Third Draft

Written Coursework: Analysis of Performance based on Act 4 Scene 1 from “Romeo and Juliet”














IB Literature & Performance SL
Title of the play: Romeo and Juliet
Word Count: 1959
“Romeo and Juliet” is one of the most famous drama works of William Shakespeare. In this lovely but tragic story,  Friar Lawrence is a character who stayed in the middle but he is one of the most important characters in the story to promote the plot. He was a combination of a friar and an alchemist, which his role of friar showed the positive aspect and the role of alchemist showed the negative aspect. Then, I chose the Act 4 Scene 1, when Juliet went into the basement of the church to find Friar Lawrence and used a knife to threat him. She was comforted by Friar Lawrence and then took a vial in order to escape the marriage. The change of atmosphere and the mood change between two characters in the play demonstrates the change of theme of the whole play. Because this scene is a transitional point in the story of Romeo and Juliet,  Shakespeare used foreshadowing to show the main style of story transits from love to death. Playing a role of Friar Lawrence, I learned that his patience, decisiveness and clam push the whole story development, therefore even though Friar Lawrence is not main character in the play but by using the emphasis and body language, which make his personality continually influence the main characters, which the Friar Lawrence changed their life from peaceful to chaos, and this fact made him be different with others characters in the play.


Our scene started inside the church and ended in the church. In this scene, Friar Lawrence used a lot of “ Hold Daughter! Hold, then go home. Hold, get you gone!”(4,1, 68—122) to indicate his worries. Friar used repetitions of Hold, because this word makes the people feel safety and wanted to trust the people in front of them. In the talking of Juliet, we chose the line “ Come weep with me, past hope, past cure, past help.”(4.1.45), we want to show that Juliet was upset and very helpless because of the marriage with Paris and also got “ betrayed” by her mother and nurse. The love between Romeo and she make her struggle between family and lover. In comparison, Friar Lawrence was very polite and calm due to the lines “ I do spy a kind of hope…As that is desperate which we could prevent.” (4.1.68—70) , Friar Lawrence in the story is more like a director for Juliet and Romeo, he had lots of life experience. So from Juliet’s perspective, when there was no Romeo to rely on, Friar Lawrence became the man who she could believe in by saying that “ Tell me not, friar, that thou hearest of this, unless thou tell me how I may prevent it.” (4.1.50—51) Then in the end of the play, Friar Lawrence said that: “ Hold, get you gone, be strong and prosperous in this resolve. Tomorrow I will send a friar with speed to Mantua, with my letters to thy lord.” (4,1,122—124) The first sentence: he comforted Juliet that she did not need to be afraid and she needed to face the difficulties resulted from her choice of marrying Romeo. The second sentence: he summarized what he would do the next day and let Juliet believe that everything would be resolved. During the conversation between Friar Lawrence and Juliet, Friar Lawrence never used negative words and attitude to Juliet. After the readers finished reading the whole play, they would have direct understanding of the positions of the two main characters. Friar Lawrence stood in the higher position. Also, there was one word that reflected their relationship: in the setting of the play, Juliet was the daughter of the Lord Capulet and Lady Capulet, and Friar Lawrence was only a friar who worked in the church. Whenever Friar Lawrence wanted to call Juliet, he needed to say Young Capulet rather than daughter. First time I analyzed this sentence I thought because of stress and thoughtlessness. Then after I analyzed the character of Friar Lawrence, I found out that because he watched Romeo growing up, he had already treated that boy as his own son. So when his son has a girlfriend and they were about to get married, he would not allow another person to destroy their happiness. Then due to the death threat from Juliet, he suddenly showed his worries and impatience in front of her, that was why he used daughter rather than Young Capulet. This analysis of Friar Lawrence helped me to understand his personality and know why he did his best to save Juliet without hesitation.


Our performance started when Juliet went into the church to look for Friar Lawrence in order to seek a solution for the marriage.  In my part of performance, I tried to show the patience and calm of Friar Lawrence during the soliloquy and the conversation with Juliet. First, in the beginning of the play, Friar Lawrence was sitting on the chair on the left side of the stage because Juliet interrupted Friar Lawrence’s negotiation with Paris about the marriage. So I set up the stage with two chairs in order to clearly show that I, Friar Lawrence, was talking with someone in the church. Then Juliet stood on the stage right in order to show that she was not in the church and she went to church to find Friar Lawrence. Then she knocked on the door and said her first line, “ Are you at leisure, holy father, now;” (4,1,37—38) Then I turned around but did not stand up because even though Juliet was the daughter of the Capulet, Friar Lawrence was a friar and was older than her.  Then after I saw off Paris, I turned around and faced Juliet. Then my action showed Juliet that we would begin our conversation. During our conversation, I remained calm and smart, my voice was stable comforting, for example: After Juliet used a knife to threat me, I replied immediately” Hold daughter ! I do spy a kind of hope. And this shall free thy from this present shame.” (4,1,68) Because Juliet had a mind to death, which indicated by the line: “Be not so long to speak, I long to die.” (4.1.66)However, I also needed to apply Shakespeare’s foreshadowing into our performance, so when Juliet emphasis the words “kill” and “ death”, I would try to hold her and comfort her, but she rejected vigorously because it can let the audience know clearly about the foreshadowing part and also to remind audience that even Juliet seek for the solution, in her mind she already planned for death. At the same time, Juliet was helpless and not very calm, especially when I said that: “Hold, then, go home, be marry and give consent to marry County Paris.”(4,1,90—91) She acted angrily and did not understand my idea, she used much body language, like tugging hair and walking around to show her anxiety but what i did was only tapped her arm because through my analysis I knew that Friar Lawrence was only a friar, he can not do more things for her.  Then compared with disappointment of Lawrence, my partner and I consider the reaction and emotion of Juliet, she would hold more hope. During our rehearsal time, my partner Sam and I decided to use different colors, which underlined our lines to consider different emotions we need to use when we spoke the lines. As actors on the stage, we need to performance each liens with different emotions to help audience understanding our roles and the plot deeply.


On the stage, even though Friar Lawrence’s lines contained all of calm and smartness, but I can use the body language on the stage to show his stress and worries. When Friar Lawrence tapped her arm, at the same time he was looking down, which I wanted to show his unconfidence. After comforting Juliet, Friar Lawrence explained everything for her in details, which included the whole plan, vial’s effect and what they would do after she woke up. Especially when he talked in the part of the vial, he would express fanaticism towards the vial, so at this time, I moved from stage left to the center of the stage, not only to show my actions more obviously but also to show the change of the theme when following the change of my position. From the book the readers knew that after Juliet drunk the vial, she would be buried in the vault and Romeo would miss my letters and died in front of Juliet.The readers would know the change of the theme from love, marriage to death, however the audience may not know it, so the change of my position and Juliet’s emotion, which show clearly about the situation. Then after I finished talking everything about the plan and vial, Juliet quickly answered that:” Give me! Give me! O, tell not me of fear!” (4,1,121)So immediately I answered her that: “Hold, get you gone, be strong and prosperous in this resolve, I will send a friar with speed to Mantua, with my letters to thy lord.” (4,1,122—124) which indicated my worried. Then I would be silent for a moment, and then I went out. For the moment of silence, I wanted to create a feeling that Friar Lawrence wanted to remind Juliet something but he didn’t speak out. In the end, my last line was to say Farewell to Juliet, from the arrangement of staging , Juliet was on my back and  I will not face her and say Farewell, insteadI just waved my hands turning my back to her. I added this action which created feeling about resignation and helplessness, through the whole plot, even though Friar Lawrence always comforted Juliet and guided her what should she do in the future.  Sadly, he was just a friar, he did not have much power. In the end, I added this action to reinforce this feeling of disappointment. Furthermore, I also used Friar Lawrence’s movements to show his disappointment. On the stage as acting Friar Lawrence, I moved step-by-step, then finally slowly walked out.  Which I wanted to use my actions on the stage to illustrate his powerlessness and after I closed the door, the audience will find out that there was only Juliet on the stage, which she was alone and no one can help her.  I wanted to use this scene also as a foreshadowing scene to indicate that Juliet’s fate was changed, in the before, there was someone always accompanied with her, but now she was alone and only can depend on herself.


Performing an epic story was very challenging but also interesting. What was the most challenging was that I could hardly combine the speaking part with the action part. In the beginning, I could not do speaking and acting at the same time. Then I began to analyze the language use of Shakespeare, finally I found out a way of using lines to remind me the actions and using actions to remind me the lines. In the preparation of the performance, I considered a lot of analysis of Romeo and Juliet’s language and stage settings. That gave me a lot of ideas of how Shakespeare described characters’ movements, which on the stage I used body language and emphasis to demonstrate. Also, analyzing the language use in the scene helped me to understand each character deeply. In general, Friar Lawrence's patience and calm deeply influence Juliet and make him an unique character in the story. However, through the whole scene, even though Juliet and Friar Lawrence had different characteristics, their final goal was to let the couple of Romeo and Juliet out of the shame and be re-united.

Citation:  Shakespeare, William, and Richard Hosley. The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. New Haven: Yale UP, 1954. Web.

History context of novel.

Discuss the following items. Post your research on your blog in your own words.

Biographical info about the author

She was born in Jan.19 1969. In Port-an- Prince, Haiti. She was a writer and her genre was on novels and short stories.
She lived in her aunt and uncle because her parents moved to New York.
Her first short story was Breath, Eyes, Memory.
Her writing style was influenced buy racism, she wanted peace rather than conflict.

timeline for Haiti's history from Independence to present
1803.11.18 battle of Vetieres.
1803.12. 19 dessaline's army arrives in Cap France
1803.12.04 French forces surrender.
1804.01.01 Dessaline's decalres Haiti an independent nation.
1804.02 Haiti Massacre.
1805.05.20 Imperial Constitution of 1805
1805.12.27 Constituent Assembly.
1807.01.01 Battle of Sibert ends.
1802. The Henri Conde established.
1806.06.02 the republican constitution created.
1842.05.07 an earthquake strikes northern Haiti.
1843.12.31 the constitution of 1843 is released.
1860.03.28 Haiti and Vatican sign an agreement divides Haiti in 5.
1880. The Nation Bank of Haiti is founded.
1888. The constituent Assembly elects FDL to president.
1912.08.08 president and three hundred soldiers are killed in an explosion.
1950.1206 PM is sworn in as president.
1991.02.07 Aristide is sworn as president.
2004 HJ killed over 1900 people.
2010.01.12 earthquake kill 230000 people.

Haiti's fight for and gain of Independence
In 1971, Napoleon tried to use Haiti as place to collect Slaves but they began to rebel.

Toussaint L'Ouverture
He was a slave and got education before. 1971.08 when the Haiti fight began, he lead 1000 space to rebellion. Pushed the Spain out of Haiti, and banned slavery. The. British was also pushed out.
1801 United the Haiti.

Boukman
He was an African man, enslcaed I Haiti one of the most visible early leaders of Haitian Revolution.
Made the freedom covenant. Revolution.

1937, Dominican Massacre
Trujillo wanted to dominate the Haiti and made a massacre of 20000 Haitians on the massacre.

Rafael Trujillo
He was a politican and soldier, ruled the Dominican Republic during the chaos. Experienced the massacre of 1937.

Voodoo religion
 It is a syncretic religion practiced chiefly in Hairi and the Haitian diaspora. Practitioners are called vodouistis they believed in distant and unknowable supreme creator.

Duvalier (Papa Doc)
He is the president from 1907.04.14 to 1971.04.21 the president and dictator

Tonton Macoutes
It the secret police the Haitian president Duvalier created, very scary because use national terrorism.

Jean Claude Duvalier (Baby Doc)
He was the Haitian president, Haitian dictator longest time president in Haitian history, for 15 years and his father was president before.

Children of the Sea

Krik?Krak!

Children of the Sea

Man: Love the woman. 

I wanted you to to dig your fingernails into my skin and drain out all my blood. 

36 other deserting souls. White sheets with bright red spots float as out sail. 

Want, but also respect. You thought I was testing your will but all I wanted was to be near you. 

Do marry a soldier but they are almost not human. 

Woman: chaos, bullets and no daily life. I listened my father’s order to destroy some of you but I hide some. Papa did not hate you as much as you think. Regrets. I do not sketch my butterflies anymore because i do not even like seeing the sun. 

Man: There was a pregnant girl on board. Covered face with scars that look like razor marks. Short and speaks in a singsong that reminds me of the villagers in the north. Looking into young people’s empty faces remind me of the hopelessness of the future in our country. It is hard enough with me. Miami. Not religious, on boat no direction.  I am more comfortable now with the idea of dying. Not I have completely accepted it, but i know that it might happen. I ca not scream at it and tell it to go away. Video show was my whole life. Lots of protestants on this boat. A lot of them see themselves as Job or the children of Israel. 

Women: Army finally did give some bodies back, they told the families to go collect them at the rooms for indigents at the morgue. Mandan Roger, collect her son’s head. Port-au-prince, their live place. I can not sleep I count the bullets in the dark, I keep wondering if it is true, did you really get out. 

Man: First real day at sea. Everyone was vomiting with each small rocking of the boat. One lady fainted from sunstroke. Helped to revive her by rubbing some of the salt water. Day so hot night so cold. At night, I watch the sea, the sky and the sea are one. The stars look so huge and so close, they make for very bright reflections in the sea. At times I feel like I can just reach out and pull a star down from the sky as though it is a breadfruit or a calabash or something that could be of use to us on this journey. Beloved Haiti. Women start crying. Once you have been at sea for a couple of days, it smells like every fish you have ever eaten, i am so tired of the smell. I am also tired of the way the people on this boat are starting to stink. 

Woman: Papa found your tapes, he started yelling at me, asking if I was crazy keeping them, he just waiting for the gasoline ban to be lifted so we can get out of the city. Selfish. Crazy whores. Fight. Wishes one of the macoutes bullets would hit herself. 

Man: Finally an African, darker than your father, Want a lady hat but rejected. I dreamt that I died and went to heaven, this heaven was nothing like I expected. It was at the bottom of the sea. You were with me too. 

Yesterday telling stories. Someone says Krik? You answer Krak. Sometimes it feels like we have been at sea longer than the many years that I have been on this earth. The sun comes up and goes down, this is how you know it has been a whole day. A radio from Bahamas, they treat Haitians like dogs in the Bahamas, a woman says. To them, we are not human. Even though their music sounds like ours, their people look like ours, even though we had the same African fathers who probably crossed these same seas together. Maybe the sea is endless, like my love for you. (I love this line.)

Woman: The soldiers were looking for her son, MR was screaming, you killed him already, we buried his head, you can not kill him twice. She came out and shouted it, I hope your mothers will never rest in their cursed graves. You killed him once already. You want to kill me too? You want to kill me? i do not care anymore, i am dead already. You have already done the worst to me that you can do, you have killed my soul. 

Man: Celianne spent the night groaning, she looks like she has been ready for a while. but maybe the child is being stubborn. The only babies I have ever seen right after birth are baby mice. Veil thin skin, wanted to poke them to see if my finger would go all the way through the skin, move. I am scared to think of what would happen if we had to choose among ourselves who would stay on the boat and who would died. Vultures. Sun will set soon, Everyone will eat their last scraps of food today. 

Woman: Papa said that we are not going to stay in PAP to find out if this is true or if it is lie that president is coming back. Move to safe place. People are just too hopeful, and sometimes hope is the biggest weapon of all to use against us. People will believe anything, they will claim to see the christ return and march on the cross backwards if there is enough hope. 

Man: Celianne had a girl baby, the woman acting as a midwife is holding the baby to the moon and whispering prayers. The baby has not cried. We had to throw our extra things in the sea because the water is beginning to creep in slowly. The boat needs to be lighter. Celianne’s child is a beautiful child, they are calling her Swiss because the word swiss was written on the small knife they used to cut her umbilical cord. If she is my daughter, called her Soleil, Sun, Moon or Star, after the elements. She still hasn’t cried. She was pregnant with a married man, so her parents threw her out. It is only my misfortune that would lump me together with an indigent like you. Swiss is not crying, they keep slapping her behind but she is not crying. 

Woman: Old president did not come, they arrested a lot of people at the airport, shot a whole bunch of them down. I said I love you to my papa. I was capable of loving somebody. 

Man: Celianne is lying with her head against the side of the boat, the baby still will not cry, they both look very peaceful in all this chaos, Celianne is holding her baby tight against he chest. Story from her lips, brother lied down with sex with her mom by order from soldiers.  Mom said listen to soldiers because of afraid. Then soldiers took turn to raping Celianne. Then she cut her face with a razor. 

We got some relief from the seawater coming in, the captain used the last of his tar, and most of the water is staying out for a while. everyone wanted to throw C baby down to the boat but she rejected. C’s fingernails are buried deep in the child’s naked back. 

Woman: Butterflies, no news for him. Banyan tree is the most trusted friend. From the banyan tree, I see the mountains still, so many mountains that are bare like rocks, I feel like all those mountains are pushing me farther and farther away from you. 

Man: She threw the baby overboard. Sink and she jumped in too. She also sink. Sea has no mercy. Water rising again. I hope my parents are alive, i asked the old man to tell them what happened to me. He asked me to write his name in my book, JMANJFOM. Perhaps I was chosen from the beginning of time to live there with Agwe at the bottom of the sea. Maybe this is why I dreamed of the starfish and the mermaids having the Catholics Mass under the sea. Maybe this was my invitation to go. In any case, I know that my memory of you will live even there as I too become a child of the sea. 

Woman: Thank you papa, because you saved my life.he groaned. I began to run and run so it would not land on me. More killing in port. I heard that another boat sank off the coast of the bahamas, I can not think about you being in there in the waves. Behind these mountains are more mountains an more black butterflies still and a sea that is endless like my love for you. 

Second draft

“Romeo and Juliet” is one of the most famous drama works of William Shakespeare. In this lovely but tragic story,  Friar Lawrence is a character who stayed in the middle but he is one of the most important characters in the story to promote the plot. He was a combination of a friar and an alchemist, which showed the positive aspect and also the negative aspect. Then, I chose the Act 4 Scene 1, when Juliet went into the basement of the church to find Friar Lawrence and used a knife to threat him. She was comforted by Friar Lawrence and then took a vial in order to escape the marriage. The change of atmosphere and the mood change between two characters in the play demonstrates the change of theme of the whole play. Because this scene is a transitional point in the story of Romeo and Juliet,  Shakespeare used foreshadowing to show the main style of story transits from love to death. Playing a role of Friar Lawrence, I learned that his patience, decisiveness and clam push the whole story development, therefore even though Friar Lawrence is not main character in the play but by using the emphasis and body language, which make his personality continually influence the main characters and also be different with others characters in the play. 

Our scene started inside the church and ended in the church. In this scene, Friar Lawrence used a lot of “ Hold Daughter! Hold, then go home. Hold, get you gone!”(4,1, 68—122) to indicate his worries. In the talking of Juliet, we chose the line “ Come weep with me, past hope, past cure, past help.”(4.1.45), we want to show that Juliet was upset and very helpless because of the marriage with Paris and also got “ betrayed” by her mother and nurse. The love between Romeo and she make her struggle between family and lover. In comparison, Friar Lawrence was very polite and calm due to the lines “ I do spy a kind of hope…As that is desperate which we could prevent.” (4.1.68—70) , Friar Lawrence in the story is more like a director for Juliet and Romeo, he had lots of life experience. So from Juliet’s perspective, when there was no Romeo to rely on, Friar Lawrence became the man who she could believe in by saying that “ Tell me not, friar, that thou hearest of this, unless thou tell me how I may prevent it.” (4.1.50—51) Then in the end of the play, Friar Lawrence said that: “ Hold, get you gone, be strong and prosperous in this resolve. Tomorrow I will send a friar with speed to Mantua, with my letters to thy lord.” (4,1,122—124) The first sentence: he comforted Juliet that she did not need to be afraid and she needed to face the difficulties resulted from her choice of marrying Romeo. The second sentence: he summarized what he would do the next day and let Juliet believe that everything would be resolved. During the conversation between Friar Lawrence and Juliet, Friar Lawrence never used negative words and attitude to Juliet. After the readers finished reading the whole play, they would have direct understanding of the positions of the two main characters. Friar Lawrence stood in the higher position. Also, there was one word that reflected their relationship: in the setting of the play, Juliet was the daughter of the Lord Capulet and Lady Capulet, and Friar Lawrence was only a friar who worked in the church. Whenever Friar Lawrence wanted to call Juliet, he needed to say Young Capulet rather than daughter. However, in the show, Friar Lawrence called Juliet as “ daughter”, which revealed that under his mind, because he watched Romeo growing up, he had already treated that boy as his own son. So when his son has a girlfriend and they were about to get married, he would not allow another person to destroy their happiness. Then due to the death threat from Juliet, he suddenly showed his worries and impatience in front of her, that was why he used daughter rather than Young Capulet. 

Our performance started when Juliet went into the church to look for Friar Lawrence in order to seek a solution for the marriage. This play mainly focus on the interaction between Friar Lawrence and Juliet, including their speaking tones and their actions showed the mood of Juliet and also the characteristics of Friar Lawrence and Juliet. For my performance, I tried to show the patience and calm of Friar Lawrence during the soliloquy and the conversation with Juliet. First, in the beginning of the play, Friar Lawrence was sitting on the chair on the left side of the stage because Juliet interrupted Friar Lawrence’s negotiation with Paris about the marriage. So I set up the stage with two chairs in order to clearly show that I, Friar Lawrence, was talking with someone in the church. Then Juliet stood on the stage right in order to show that she was not in the church and she went to church to find Friar Lawrence. Then she knocked on the door and said her first line, “ Are you at leisure, holy father, now;” (4,1,37—38) Then I turned around but did not stand up because even though Juliet was the daughter of the Capulet, Friar Lawrence was a friar and was older than her.  Then after I saw off Paris, I turned around and faced Juliet. Then my action showed Juliet that we would begin our conversation. During our conversation, I remained calm and smart, my voice was stable comforting, for example: After Juliet used a knife to threat me, I replied immediately” Hold daughter ! I do spy a kind of hope. And this shall free thy from this present shame.” (4,1,68) Because Juliet had a mind to death, which indicated by the line: “Be not so long to speak, I long to die.” (4.1.66)However, I also needed to apply Shakespeare’s foreshadowing into our performance, so when Juliet emphasis the words “kill” and “ death”, I would try to hold her and comfort her, but she rejected vigorously because it can let the audience know clearly about the foreshadowing part and also to remind audience that even Juliet seek for the solution, in her mind she already planned for death. At the same time, Juliet was helpless and not very calm, especially when I said that: “Hold, then, go home, be marry and give consent to marry County Paris.”(4,1,90—91) She acted angrily and did not understand my idea, she used much body language, like tugging hair and walking around to show her anxiety but what i did was only tapped her arm because Lawrence was only a friar, he could not more things than comforting her.  Then we designed two different ways of performing for Juliet and Friar Lawrence through our actions and lines, so during our rehearsal time, Ms.Guarino taught us that we could use different colors underlined our lines to analysis different emotions when we spoke out the lines, we, as actors on the stage, need to performance each liens with different emotions to help audience understand ing our roles and the plot deeply. 

On the stage, even though Friar Lawrence’s lines contained all of calm and smartness, but I can use the body language on the stage to show his stress and worries. When Friar Lawrence tapped her arm, at the same time he was looking down, which I wanted to show his unconfidence. After comforting Juliet, Friar Lawrence explained everything for her in details, which included the whole plan, vial’s effect and what they would do after she woke up. Especially when he talked in the part of the vial, he would express fanaticism towards the vial, so at this time, I moved from stage left to the center of the stage, not only to show my actions more obviously but also to show the change of the theme when following the change of my position. From the book the readers knew that after Juliet drunk the vial, she would be buried in the vault and Romeo would miss my letters and died in front of Juliet.The readers would know the change of the theme from love, marriage to death, however the audience may not know it, so the change of my position and Juliet’s emotion, which show clearly about the situation. Then after I finished talking everything about the plan and vial, Juliet quickly answered that:” Give me! Give me! O, tell not me of fear!” (4,1,121)So immediately I answered her that: “Hold, get you gone, be strong and prosperous in this resolve, I will send a friar with speed to Mantua, with my letters to thy lord.” (4,1,122—124) which indicated my worried. Then I would be silent for a moment, and then I went out. For the moment of silence, I wanted to create a feeling that Friar Lawrence wanted to remind Juliet something but he didn’t speak out.  In the end, my last line was to say Farewell to Juliet, so at this time, I did not face her and say Farewell, insteadI just waved my hands turning my back to her. I think this action had a feeling about resignation and helplessness, even though Friar Lawrence always comforted Juliet and guided her what should she do throughout the play. Sadly, he was just a friar, he did not have much power. So after he went out, he may had a feelings about powerlessness, In the end, I added this action to reinforce this feeling. Furthermore,Friar Lawrence’s movements also showed his feeling, his movement was not fast, but step-by-step, and then I closed the door. 

Performing an epic story was very challenging but also interesting. What was the most challenging was that I could hardly combine the speaking part with the action part. In the beginning, I could not do speaking and acting at the same time. Then I watched a lot movie versions about church scene, and I found out a way of using lines to remind me the actions and using actions to remind me the lines. In the preparation of the performance, I did a lot of analysis of Romeo and Juliet’s language and stage settings. That gave me a lot of ideas of how Shakespeare described characters’ movements. Also, analyzing the language use in the scene helped me to understand each character deeply. Through the whole scene, even though Juliet and Friar Lawrence had different characteristics, their final goal was to let the couple of Romeo and Juliet out of the shame and be re-united.

Sample Grading

Written Coursework

Criterion A:  3/5

Criterion B : 7/10

Criterion C:  4/5

The author shortly explain the introduction of the play and then offers detailed literary analysis of the Richard III and then talked about the plot. However, the author payed a lot of attention on both the analysis of characteristic and on the whole plot. However, it makes me confused on the  whole part, author did not have a good thesis statement to show readers what is his understanding on the play.  The second paragraph is a transitional point in the whole paper,  the author used this paragraph to explain the plot, but there are little analysis on it, which also lack of analysis and understand from author. From paragraph 3 to 11, the author used a lot of quotations from Richard III， which includes the idea of staging and customs on the stage. In my own opinion, it seems too much quotations, I can feel the author wants to explain each quotation specifically but used too many quotations makes me feel not interested on his analysis. After paragraph 13, there is a picture that clearly shows me that where did everyone on the stage stand and how will they arrange the place on the stage so where I give additional one point because it clearly shows me the stage arrangement. Then next paragraph the author began to talk about how could he relates his understanding of the play and the character to be used on his performance, but one shortage is that she did not talk about the interactions between he and his partners, the author only talked about his own feeling and actions on the stage., the play is a group work. The last paragraph the author concluded his performance but the last paragraph is more like an analysis of the play rather than a conclusion, he needs to think about his use of language and structure influencing the whole play rather than focusing on small details. 

Written Coursework 2

Criterion A  4/5

Criterion B   8/10

Criterion C  4/5

In this coursework, the author did not start from telling background information about the Hamlet, the author chose to explain her motivation that why she chose acting Ophella and to make some literary analysis on the character Ophella through her playing, especially on the lines and actions. Then author began to write the literary analysis, the author did a great job on using the quotations to back up her analysis, from paragraph 3—10, the author used these paragraphs to explain how her actions on the stage influenced by her thinking toward the character of Ophella. But one thing the author needed to improve is the connections between paragraph to paragraph. From paragraph three to ten, the author wanted to analyze her action on the stage, maybe the author thought in this way of writing that writes the whole analysis in one paragraph would make readers understand her thinking clearly but she needed to consider she put the her actions in one paragraph, like the paragraph 9, the author in the beginning wrote about the analysis of the lines, but suddenly changes the main topic to analysis of the movement, which in my opinion, she can finish analyzing all the lines then started analyzing movements, which would be more clearly and better. The last paragraph is good as a conclusion paragraph, her language use was good because she talked detailedly and used lots of literary term to analyze, however for the structure of the whole essay I think she should rearrange each paragraph in a good place and find how to make stronger connections between the lines and her action. 

Draft 1

Yichen.Li

IB Literature & Performance

Jennifer Guarino

Dec. 2rd. 2016

Written Course Work Assignment On Romeo and Juliet Act 4 Scene 1

“Romeo and Juliet”, one of the most famous drama works from William Shakespeare. The story, mainly talked about two main characters who were born in two noble families, Capulet and Montague, which were opposite to each other. However, main characters, Romeo and Juliet, fell in love with each other. But because of their families contradictions, they chose to secretly get married and eventually died in front of each other. This result surprisingly made two families be reconciled. Shakespeare used a lot of poems in “Romeo and Juliet”, especially in the structure of the story, he switched the story between tragedy and comedy, so the readers could relax during the comedy part but get the sense of tragedy. At the same time, William Shakespeare increased the importance of the supporting roles, in his play, not only main characters can advance the story, but also supporting roles can also do the same job which readers will naturally feel the development of the story. Moreover, he believed that drama needs to reflect different styles because of different roles, the importance of the drama is to let everyone believe that the stage is a lively world, actors live on it rather than acting on it. 

In this lovely but also tragic story, I played the role of Friar Lawrence who stayed in the middle but he is one of the most important characters in the story to promote the plot. He was a combination between a friar and an alchemist, which showed the position aspect and also the negative aspect. Then I chose the Act 4 Scene 1, when Juliet went into the basement of the church to find Friar Lawrence then used a knife to threat him then being comforted by Friar Lawrence and then took a vial in order to escape the marriage. It is a transitional point in the play of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare used foreshadowing to show the main style of story transits from love to the death. Therefore acting a role of Friar Lawrence, I learned that his patience and calm push the whole story development. Moreover, I showed these characteristics in my play by using body languages, changing in speaking tones and accentuation, which created Friar Lawrence an unique character in the play. 

Because my performance is not a full soliloquy so I have a partner called Sam, who plays the role of Juliet on the stage.  So our performance starts in the Romeo and Juliet Act Four Scene One when Juliet went into the church to find Friar Lawrence in order to seek a solution for the marriage. The scene starts inside the church and ends in the church. In this scene, Friar Lawrence used a lot of “ Hold Daughter! Hold, then go home. Hold, get you gone!” (Act 4, Scene 1, 68—122) to illustrate his worries. During the interactions between Friar Lawrence and Juliet, readers hardly knows that who is pushing the development of the story because two main characters both talk very aggressively and show strong theme. Which in the talking of Juliet, she’s upset and very helpless because of the marriage with Paris and also got “ betrayed” by her mom and nurse, so her actions on the stage will be very drastically. Compared with Friar Lawrence, who is very polite and calm on the stage, because he is older than Juliet so in Juliet’s version, when there’s no Romeo to rely on, Friar Lawrence becomes the man who she finally can believe on. Then in the end of the play, the Friar Lawrence speaks that: “ Hold, get you gone, be strong and prosperous in this resolve. Tomorrow I will send a friar with speed to Mantua, with my letters to thy lord.” (Act 4, Scene 1, 122—124)These two sentences, first one he comforts Juliet do not be afraid and she needs to face the difficulties because she chooses to marry with Romeo. The second sentence he summarizes what will he do tomorrow which at the same time let Juliet believe that everything will be ok and everything will be resolved. During the conversation between Friar Lawrence and Juliet, Friar Lawrence never shows impatience and flurried in front of Juliet. After readers finishes reading the whole play, they will have direct understand the position of two main characters, obviously, Friar Lawrence stands in the higher position. Also, there’s one word reflects their relations, in the setting of the play, Juliet is the daughter of the Lord Capulet and Lady Capulet, and the Friar Lawrence is only a friar who works in the church. When Friar Lawrence want to call Juliet, he may need to say Young Capulet rather than a daughter. However, in the show, Friar Lawrence calls Juliet as “ daughter”, which reveals that under his mind, because he watched Romeo grow and develop day by day, so he already treated that boy as his own son. So when his son has a girlfriend and then they got marriage, but now there’ s another person wanted to destroy this happiness, from a father’s perspective, he can not let this thing happen. Then due to the death threat from Juliet, he suddenly shows his worries and impatience in front of that girl, so he used daughter rather than Young Capulet showed his side on this farce. 

During the performance, I tried to show the patience and calm of Friar Lawrence during the soliloquy and the conversation with Juliet. First, in the beginning of the play, Friar Lawrence sat on the chair in the left stage because Juliet interrupted Friar Lawrence negotiation with Paris about the marriage, so I set up the stage with two chairs in order to clearly show the situation, which I, Friar Lawrence, was talking with someone in the church. Then Juliet stood on the stage right in order to show that she was not in the church and she went to church to find Friar Lawrence. Then she knocked the door and said the first line, “ Are you at leisure, holy father, now;” (Act 4, Scene 1, 37—38)Then I turned around but did not stand up because even though Juliet was the daughter of the Capulet, but Friar Lawrence was a friar and was older than her, so I did not show any reaction in order to show their equal status. Then after I saw off Paris, I turned around and faced Juliet. Then my action showed Juliet that we will begin our conversation. During our communication, I played the role of calm and smart, my voice was stable and always comforted Juliet, for example:” I do spy a kind of hope. And this shall free thy from this present shame.” (Act 4, Scene 1, 68)For playing the role of Friar Lawrence, except the part the part when Juliet used the knife to threat me, all the time I needed to act as calm because Juliet needed my support. In the contrast, Juliet was helpless and not very calm, especially when I said that: “Hold, then, go home, be marry and give consent to marry County Paris.” (4,1,89—90) She acted vey angry and did not understand my idea, she used so many body actions, like tugging hair and walking around to show her feeling. So because we designed two different characteristics of Juliet and Friar Lawrence, though our body actions and our speaking part, we hope to use that to increase the understanding of our roles and the plot deeply. 

Friar Lawrence did not only comfort Juliet but also at the same time he was thinking about the solution. Such as when he said, “ I do spy a kind of hope.” (4,1,68)Then he immediately said that “ Which craves as desperate an execution, as that is desperate which we could prevent. (4,1,69)“ In his talking, Juliet will follow with Lawrence’s mind to find the solution. After Juliet wanted to know the solution, Friar Lawrence detailedly explained everything for her, which included the whole plan, vial’s effect and what will they do after she awake. Especially when he talked in the part of the vial, he will express fanaticism towards the vial, so at this time, Friar Lawrence would begin to move and not pay attention on Juliet until “ And then awake as from a pleasant sleep.” (4,1,106)After I finished a long talking about the effect of the vial, I moved from stage left to the center of the stage, not only help everyone understanding our actions but also at the same time, my position changed means that the theme of the story changed, obviously from the book the readers knew that after Juliet drunk the vial, she will be buried in the vault and Romeo will miss my letters then died in front of Juliet, the readers will totally know the change of the theme from love, marriage to death, however the audience may not know it, so I change my position and Juliet’s emotion will help to know the situation and they may know that my position changes meaning foreshadowing something.  Then after I finished talking all things about the plan and vial, Juliet quickly answered that:” Give me! Give me! O, tell not me of fear!” (4,1,121)So immediately I answered her that: “Hold, get you gone, be strong and prosperous in this resolve, I will send a friar with speed to Mantua, with my letters to thy lord.” (4,1,122—124)Then I will be silence a moment, and then I went out, at that moment silence I wanted to create a feeling that Friar Lawrence wanted to remind Juliet something but he didn’t speak out.  In the end, my last line was to say Farewell to Juliet, so at this time, I did not face her and say Farewell, in the contrast I just waved my hands on my back, so I think this action had a feeling about resignation and helplessness, even though through the play Friar Lawrence always comforted Juliet and guided her what should she do. However he was only a friar, he did not have much power so after he went out, he may had a feeling about powerlessness, so, in the end, I added this action to reinforce this feeling. Then Friar Lawrence’s movement also showed his feeling, his movement was not fast, but was step by step, then I closed the door. 

Performing an epic story was very challenging but also interesting. For the challenging part, I could hardly combine the speaking part with the action part, in the beginning, I can not do speaking and acting at the same time. Then I watched a lot movie version about church scene, so I find out a way to use lines reminding me about the actions and also use actions to help me remind the lines. In the preparation of the performance, I did a lot of analysis of Romeo and Juliet language and stage setting. Which gave me a lot of discovering on how did Shakespeare describe characters’ movements, also analysis the language use in the scene helped me to understand each character deeply. Through the whole scene, even Juliet and Friar Lawrence had different characteristics, but their final goal was to let this couple out of this shame and be re-together.

Citerion

A. Analysis of literature feature. (4/5)
Too much analysis, too much introduction. Almost. But has quotation to support.
B. (5/10)
Less information. Lack Of Supporting.
C. (3/5)

Thesis

Act 4 Scene 1 is a transitional point in the play of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare used foreshadowing to show the main style of story transits from love to death. Therefore playing a role of Friar Lawrence, I learned that his patience and calm push the whole story development, which these characteristics I used body language, change in speaking speed and emphasis to illustrate.

Brainstorming

For my brainstorming part, in the first I had no idea about how to write this course work, so I decided to look others’ products first. 

I found that the paper mostly graded on three aspects, the first one is the critical analysis of the literary features of the text, in it, you must use literary terms and also need the direct quotes to support your analysis of the paper, in the part, students need to write precisely and to show the literary features. And in the second part of the essay, I need to mainly focus on the relations between text and scene stage and playing part. I need to re watch my video and to think about why did I do this action when I speaking a line. Also, in this part, I need to use theatrical terms. Third part, this is the reflection on the analysis of my performance, where did I do well and how did i do it and where i need to improve. So in this part I need to mainly pay attention on the performance. 

For outline part, I divide the essay into several parts, but will depend one the front brainstorming to finish. 

First I will tell audience what is Romeo and Juliet and which role I played. 

Second I will shortly explain the Act 4 Scene 1 and then to analysis it. 

Third I will make the connections between the lines and the staging actions. In this part, some blogs I posted before can help me. 

Fourth I will to think about where did I do great and why did I do it good. To find out where is my shortage. Then in this part, I could also analysis my character and still make the connections between my role in the play and the whole stage. 

Written Course Work Assignment from Yichen.Li

Yichen.Li

IB Literature & Performance

Jennifer Guarino

Nov. 25th. 2016

Written Course Work Assignment On Romeo and Juliet Act 4 Scene 1

“Romeo and Juliet”, one of the most famous drama works from William Shakespeare. Because of the popular story and sorrow plot. “Romeo and Juliet” has being miscalled as the four Shakespeare’s famous tragedies. The story, mainly talked about two main characters who were born in two noble families, Capulet and Montague, which were opposite to each other. However, main characters, Romeo and Juliet, fell in love with each other. But because of their families contradictions, they chose to secretly get married and eventually died in front of each other. This result surprisingly made two families be reconciled. Many lovers in the history and nowadays believe their love would be same as Romeo and Juliet’s: unbreakable. Shakespeare used a lot of poems in “Romeo and Juliet”, especially in the structure of the story, he switched the story between tragedy and comedy, so the readers could relax during the comedy part but get the sense of tragedy. At the same time, William Shakespeare increased the importance of the supporting roles, in his play, not only main characters can advance the story, but also supporting roles can also do the same job which readers will naturally feel the development of the story. Moreover, he believed that drama needs to reflect different styles because of different roles, the importance of the drama is to let everyone believe that the stage is a lively world, actors live on it rather than acting on it. 

In this lovely but also tragic story, I played the role of Friar Lawrence who stayed in the middle but he is one of the most important characters in the story to promote the plot. He was a combination between a friar and an alchemist, which showed the position aspect and also the negative aspect. Then I chose the Act 4 Scene 1, when Juliet went into the basement of the church to find Friar Lawrence then used a knife to threat him then being comforted by Friar Lawrence and then took a vial in order to escape the marriage. This play is located at the almost ending of the play, the interaction between Friar Lawrence and Juliet and their speaking tones and also their actions showed the mood of Juliet and also the characteristics of Friar Lawrence and Juliet. Then during the rehearsal of the scene, it helped me to have a new understanding on  Friar Lawrence: from the perspective where Juliet went to see Friar Lawrence in order to get help, it is from a young person asks help to an older, so during the practice, it helped me to see how Friar Lawrence step by step to persuade Juliet to take off the knife and then found a vial to solve the problem. In this scene, it showed both the Friar Lawrence’s roles of a friar and an alchemist. 

Because my performance is not a full soliloquy so I have a partner called Sam, who plays the role of Juliet on the stage.  So our performance starts in the Romeo and Juliet Act Four Scene One when Juliet went into the church to find Friar Lawrence in order to seek a solution for the marriage. The scene starts inside the church and ends in the church. In this scene, Friar Lawrence used a lot of “ Hold Daughter! Hold, then go home. Hold, get you gone!” to illustrate his worries. During the interactions between Friar Lawrence and Juliet, readers hardly knows that who is pushing the development of the story because two main characters both talk very aggressively and show strong theme. Which in the talking of Juliet, she’s upset and very helpless because of the marriage with Paris and also got “ betrayed” by her mom and nurse, so her actions on the stage will be very drastically. Compared with Friar Lawrence, who is very polite and calm on the stage, because he is older than Juliet so in Juliet’s version, when there’s no Romeo to rely on, Friar Lawrence becomes the man who she finally can believe on. Then in the end of the play, the Friar Lawrence speaks that: “ Hold, get you gone, be strong and prosperous in this resolve. Tomorrow I will send a friar with speed to Mantua, with my letters to thy lord.” These two sentences, first one he comforts Juliet do not be afraid and she needs to face the difficulties because she chooses to marry with Romeo. The second sentence he summarizes what will he do tomorrow which at the same time let Juliet believe that everything will be ok and everything will be resolved. During the conversation between Friar Lawrence and Juliet, Friar Lawrence never shows impatience and flurried in front of Juliet. After readers finishes reading the whole play, they will have direct understand the position of two main characters, obviously, Friar Lawrence stands in the higher position. Also, there’s one word reflects their relations, in the setting of the play, Juliet is the daughter of the Lord Capulet and Lady Capulet, and the Friar Lawrence is only a friar who works in the church. When Friar Lawrence want to call Juliet, he may need to say Young Capulet rather than a daughter. However, in the show, Friar Lawrence calls Juliet as “ daughter”, which reveals that under his mind, because he watched Romeo grow and develop day by day, so he already treated that boy as his own son. So when his son has a girlfriend and then they got marriage, but now there’ s another person wanted to destroy this happiness, from a father’s perspective, he can not let this thing happen. Then due to the death threat from Juliet, he suddenly shows his worries and impatience in front of that girl, so he used daughter rather than Young Capulet showed his side on this farce. 

During the performance, I tried to show the patience and calm of Friar Lawrence during the soliloquy and the conversation with Juliet. First, in the beginning of the play, Friar Lawrence sat on the chair in the left stage because Juliet interrupted Friar Lawrence negotiation with Paris about the marriage, so I set up the stage with two chairs in order to clearly show the situation, which I, Friar Lawrence, was talking with someone in the church. Then Juliet stood on the stage right in order to show that she was not in the church and she went to church to find Friar Lawrence. Then she knocked the door and said the first line, “ Are you at leisure, holy father, now;” Then I turned around but did not stand up because even though Juliet was the daughter of the Capulet, but Friar Lawrence was a friar and was older than her, so I did not show any reaction in order to show their equal status. Then after I saw off Paris, I turned around and faced Juliet. Then my action showed Juliet that we will begin our conversation. During our communication, I played the role of calm and smart, my voice was stable and always comforted Juliet, for example:” I do spy a kind of hope. And this shall free thy from this present shame.” For playing the role of Friar Lawrence, except the part the part when Juliet used the knife to threat me, all the time I needed to act as calm because Juliet needed my support. In the contrast, Juliet was helpless and not very calm, especially when I said that: “Hold, then, go home, be marry and give consent to marry County Paris.” She acted vey angry and did not understand my idea, she used so many body actions, like tugging hair and walking around to show her feeling. So because we designed two different characteristics of Juliet and Friar Lawrence, though our body actions and our speaking part, we hope to use that to increase the understanding of our roles and the plot deeply. 

Friar Lawrence did not only comfort Juliet but also at the same time he was thinking about the solution. Such as when he said, “ I do spy a kind of hope.” Then he immediately said that “ Which craves as desperate an execution, as that is desperate which we could prevent. “ In his talking, Juliet will follow with Lawrence’s mind to find the solution. After Juliet wanted to know the solution, Friar Lawrence detailedly explained everything for her, which included the whole plan, vial’s effect and what will they do after she awake. Especially when he talked in the part of the vial, he will express fanaticism towards the vial, so at this time, Friar Lawrence would begin to move and not pay attention on Juliet until “ And then awake as from a pleasant sleep.” After I finished a long talking about the effect of the vial, I moved from stage left to the center of the stage, not only help everyone understanding our actions but also at the same time, my position changed means that the theme of the story changed, obviously from the book the readers knew that after Juliet drunk the vial, she will be buried in the vault and Romeo will miss my letters then died in front of Juliet, the readers will totally know the change of the theme from love, marriage to death, however the audience may not know it, so I change my position and Juliet’s emotion will help to know the situation and they may know that my position changes meaning foreshadowing something.  Then after I finished talking all things about the plan and vial, Juliet quickly answered that:” Give me! Give me! O, tell not me of fear!” So immediately I answered her that: “Hold, get you gone, be strong and prosperous in this resolve, I will send a friar with speed to Mantua, with my letters to thy lord.” Then I will be silence a moment, and then I went out, at that moment silence I wanted to create a feeling that Friar Lawrence wanted to remind Juliet something but he didn’t speak out.  In the end, my last line was to say Farewell to Juliet, so at this time, I did not face her and say Farewell, in the contrast I just waved my hands on my back, so I think this action had a feeling about resignation and helplessness, even though through the play Friar Lawrence always comforted Juliet and guided her what should she do. However he was only a friar, he did not have much power so after he went out, he may had a feeling about powerlessness, so, in the end, I added this action to reinforce this feeling. Then Friar Lawrence’s movement also showed his feeling, his movement was not fast, but was step by step, then I closed the door. 

Performing an epic story was very challenging but also interesting. For the challenging part, I could hardly combine the speaking part with the action part, in the beginning, I can not do speaking and acting at the same time. Then I watched a lot movie version about church scene, so I find out a way to use lines reminding me about the actions and also use actions to help me remind the lines. In the preparation of the performance, I did a lot of analysis of Romeo and Juliet language and stage setting. Which gave me a lot of discovering on how did Shakespeare describe characters’ movements, also analysis the language use in the scene helped me to understand each character deeply. Through the whole scene, even Juliet and Friar Lawrence had different characteristics, but their final goal was to let this couple out of this shame and be re-together.

Bushnell Trip

Today I went to a Bushnell trip to Hartford in order to see a “ One woman played show” called Warriors Don’t Cry. Before I went to see the performance, I had a little confused on how could one woman perform different characters in the show and what actions or tones she will use to help the audience to figure out which character she is performing. Before the show, I read the introduction of the show and also searched some background knowledge about the Warriors Don’t Cry, so I know the setting of the show and different characters in the show, so I became more interested in the actress who called Maria to perform different characters on the stage because I want to know what does she do on the stage to describe one character’s characteristic and how would she let the audience distinguish different characters she played. 

When the show started, I noticed one thing which is the light, the director did not close the whole lights immediately, he gradually close most lights, just remained some lights pointed to the actress, so this behavior would let the audience’s mind to be followed with the actress. Then the actress began to tell the story, during her telling, I noticed that she did a great job on performance. When she was speaking, she also did the actions to relate her speaking, even the audience would have some questions on her speaking, but from her actions, an audience would understand the show clearly. So during her performance, she solved one of my questions that how could her performance helped an audience to figure out which character she is playing. She used two methods, first before she said the lines in one character, she would speak out the name of the character, then the second step is to use different actions to distinguish different characters, for example, when she was playing grandma, she will bend over and speak slowly and mumbling, however, when she performed Melba and soldier, she will stand straightly and talk confidently. Also from her performance, she will stop at some points, which would help audience to know what happened, like the diary part, before and after she wrote the diary, she would stop some seconds, it can help audience to know the timeline and have a chance to conclude what happened and also this pause can also help her to have a chance to rest because this is a “ One woman played show”, she can not finish all plot in one time, so her solution was to divide the plot into different small parts. 

Also after the show, when the presenter asked us to use one word to describe the whole show, someone said inequality, discrimination, or dramatic. These words are true for describing the circumstance in Warrior Don’t Cry, but in my mind, “ struggle” is the true word for describing the whole play, because this play was written by Dr. Melba Pattillo Beals, she was the main character, Melba, one thing we need to remember is that the whole play was from her sight, so she was struggling in the racial discrimination, she faced the inequality but she had no solution, compare to modern world, when we face the discrimination, we can ask help from teachers, governors or adults, however in this play, nothing she can rely on.  Not only the white students want to bully her, but also even some teachers, parents wanted to attack and expel her out of the area where the white man lived. She is struggling in this situation but she had nothing to do about it. This story was dramatic, but at the same time it was so realistic because it reveals the real situation at that time period. So I think this story, and this performance, both bring the shocking feel to the audience. 

Warriors Don't Cry

The story Warriors Don’t Cry, which is based on Melba Pattillo Beal’s experience to write down as a story. The main character in the show called Melba, which is herself. She and other eight black men and women went back to their state of Arkansas to meet the local governor, Bill Clinton. At that time Melba is a narrator and an author, and her friends, the nine people are called Little Rock Nine, they were the first several African American students to be integrated into the school Central High School.
So this performance is like a flashback that author, Melba, would introduce the different characters first, and then go back to their childhood to tell the event. However, in Melba childhood, she experienced many unbelievable events in the new environment and faced the resistance from new school and governor. In the beginning of the story, she and eight students were asked to move school, however, when they went to the new school, she and her eight friends were prevented to go to Central High School by the governor Orval Faubus. In the new school, even though the law permit she can study in, but she experienced the bullying from many white students, which includes the new school students and faculty both did not accept Melba join into them. When she wanted to stay in the Central High School, she faced many angry white man who wanted to punch her and there was one girl even throw acid into her eyes. These things were unbelievable but really existed on Melba. During that time, the main theme in Melba life was to escape and avoid the attack from the white men, she had choice to go back to her state to study but she rejected.
The plot mainly talked about the racial discrimination between white and black people, this was a perpetual topic in American history, and also this topic would attract more audience because everyone wants to know the result of the story. Fid Melba finally resolve the problem and how did it work. During the whole play, audience would see how did Melba grow up under the crucial circumstance but still becomes strong. Also the audience will know how can she counter with the large power group, like the governor and the headmaster in new school to get a chance to stay there. She, as a black people, is representing the small power group. I think the director may want to use the different costume and the different tones in different lines to show their sides. However, a play is not like a movie which the audience could watch the whole story in different aspects, which change from one place to another place immediately. Audience should follow with the director's mind, but the question is how? Maybe the director may use lights as a hint for audience to follow. And also I want to see how can the actor on the stage to arrange, not only to explain clearly what happened during the fight, but also to let audience do not feel confused toward his play.

Reflection.

Romeo and Juliet is a classical story and when I read about it, I imaged a lot of scenes in my mind. But I never think about that I can remember all lines and perform Romeo and Juliet on the stage. I really love the main character, Friar Lawrence, in the show because he is an old man and he’s the calmest one in the whole story, that is why I choose him. Compare with my first performance, me and Sam improved a lot. Especially on blocking and actions. For blockings, after I watched the fall play The Dead, suddenly I understand why should I add into the scene and what actions should I use. After I watched the show, I began to know what means to relate yourself on the stage, to let yourself live on the stage. So during the show I put myself into the Friar Lawrence, I tried to guess what was his inner activities that what would he react when he was facing threaten by Juliet. Furthermore, I communicated with Sam about the actions when we do not speak about the lines, like when Sam threats me by using a knife when I took out the vial. Maybe is Sam speaking the lines, but at the same time, I should act scared to show my afraid rather than just standing like a robot. Also for blocking, in performance, we did not only stand in the same place to finish the whole show, instead of that, we added more movement to show the plot more clearly to the audience. However, there ’s also something I needed to improve, for example, the interaction between me and Sam, it has nothing to do with the actions, I want to talk more about the lines connections because I only remembered my lines, so I had no idea that when should I start speaking. Before the show, I tried to remember several lines from the end of Sam’s lines, but it does not work very well, maybe I can talk with Sam about adding some actions to remind us about lines, like some gestures show she finishes her lines and it is time for me to speak. And the second shortage is in speaking lines, even though I added some pause in my soliloquy to slow down my speaking speed and also do not show audience that I am speaking out the lines that I remembered, I should let the audience believe that I am the Friar Lawrence and I am trying to help Juliet. The first shortage is easy to revise, I can chat with Sam and ask her to add some actions in the show, but for the second shortage, I think I need to spend more time on it to practice it.  I can speak about the lines first and try to find a feeling about the pause parts, and then I may close the lines and try to slow down my speaking speed to say the lines. In this performance, I think I did a good job on portraying my character. Because he is an old man and like alchemy. so there’s a difference between he and Juliet, because he is older and calmer than Juliet, so when he heard the news about the marriage, the first thing he tried to do is to comfort Juliet, Juliet’s voice is higher and speaking speed is faster, but for Friar Lawrence, he needed to show his calm to console Juliet. And also when he took out the vial, he became crazy, a deep love on the alchemy, so at this time, he may lose his calm, so at this time, I always hold the vial and speak toward the vial because of the alchemist. I can not say I did a great job on adapting literary features but I would say I did a good job. There’s one movement I think is very hard to accomplish on the stage, which so goes across from the right stage to left stage. Because of our setting, the door is on the left stage, but I was talking with fake Paris on the right stage, so we decided to use the soliloquy of mine, which I gave the vial to Juliet, so at this time, I showed to audience an action that I will go to find the vial, but actually I move myself from right to left, which I successfully accomplish the actions that the script required.

The Dead

It is not my first time to go to Black Box to see a show, but this time, there’s another reason why I go there, because of the performance. I am in IB liter & perf, so this course requests me to perform in the class, but I have no idea about performance, so this time I go there to see the varsity performance, look their settings and what will they do when they do not have lines to speak, how would they interact with other characters, so I went. 

First I know the setting about the show, there are many chairs, which means there are many characters in the show, how would they arrange the show. In the beginning, the lights points on the chairs, which gives a feeling about noble and dignity, so I would assume that this must be a talk between many nobles, not a basic conversation. And as the show continues, I begin to pay attention on John, I want to watch his actions and to know why he can play the character like the character. For the section one, I love the arrangement of the play, which includes the lights, the introduction of the characters, and also the division between waiters and visitors, first I would figure out by their costumes, and then I would figure out that their actions are also different, waiters only listen to visitors command to do things, but for the visitors, they can do whatever they want, they can express their emotion, like what did Freddy Malins on the party. But for second part, I really love the interaction between John and Sam, they really do the conversation like normal on the stage, not like repeating the lines, when I looked at John’s actions, his speaking did not interfere his actions. His emotions changed very naturally, for example I remembered that there is one place Sam song a song on the party and John never heard before, John did not only say that” Oh, this is the song I never heard before.” But also he just his actions to emphasize this feeling, he gave a shrug to show his feelIng. Also after the visitors all gone, John sat and talked with Sam, and suddenly he knew that his wife’s first lover and that man was died for Sam, he was very angry and John was waiving his hands to show his angry, and then he considered a lot because he can feel his wife’s sadness, so which gives a deep understand on how to perform a character, also I love the lines that John spoke several times:  The world is a surface of the frozen lake, we walk along and we slip, we want to keep our balance and not fall, but one day there is a crack. So we can learn that underneath us is an unimaginable depth. “ Before the show starts, John spoke it once time, at that time I was thinking about the weather, the cold weather made the John say this. However, after the show, I understood that he used analogy to describe his wife’s first lover as a crack, which made me feel sad and also can feel John’s helplessness, he is alive, but at which point, his mind is died. 

Log 3

After today's performance, which is my second time to perform the whole show in front of Ms. Guarino. After the first performance, Ms. Guarino gave us a lot of advice, which helped me and Sam to consider what is good in our performance, what is bad. After one week, we played the whole show again in order to get some feedback from my classmates as from a audience view and also from Ms. Guarino. After the performance, even though Ms.Guarino said that we improved a lot from last performance, she needs to be critical because this is in IB program, every detail is very important, so she pointed out several points Sam and I need to continue improving. 

So the first thing is the pronunciation, for me, Ms. Guarino asks me to say slowly and clearly.  For speaking slowly not only because Friar Lawrence was a friar and this character’s age was older than Juliet. At this point, when Juliet was very excited and wanted Lawrence to comfort her, during the show, not only in speaking, but also some physical movement to show the different levels between Friar Lawrence and Juliet. When Juliet is very upset, Friar Lawrence should comfort her and give her some solution, but audience did not the script, so from the actor’s point, you need to let audience soon figure out your characteristic and job on the stage as soon as possible. Ms. Guarino wanted me, as Friar Lawrence, not only to speak like a friar, but also to use body language to show the characteristic. And also from my classmates feedback, I know that I need to pronounce each word clearly in order to let the audience listen and understand what was happened on the stage. That is one difficult I need to overcome in this weekend, not only slow my speaking, but also i need to relate my emotion with the lines. Maybe in that way I can express Friar Lawrence more vivid.  Then Ms. Guarino said that our memorization of lines is good but we needed to add more actions on the stage, we should do more body languages on the stage, do not like a model who just stands on the stage and do not have interactions with your partners, speaking is one way to know one character’s charactersitc, also from the character’s body language, audience could get more information because the body language is directly watched by audience. So I think in our act, I need to add more interactions with Sam, like when she uses knife to threat me, when I want to comfort her, when I want to show I am considering about the solution, and when i show my worried on this idea. So these things I can not use speaking to express for audience, and audience could not get this from my body language. Also in my speaking lines part, many of my classmates asked me to have some changes in the speaking. If there’s no changing voice, they thought I am only a robot on the stage to read the lines, which is emotionless, Friar Lawrence is an old and famous character in the book, so in my talking, I can accent some important words to show my worried, like when I explain to Juliet about what will happen after she drinks the vial, and when I want to comfort her. In these long monologue, maybe I should break down the lines, like add some stop points in it in order to let myself have some relax on the stage, but also can help audience to figure out what was happening on the stage. After this performance, from my classmates and Ms. Guarino’s feedback, I know that in the performance, I should continue working on change in emotion, whatever in speaking lines or not speaking, if there’s no speaking part, I also need to react with Sam, also do not stand on the stage like a robot. And for the starting part, I will also work on how to let audience to understand the fake character on the stage, these things are really important to relate each part in the performance on the stage together. 

However, on Friday’s class, I talked with Ms. Guarino about the beginning setting part, and then I communicated with Sam about her opinion on the beginning part, so finally we changed to the the setting that on the left stage, there are two chairs, which in the beginning I will sit on one of them and imitate I am talking with Paris, and I also changed my lines from “ My lord, we must entreat this time alone.” to “ Paris, my lord, we must entreat this time alone.” Which would let audience to figure out the whole setting clearly. And after Juliet knocks the door, I will move from left stage to stage right, and to close the door, then move back to center. Also Juliet will only move from the door, which locates on the stage right to center.  Then we added more actions in the conversation: when I say” Ah, Juliet I already know thy grief,” I would imitate I want to hug with her, to comfort her, also when I say “ As that is desperate, which we could precent.” I would take off the knife from Juliet’ s hand.  And after I say, “ Let no thy nurse lie with thee in thy chamber,” I will be silence for several seconds, and then walked to my cabinet, and imitate I am finding the vial, but after the vial, I will not immediately give it to Juliet, I will consider a lot, and then finally make the decision to give to her. Which I think I add more actions and more emotions in the perforation which would make the audience understand more deeply and would feel that I am Friar Lawrence on the stage. 

Fall play on The Dead

Weel2 Log

Day 1 ( Monday)

Today we performed about the scene when Juliet came to Friar Lawrence’s church in order to ask for the help. It was our first draft performance on the stage. Even though at that time I can memorize almost lines in my part, I still choose to read the lines and ask Sam what should we act on the stage. Then after the performance, Ms. Guarino talked a lot about our performance, and she offered some advice on how to control our talking speed on the stage and we maybe lack some reactions on the stage.  And also, many of our classmates gave us some advice from audience perspective to tell us what we did show well on the stage, and what do they want to see as the audience to see from the stage acting, so I very appreciated from their advice. In those e-mails, I knew our strength on the stage acting was that we had the body emotions which can directly show audiences what is happening on the stage, and also I think I can improve this strength because next week we will begin to rehearsal without looking at the lines, then we will show more body language on the stage to let them understand the plot better. And most of them showed interest in the creating fictional character Paris on the stage, even on the stage, we did not speak the name of Paris, but the audience could get the point of what means:” My lord, we  must entreat this time alone, so we are proud of this creative idea. But also, the emails pointed out a lot of shortcomings, like our speaking speed, I and Sam’s speaking are very fast that the audience is hard to follow what happened so that’s why they thought our body language is a good way to interpret the plot. We need to take more time on the stage to think and breathe. Also, compare with Sam, on the stage, I showed a little bit not expressive, maybe next time I need to try matching with Sam’s style in order to make the whole show be related. For Friar Lawrence part, I think I could use the costume to show my authority and for blocking part, I should consider more about how can we make the audience believe that Friar Lawrence is chatting with others, that is the next question I need to consider. So in general I am very thankful for Ms. Guarino to give us a chance to perform on the stage and give us the advice to improve the stage acting, and I believe after this rehearsal, me and Sam will know what should we improve on the stage so, in the following week, we must pay more attention to acting and interactions part. 

Day2 ( Wednesday )

In the Liter and Per class, today we did some emotion activity in order to help us to understand the character deeply then it can help us in acting the characters more vivid. So Ms. Guarino asked us to use different colors to underline each sentence to show the emotions in it. Like red means angry, black means desperate, yellow means truthfully, etc. So Ms. Guarino asked to  underline each line we need to perform on the stage. So I began to underline each line and discover what is the emotion in it. As I continue underlining, I began to understand Friar Lawrence deeply. In  the beginning, he just wanted to comfort Juliet but as time moves, he began to feel more guilty on Romeo and Juliet and he had to use the vial to save this couple. And even he knows that using vial is very dangerous and if he was found, he will lose the sacred identity. But he still tells the truth to Juliet about what will happen after Juliet drinks the vial, so I began to know more about Friar Lawrence, and also recently I repeatedly watched the video of Romeo and Juliet, so in my mind, there is a blueprint of the whole show, but I need more time to approve them on the stage and also make connections between Friar Lawrence and Juliet in front of audience. 

Day3 ( Thursday) 

Today we just stayed in the art building to memorize the lines, and Abby told us a good way to memorize the lines, which is to write down the lines repeatedly, then your muscle will memorize them then when you speaking out the lines, in your mind it would naturally appear the lines, which is very useful to help us to memorize the lines, especially in some part which is the soliloquy, so we can not make interaction with our partners to remind us of the lines, so the physical memorization helped to memorize the lines, and in the following week, I will add more body actions in the performing to help me to remind the lines, like what should I speak when I take out the vial, and what should I say after I shut the door. Physical memorization is very useful and give me more inspiration on the stage performing.     

Performance Log 1

D1 ( I combine the part when Sam performed with Caitlyn with the D1 together)

When Sam on the stage to do the questions, I have understanding about the setting of the character. So what things can help us to create the character, must be the personalities and the settings. During Sam talked about the setting of Juliet, I was thinking about Friar Lawrence. He is a friar but he is a little old and he loves alchemy. He does not belong to any side in the story. Our scene happens in 4.2, so the setting must be in the morning, I stood in the chamber to talk with Paris, then Juliet will come in. Next to me there is a bible and now it plays the Gloria Patri in the church. The main color in the chamber is white and it is warm. Because of Caitlyn’s presentation, I set up the church and the image of Friar Lawrence in my brain, which can help me to relate my play with the origin story. As an actor, I need to understand character deeply, so before Sam and I read the lines, I ask myself several questions and I write down. “ Who am I? Where I am, why I am here and what should I do?” So with these questions, me and Sam began to read the lines.  After we finish reading about the lines. we were silent for a while because we were creating the image of our characters in our mind. Like when Juliet used knife to threat Friar, was she desperate or angry? Was Friar Lawrence angry or afraid about the threaten? These things we needed to consider from the point of the character. What I changed is about the costume of the Juliet, I talked with Sam about the costume and the movement. Sam agreed with me that we will begin in the stage SL and gradually move to the center of the stage. But she thought Juliet should not wear white because eve it can give the audience an image about how innocent is she, but Sam thought dark red was more suit for that Juliet, because she wanted to do something for her husband but she had no power and her family left her, it is very appropriate to use red describing her. However, in order to make a foreshadowing, dark red is easy for audience to think about the death, the desperate, so finally she agreed about Friar Lawrence’s costume but we changed a little bit on Juliet. 

D2 

Today we tried one time about the setting of the whole play. In the before we just roughly considered about our standing position and actions we will perform on the stage. So we decided to use the door as the starting points. First I will imitate I am talking with Paris, he is a fake character in our story. In order to make the story coherence, we rearrange the lines in our performance. Also, we practiced twice times about our lines, first time we said the lines, considering about our acting in the play, which gesture we needed to use, what facial emotion we need to express on the stage. But on second time, we changed our roles, Sam spoke my lines, and she began to revise my lines about which part i need to accentuate, to stress. Also she explained for me about the whole things in Lawrence’s lines, which part is important, which part is repetitive and which part I can speak quickly and which part I need to speak slowly in order to show its importance. Then, I read Sam’s lines, I chatted with her from an audience view that which emotion I want to see and which part is bored for an audience to understand. So after this rehearsal, I changed my mind about the speaking of Friar Lawrence, he’s a very complicated character, which he is both a friar and a alchemist. So audience would want to see two different characteristics on one character, also my lines and my actions are both important for me to express my understand on him to the audience. On first sight, audience will know my role on the stage, but as the performance continues, they will began to understand my characteristics and the interactions between me and Juliet. Which memorization of lines is hard for me, but at the same time I also need to consider about the expression of emotions to audience to let them see more directly toward my character. 

D3 Friday

Today we tried to go over the whole scene, because I can remember half of the lines, so in this rehearsal Sam and I payed more attention on how the movements and actions we perform on the stage. Sam had so many good ideas, she told me that as a Friar, when he faced with a girl who was only fourteen years old, I need to show my require to her.  Also she wanted me to think some actions when she’s speaking the lines, then it can make more interactions between two characters and also it can help the audience to feel they are watching a show not just two people are acting the characters. And at the end of the class, we tried two times about our actions and movements on the stage, so Sam and I decided to memorize the lines. But today I think we achieved a lot because first today is my first day rehearsal some part without looking at the lines, so I may discover what should i act when i am speaking out the lines. Also at the same  time, when Sam is speaking the lines, I should also act on the stage rather than standing on there, an actor should show the nature on the stage rather than show them concentration on the stage, which audience would feel weird. And at the same time I discovered that when we add some interactions, like when Sam wanted to use knife to threat me and kill herself, I will step back, then this action would give audience a clear image about my personality and what is the circumstance now, but also the step back action can help to remember the lines “ hold daughter, i do spy a kind of hope, which craves as desperate an execution.” So the memorization of lines is related with the actions that actors do on the stage, this is my biggest achievement today.