Review

 

           Our final performance on Romeo and Juliet's Act IV Scene 1 came out not as bad and scrappy as I thought it would be, based on our previous run throughs. However, I think the best part me and my partner did well was staying calm whenever we got stuck. I have been struggling with my memorization of the script. Fortunately, I passed by all my lines without stopping and without any obvious pause during the performance. 

          On the other hand, things that could have been done better are more than I thought it would be after watching the recorded video. Right after acting, I felt that we did a great job. But after watching the video, I realized that I was still focusing too much on memorizing the lines, I should have made this emotional scene stronger for the audience to feel the atmosphere. I should also show more of the characteristics Friar Laurence has to contrast myself and Juliet's characteristic. For example, the starting part where I was reading a bible and praying, I should have walked in a slower and steadier path to open the door for Juliet, even though the knocking sound was desperate and loud. It would have been a way to show my calmness as a friar within all kinds of situation. Another difficulty and mistake I made, was on my voice and tone. I should have made my lines more fluently with high and low tones, soft and strong voices, in order to make it more interesting and more vivid. I realized that I sound like a machine while acting parts where I have longer lines to memorize.

            I would say that nothing is too easy for our first acting. Oppositely, a hard part on acting is definitely to memorize and read out the lines naturally like a native speaker and like the character. Controlling facial expression is also harder comparing to bigger body movements we have done while performing.

           Overall, I tried my best on portraying friar Laurence  using many ways, which  came out acceptable as a result. Even though I tried mimicking a man's voice, but it is difficult to stay in such a low and rough voice for the whole scene. With the customs' help, people recognized me as friar Laurence immediately. I tried to walk like a man with bigger steps, but in the video it seemed like I was walking blundering. In my opinion, I portrayed the character well enough that people knows who I am but I am not sure if I have portrayed the character well enough that the audience could tell his personalities within one scene.  Some literary features in my scene are hyperbole and personification. Many items and actions are being described with verbs that are used for human actions. Also mentioning how the bridegroom will rouse Juliet from her bed in the morning, is a kind of personification on an animal. Most of the lines of Juliet shows more hyperbole comparing to mine, lines like "tie me with roaring bears" and many other emotional lines. Last but not least, I have adapted to literary features where the tones are being brought with more emotional by loudering my voice and emphazing words where it is using hyperbole or words that are showing important informations for Juliet to be aware of.