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.

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.  

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.   

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.

Acting--3.5

Act 3 scene 5 (Acting)                   

Abigail: Lord Capulet 

Nancy: Lady Capulet 

Betty: Juliet 

Costume: 

Juliet: white dress

          a bloody rose tatoo on her right wrist

          a small bracelet on her left hand

Lord Capulet: black suit with tie. 

                      an emblem on his collar. 

                      leather shoes. 

                      A big ring on his right thumb. 

Lady Capulet: graceful dark puple long dress;

                       luxurious crystal necklace.

                       High-heeled shoes. 

                       Very red and a little bit dark lips

Act 3 scene 5 (Acting)

Abigail: Lord Capulet 

Nancy: Lady Capulet 

Betty: Juliet 

Juliet:

O fortune, fortune! all men call thee fickle:

If thou art fickle, what dost thou with him.

That is renown'd for faith? Be fickle, fortune;

For then, I hope, thou wilt not keep him long,

But send him back.

LADY CAPULET

[Within] Ho, daughter! are you up?

JULIET

Who is't that calls? is it my lady mother?

ENTER LADY CAPULET

LADY CAPULET

Why, how now, Juliet!

JULIET

Madam, I am not well.

LADY CAPULET

Evermore weeping for your cousin's death?

What, wilt thou wash him from his grave with tears?

JULIET

Yet let me weep for such a feeling loss.

LADY CAPULET

So shall you feel the loss, but not the friend

Which you weep for.

JULIET

Feeling so the loss,

Cannot choose but ever weep the friend.

LADY CAPULET

Well, girl, thou weep'st not so much for his death,

As that the villain lives which slaughter'd him.

JULIET

What villain madam?

LADY CAPULET

That same villain, 

Romeo.

JULIET

[Aside] Villain and he be many miles asunder.--

God Pardon him! I do, with all my heart;

And yet no man like he doth grieve my heart.

LADY CAPULET

That is, because the traitor murderer lives.

JULIET

Ay, madam, from the reach of these my hands:

Would none but I might venge my cousin's death!

LADY CAPULET

We will have vengeance for it, fear thou not:

Then weep no more. I'll send to one in Mantua,

Where that same banish'd runagate doth live,

Shall give him such an unaccustom'd dram,

That he shall soon keep Tybalt company:

And then, I hope, thou wilt be satisfied.

JULIET

Indeed, I never shall be satisfied

With Romeo, till I behold him--dead--

Is my poor heart for a kinsman vex'd.

Madam, if you could find out but a man

To bear a poison, I would temper it;

That Romeo should, upon receipt thereof,

Soon sleep in quiet. O, how my heart abhors

To hear him named, and cannot come to him.

To wreak the love I bore my cousin

Upon his body that slaughter'd him!

LADY CAPULET

Find thou the means, 

And I'll find such a man.

But now I'll tell thee joyful tidings, girl.

JULIET

And joy comes well in such a needy time:

What are they, I beseech your ladyship?

LADY CAPULET

Well, well, thou hast a careful father, child;

One who, to put thee from thy heaviness,

Hath sorted out a sudden day of joy,

That thou expect'st not nor I look'd not for.

JULIET

Madam, in happy time, what day is that?

LADY CAPULET

Marry, my child, early next Thursday morn,

The gallant, young and noble gentleman,

The County Paris, at Saint Peter's Church,

Shall happily make thee there a joyful bride.

JULIET

Now, by Saint Peter's Church and Peter too,

He shall not make me there a joyful bride.

I wonder at this haste; that I must wed

Ere he, that should be husband, comes to woo.

I pray you, tell my lord and father, madam,

I will not marry yet; and, when I do, I swear,

It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate,

Rather than Paris. These are news indeed!

LADY CAPULET

Here comes your father; 

Tell him so yourself,

And see how he will take it at your hands.

Enter CAPULET 

CAPULET

How now! a conduit, girl? what, still in tears?

Evermore showering? How now, wife!

Have you deliver'd to her our decree?

LADY CAPULET

Ay, sir; but she will none, 

She gives you thanks.

I would the fool were married to her grave!

CAPULET

Is she not proud? doth she not count her blest,

Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought

So worthy a gentleman to be her bridegroom?

JULIET

Not proud, you have; but thankful, that you have:

Proud can I never be of what I hate;

But thankful even for hate, that is meant love.

CAPULET

How now, how now, chop-logic! What is this?

'Proud,' and 'I thank you,' and 'I thank you not;'

And yet 'not proud,' mistress minion, you,

Thank me no thankings, nor, proud me no prouds,

But fettle your fine joints 'gainst Thursday next,

To go with Paris to Saint Peter's Church,

Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither.

Out, you green-sickness carrion! out, you baggage!

You tallow-face!

LADY CAPULET

Fie, fie! what, are you mad?

JULIET

Good father, I beseech you on my knees,

Hear me with patience but to speak a word.

CAPULET

Hang thee, young baggage! disobedient wretch!

I tell thee what: get thee to church o' Thursday,

Or never after look me in the face:

Speak not, reply not, do not answer me;

My fingers itch. Wife, we scarce thought us blest

That God had lent us but this only child;

But now I see this one is one too much,

And that we have a curse in having her:

Out on her, hilding!

LADY CAPULET

God in heaven bless her!

You are to blame my lord to rate her so.

I speak no treason,

May not one speak?

CAPULET

God's bread! it makes me mad:

Day, night, hour, tide, time, work, play,

Alone, in company, still my care hath been

To have her match'd: and having now provided

A gentleman of noble parentage,

Of fair demesnes, youthful, and nobly train'd,

Stuff'd, as they say, with honourable parts,

Proportion'd as one's thought would wish a man;

And then to have a wretched puling fool,

A whining mammet, in her fortune's tender,

To answer 'I'll not wed; I cannot love,

I am too young; I pray you, pardon me.'

But, as you will not wed, I'll pardon you:

Graze where you will you shall not house with me:

Look to't, think on't, I do not use to jest.

Thursday is near; lay hand on heart, advise:

An you be mine, I'll give you to my friend;

And you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in

the streets,

For, by my soul, I'll ne'er acknowledge thee,

Nor what is mine shall never do thee good:

Trust to't, bethink you; I'll not be forsworn.

Exit

JULIET

O, sweet my mother, cast me not away!

Delay this marriage for a month, a week;

Or, if you do not, make the bridal bed

In that dim monument where Tybalt lies.

LADY CAPULET

Talk not to me, for I'll not speak a word:

Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee.

Exit

Blog post#4 (movie Act4&5)

                                                           Can’t against the Fate 

Generally speaking, the Baz Luthmann’s film version of Romeo and Juliet gives me a very different feeling of the last two acts compares with the book. It is shorter than the origin but as precise as it. Those different feelings are created because of the way Baz Luthmann adapted it. Both of them give audiences a sour taste of “losing true love”.  

For the Act 4, Romeo has been told the news of Juliet’s death instead of falling asleep temporarily, so he rushes back like a crazy beast that no one could prevent him; however, it seems like the director adds much more difficulties for Romeo's returning. For example, Romeo comes back with Balthasar by car, and he has been founded by a police, so those polices immediately spread the message that Romeo is coming back. As a result, many polices are chasing Romeo at night in the air by helicopters and on the ground by police cars. The humming of whistle sound rings lingeringly in the air. This kind of setting creates a dangerous and nervous atmosphere which makes Romeo's returning become more exciting and could make audiences worry about him. The director tries to show that the love between Romeo and Juliet is strong enough which could let either of them gives up his/her life. Romeo’s resolution is to see dead Juliet for the last time and then lies next to her closing his eyes forever; therefore he becomes fearfulness because of this resolution. Unsurprisingly, for reaching his goal he even uses a hostage as the key to Capulet’s cemetery. 

In the film, act 5 has greater differences with the book. When Romeo opens the giant door of the Capulet’s cemetery, he sees many lighted candles with waving yellowish flames, and blue cross stands on each tomb. (Background music is psalm) Juliet is at the center of the cemetery lying peacefully on a bed with a white long dress. She holds a bunch of flowers, still beautiful, which makes her look like the purest angel in the heaven. Juliet’s appearance remains me the first meeting of Romeo and her, wearing an angel costume, beautiful and pure. As Romeo is touching her face and talking to Juliet, her fingers move slightly which gives audiences a symbol that she is going to wake up soon. At this time, as an audience I am worrying about whether Juliet can open her eyes on time, right before Romeo drinks that poison because I really care about the fates of them. Audiences may also think that will the ending of this film be different from the original story? Can this adorable and unfortunate young couple be together? May be or may not? Several messages are sending to audiences at this point. Then the turning point, another climax, comes. Holding the little poison, Romeo turns around with tears; he has made the decision to drink it. However, Juliet opens her eyes at the same time! I once was happy about that both of them are saved, and this story will no longer be a tragedy.  Life beats people down and down. Although they see each other alive, Romeo has drunk that poison already. The dramatic characteristic of this play shows up again at this very important moment, and audiences might feel extremely sorry for them. Romeo and Juliet are played by their fates and played by the God. I believe all of the audiences’ hearts are struggling and being tortured because of this huge plot waving. After Romeo dies, Juliet stares at him for a second and finally uses the gun to end herself. There is another difference between film and book is in the film Paris does not come here to disturb them because the director wants to create an isolation environment for them to finish the final way with each other. Then many pieces of happy memory between Romeo and Juliet show up again which are used to make audiences cry. At the end of the movie, Prince steps out and says, “See what a scourge is laid upon your hate that heaven finds means to kill your joys with love! And I, for winking at your discords too, have lost a brace of kinsmen. All are punished. All are punished!” which leads audiences think about the whole movie, think about love and hate and think about themselves. This part also makes the story meaningful and thinkable. 

The film version portrays the ending in a different way.  But which one is more brutal? Seeing your lover dies before you without any chances to say goodbye to him/her? Or losing the flashlight-like hope and ends up with seeing your lover dies in front of you, but you cannot do anything to help? Destiny is like a bad-hearted child; he cuts the rope between lovers and laughs at them. 

Blog post #3 the shape (color and pattern) of the play

Romeo and Juliet is a love tragedy play with very dramatic plots. Two main characters who symbolize variable conflicts act in the plots generally concentrate on the three main elements: love, fight and death. The shape and colors of this play are striking. 

I usually think about the colors of literature works because I usually try to understand them as arts. So firstly, I really want to talk a little about my own understanding of the color of the play which we have not talked in class. For me, the color of this play is a kind of dark red, since this play mainly focus on two giant emotions—hate and love, which starts from hate and changes into love. Other different emotions such as angry, struggling and etc. all are byproducts of love and hate. Normally speaking, when we think about couples’ love, it is sweet and has a kind of pinkish red color. However, the love between Romeo and Juliet is seemed to be inappropriate because their families are enemies, so their love is heavy and not that lively and easy, as a result, the color of their love might be much darker than the normal pinkish one. On the other hand, the feuds between their two families cause a lot of fighting and bloody conflicts, so the color of this hatred is similar with the dry-out blood color. “Civil blood makes civil hands unclean.” (Romeo and Juliet 8) In this play, death is the destiny of these two faithful lovers which is an interesting ending, for the hatred between their families is strong enough to break them apart “O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name” (65), and their love is also strong enough to bring them together “By love, that first did prompt me in inquire; He lent me counsel, and I lent him eyes. I am no pilot, yet, wert thou as  far as that vast shore wash’d with the farthest sea, I should adventure for such merchandise” (68). And actually, no one can define whether they get together or not if they die.

I feel like there is not any exactly shape for this play because you can have different sights and patterns when you watch it from different viewpoints. However, the pattern of this play is kind of symmetry: two rich and powerful households stand on the opposite sides; two children come from two enemy families; they both have a cousin and a good friend. All these similarities between two main characters balance the patterns of Romeo and Juliet’s identities. Besides, according to what Sam said in class, the pattern of the plots is also symmetry, since one scene starts with fighting and ends with love, and the following scene may start with love and end with fighting. Also, the day-night changing and the dream-reality replacement are both following the symmetry pattern. In a word, this play is a competition of several pairs of opposite elements which creates a very precise and neat pattern. That is why the ups and downs of the plots are frequent and drastic.  

Act4&5 notes