene, although Juliet tried so hard, sadly, the obstacles are too big to remove; as a result, she failed to change her parents’ minds. And this result leads to the following plots of finding Fair Lawrence for help.

2016年10月20日星期四

Information about Michael Chekhov

Michael Chekhov (1891-1955)

He mainly focused on characters' actions and psychological gestures to make them become reliable.

Basic information:

http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?sid=37a8b622-ce8a-4834-9279-6897ccb71294%40sessionmgr4006&vid=0&hid=4109&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#AN=509768064&db=brb

* Nephew of Anton

* An actor and director "the most brilliant actor in all Russia"

* He chanllenged many of his mentor's treasured principles.

* The only acting-theorist who developed a viable and thoroughly fleshed-out alternative to the Stanislavsky system and the Method that is its offshoot.

* Stuied from:

From Stanislavsky he appropriated the notions of "actions" and "objective," "concentration" and "atmosphere"; he decidedly gave them his own twist, but the categories were initially carved out by his mentor."sense of the whole" & " bipolar characterization" To think of the characters as complex as possible since they do not just have one-sided characteristic.

"Relaxation of muscles" --- "feeling of ease" where Stanislavsky broke off his brilliant observations on 'action' and 'objective,' Chekhov combined them with 'character' in his marvelous intuition of the 'psychological gesture.'"

From Vakhtangov, Chekhov inherited a sense of external theatricality, the conscious use of stage imagery to insinuate meaning and convey dramatic insights.

Michael Chekhov's theory examples:

https://youtu.be/wgn299ZH6DA

Techniques: Acting truthfully

http://actingtruthfully.jimdo.com/chekhov-technique/

Characterization (Imaginary Body & Center), Composition (Balance & Form), Psychological Gesture (embodies the psychology and objective of the character).
Feeling of Style (specific to genre), Feeling for Truth ( to all elements), Feeling of Ease (to sit with a feeling of ease vs. to relax), Feeling of Form (own body & movement through space), Feeling of Beauty (living beauty & harmony in all characters), Feeling of Entirety (aesthetic wholeness).
Qualities (sensations and feelings; coaxed not commanded; movement creates emotion), Body (psycho-physical exercises), Imagination, Radiating/Receiving, Improvising and “Jewelry” (final stages/uniqueness), Ensemble, Focal Point, Objective, Atmosphere.

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