Romeo and Juliet as one of the most well
known work of William Shakespeare, is a love story but also a tragedy. However,
the scene me and my partner decided to play is a scene with Juliet and Friar
Laurence in his cell having an emotional conversation. This scene happens right
after Juliet has received this bad new from her father to marry County Paris.
The scene started with Juliet shouting”O Shut the door!....past hope, past
cure, past help!.”, this shows how Juliet came right into the scene with
indignant and impulse. Friar Laurence starting his first line after Juliet with
“I already know thy gried” shows how he have been staying calm and quite while
listening to Juliet pouring out her dissatisfaction as the moment she stepped
into his cell. Also showing his sympathy and attentive. Acting friar Laurence
tranquilly with steady body movement allows me to analyze deeper into his
caring ,earnest characteristic and understand his trusting relationship with
Juliet.
In
addition, we have decided to choose this specific scene because of its
importance towards both characters and the plot. This reveals how Juliet chose
to trust another adult instead of her parents and how Juliet became an
emotional girl. However, to focus on my character Friar Laurence, this scene is
also significant. Juliet’s choice without hesitate to ask help from friar
Laurence have proved his credibility and justice impression being planted
deeply in front of everyone. This scene especially emerges his kindness and
righteous, how he was willing to stand on two teenagers’ side with no care of
the hatress between the Capulets and the Montagues. He showed patient while
listening to Juliet speaking and was also brave enough to suggest such risking
resolution for Juliet. Friar Laurence as a god father seemed not as
conservative and traditional, by excogitating such intense and dangerous plan
for the couple. This might also be a reason why Romeo as an adolescent boy has
a unordinary close relationship since the beginning of the story.
While
staging, we decided to dress friar Laurence---me, with a robe and a cross
necklace to directly show the audience who I am acting. Other than costumes, we
prepared a small bottle of dark color ink as the poison that appear later in
the plot. On the other hand, to better portray our characters. We decided to
use methods from Michael Chekhov’s lessons. First of all, I imagine myself as a
father-like character facing an immature young girl having a bad temper asking
me for help. How will a reliable adult react while facing a teenager trying to
suicide because of her extreme emotion? Is a question I have asked myself
before acting. Second of all, I try to act like how Michael Chekhov have taught
in his lessons, to feel a power starting in my chest and spreading it into every
part of my body, starting with smaller body movements then expand movements
bigger. However, to show Friar Laurence’s calmness, I stand steady, walk steady
and make less dramatic facial expression while acting.
Specifically,
I interpret this line from Friar Laurence “And, if thou darest, I'll give thee remedy” as a
hesitation, which I showed in my performance by pausing between each one or two
words following the coma. With this, I am hoping to show the audience that
questions this solution because of it might be a clue of friar being irresponsible
and also impulse as an adult to give to a young, emotional girl needing help a
vial like this. However, by pausing in between the line shows how friar
Laurence is concerned and worried. How he have been stopping and looking
towards Juliet’s face to make sure what he is doing will help her and is
comforting her mind at that moment. These pause eventually tells how he
respects Juliet’s opinion and decision to choose what to do, take the vial or
not. Moreover, to show a worried adult, I emphasizes the line “Thou shalt
continue two and forty hours” by raising my voice after many lines being told
to Juliet previously; the purpose is to make sure Juliet is listening carefully
on the efficacy of the vial in case accidents occur.
I have decided to change my tone and the atmosphere in
the middle of our scene. Even though the overall atmosphere in this scene is
intense and depressing, some change will keep the audience interested and the
performance more vivid instead of speaking and acting in the same tone.
Therefore, during this line “Now, when the bridegroom in the morning comes”, I
choose to raise my voice and wave my arms as the sun rising up. In order to
keep audience concentrated and to show the significance of the bridegroom
symbolizing hope in the scene where Juliet will be one more step closer to her
love if everything went smoothly. Another part I choose to emphasize by
speaking clearly, loudly and slowly, is within my last part of the scene:
”Hold, Get you gone, Be strong and prosperous”, This is like a spiritual
catchphrase from Friar Laurence to Juliet before he lets her go. Before me
saying this line, Juliet was yelling “Give me, give me! O tell me not of
fear!”, this showed how she wasn’t thinking rationally. Therefore, me
emphasizing “Hold”, with my hands holding on to Juliet’s shaking arm help
showing how I wanted to calm her down and be reasonable on whatever she have
decided to do. “Be strong and prosperous” sounded like a warning and a concern
as well.
As an actor acting for the very first time, memorizing
the lines and acting naturally with emotion have been a challenge for me,
especially acting a man made me as a girl more difficult to show the
reliability and authority power of friar Laurence. However, what I have done
well in the performance are the small details on acting. For example,
continually patting Juliet on her back to show comfort as she spits out her
anger. Also I choose to hide the dagger carefully as Juliet have handed it to
me after an urge of suicide. In case of her emotions driving up her intention
to suicide again, I was looking for a good place to hide the dagger where she
would not see. Continually, I have also been trying to calm her down through
the conversation by asking her to seat down. I stood straight to on imagery
show Friar Laurence justice and authority.
On the other hand, what I could have improve is my voice
while speaking. I could have used a lower, deeper voice as a male. Another
point I have put behind of mind while acting was my facial expression. We have
decided what body movements to make for staging, but we have forgot our facial
expression could also be a decisive way to express the atmosphere and a way to
make the performance more real and vivid with changing facial expression while
speaking out different lines of different meaning and purpose.
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