Day Four: Monday, October 31st
Today, Julia and I had our first run-through of the scene with our lines. We had to perform the whole scene in front of the rest of the class. They also gave us feedback on the scene that they saw. I think that this was a very good for us to do this for a few reasons. It gave us a sense of where we were in terms of the completion of the scene. As actors, it was the first time that we did the scene with the full blocking and lines from beginning to end. Because of this, I found it difficult to stay serious throughout Romeo’s lines. I think that this will improve the more and more we practice the scene and get more comfortable with the lines and emotions involved. Also, for this run-through we were allowed to use our lines, but it showed to me how much I actually had to learn for the memorization quiz on Friday. The run-through allowed us to see what blocking worked and what may need some work. For example, in today’s scene Juliet was lying down on the red couch for the entire scene. This made a little difficult for Romeo to say his lines to her in a way so that the audience could clearly see what was happening. After the scene, Julia and I talked about changing the blocking so it occurred on more of a flat surface (either a bed or the floor) rather than the couch. This would allow Romeo to fall onto Juliet when he died instead of beside her. It was a good way of realizing what blocking flowed well together. Also, I think that the feedback that the rest of class gave was very helpful as well. Each person our scene a little differently and that helped to vary the thoughts that others had. Personally, I thought it was very interesting to see my monologue being performed by someone else. I saw that as a part of Sam and Kevin’s scene they had added the Juliet monologue before she drinks the potion as well. It was interesting to see how differently someone else could say the same lines.
Day Five: Wednesday, November 2nd
Today, we worked on adding emotion to our lines. To focus on this, Ms. Guarino told us to highlight each of our lines with a different color, with each color representing a different emotion or feeling. As I was going through my lines, I found that certain lines were more clear in their emotions than others. For example, I thought emotions like ‘desperate’ or ‘worried’ were very clear in Juliet’s lines. When she says, “What if this mixture do not work at all?/ Shall I be married then tomorrow morning?” right before she takes the potion, it is very clear that she does not know if taking the potion is the best idea. But, I found that there were certain lines that I could not describe with a single word or emotion. One example of this is in the last scene when Juliet finds Romeo dead. She says, “What’s here? A cup clos’d in my true love’s hand?” I found it difficult to find an emotion that correctly described what Juliet was feeling. In the end, I ended up writing ‘determined curiosity (I NEED TO KNOW).’ I think that this showed to me as an actor how complex certain emotions are and how actors need to know how to correctly portray them so the playwright’s words and meaning will be able to be expressed correctly.
Day Six: Thursday, November 3rd
Today, the whole day was focused on memorizing lines. Because of the memorization quiz that was scheduled for tomorrow, memorizing lines was the top priority. The format of the quiz was that we had to fill in our own lines in the script. To prepare, I found that the easiest way to learn my lines was to write them down over and over again while using speech to reinforce my memorization. This meant that I would break up my monologues into smaller section of 2-3 lines to make them easier to memorize. To actually memorize them, I would start by writing them down over and over again, while quietly speaking them, or saying it in my head. I find this to be most effective because I am a very visual learner. So, if I can ‘see’ the lines in my head, it will be much easier for me to learn and speak them effectively in the future. Also, speaking them allowed me to start to add the necessary pauses and emphasis on certain words.
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