We watched the Baz Luhrman movie (1996) version of Romeo and Juliette in drama class. It was originally a play written by William Shakespeare. It is set in modern day time but they speak in Shakespearean language from the original script of Romeo and Juliette.
I think that he interpreted it very well but some parts have also been interpreted in a way that I don't think works. I will touch on this more later.
Some clear Shakespearean elements were used in the movie. This includes Shakespearean language. It is used throughout the entire movie although some of the parts are in modern day English. This is because it was not in the original script for Rome and Juliette.
I do think that Baz Luhrman is very talented but, in my opinion, I do't really like this version of the play. This is for many things to do with the language the setting and also the interpretation of the play. I do not like the characterization of Mercutio in this version as I think that it is very over the top. I also don't like the fact that they are in a modern day world with cars and guns but are still speaking in Shakespearean language. I think that they should have either stuck to the original time that the play was set in, or change the script so that it is in modern day English. One other thing I on't like is some of the interpretations. Like when they take a drug in the Luhrman version. I don't think that it works and it makes the movie also very confusing.
I do like some parts of the movie as well though. For example I love the modern day setting because it allows us to more fully understand the story line as it is easier to relate to for our generation.
I agree with the argument that this movie was a bad idea. This is because of reasons said before. I think Shakespeare would agree that Luhrman tried his best but the movie did not quite work and did not do justice to the works of Romeo and Juliette or even Shakespeare himself.
This has been and evaluation and movie review of Baz Luhrman's Romeo and Juliette (1996)
BYE! xx
Sources:
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/romeo-and-juliet-1996
http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9C0CE7D91139F932A35752C1A960958260
http://peggy8_8.tripod.com/baz.html
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2001/sep/07/1
Tuesday 29 April 2014
Wednesday 23 April 2014
Unit 3: Romey & J - Shakespearean Theatre (Blog 1)
In this post I am comparing Commedia dell'Arte and Shakespearean theatre. I have created a table to compare the two. It includes both the differences and the similarities:
Commedia
|
Similarities
|
Shakespeare
|
Spoke in Gromalot
|
Everyone was involved (acoustics, performers,
audience, etc.)
|
Spoke in English
|
Women were allowed to take part in the plays, they
were paid and were treated as men’s equals
|
Anyone could come watch the play. It didn’t matter
if they had a lot or little money, there was a place for everyone
|
No woman were allowed to be in the plays. They were
played by young boys with higher voices
|
They used stock characters (Same set of characters
for each performance e.g. Columbina)
|
Both were thought to be devil worshipers by the
church
|
They had different characters for each play. No
character was repeated in another play (e.g. Romeo)
|
Started in the 16th century
|
They performed during the day because they could not
afford candles or oil lamps to light the stage/theatre. (No electricity)
|
Started in the 17th century
|
Most of the Commedia characters wear masks
throughout the performance
|
They broke the fourth wall. This means they
interacted with the audience throughout the play
|
Usually wore just makeup on their faces
|
Their plays could be performed anywhere that they
thought would work (found spaces e.g. town square)
|
Plays were performed in troops of paid actors. They
each had a specific art to play. In Shakespeare, if you were the lead male,
in every show you were the lead male. In Commedia, if you were Columbina, you
were always Columbina.
|
All the plays were performed and rehearsed in a theatre on the
same stage every time; The Globe Theatre.
|
All of the story lines in Commedia are comedic which
means they are meant to be funny almost all the time
|
The costumes for the shows were always the actors’
responsibility. They had to use their own clothes or get them specially made
for a show
|
Many of the story lines are very tragic and usually
the ending is sad and include more than a few deaths
|
Thank you for reading! (Below sows where I got my information from)
OWN KNOWLEDGE!!
Wednesday 2 April 2014
The Love of Three Oranges!!!!!!
Hello!
On the 27th and the 28th of March, I took part in the MS production of 'The Love of Three Oranges'. I played Celio, the good Wizard, and nemesis to Fata Morgana. This is my reflection:
My first impression of the play when I had read the script was, this is going to be an awesome play. We had been doing Commedia in class so I thought that it would be a great experience for me and that it would help me in my learning. As I read the script, I could tell that it was a teenage version of the original play because it was full of lazzi and it was just hilarious! During rehearsals, I made contributions like ideas for blocking and small pieces of lazzi that we could incorporate to make the play even funnier. Some early concerns that I had were that not everyone would remember their lines on stage or suffer from stage fright because that would have been a disaster. At the beginning of the term, my skill level was okay because we were studying Commedia in class but there were things I needed to improve on like articulation and projection.
During the rehearsals leading up to the play, I tried my best to go off script and speak as loud as I possibly could to fill the auditorium. To help me with this, I practiced a lot at home with my mum because she studied drama at school. To help with my articulation, I did a lot of tongue twisters because they actually help a lot! I made progress because I was able to fill the auditorium with my voice and still have articulation in all of my sentences. In rehearsals, I learnt how to be a part of a BIG team and get along with everyone! I also learnt so much about live stage performance.
On the 26th (Wednesday) we had a dress rehearsal in which we had an audience of about seven or eight. I think that it went quit well but there were a few errors with sound effects which was okay because it was our first time performing with them. The feeling of performing was really good because the audience laughed at everything. If I were to grade myself using Criterion B, I would give myself a 9/10 because developed many skills and applied them to my performance. My performance also included my personal interpretation because I thought about what I found funny and played the scene that way to make it funnier. I would give everyone a score ranging from 3-9 out of ten too because I think that we all tried very hard in the rehearsal. My score for the ensemble averages out at around 7. Something that was really good was that no one forgot any lines on stage which helped the play to run smoothly and quickly, otherwise the play would have been extremely long. Something that was bad was that we hadn't done a proper full run before so the scene changes took quite a while which prolonged our performance slightly.
On the first night if the real performance, we had over 150 people watching us. I honestly think that it went really, really well. We had gotten feedback from the dress rehearsal and it was applied to our performance. The buzz that we got from the audience laughing was amazing! I would again give myself a 10/10 for this performance for the same reasons though I did improve from the dress rehearsal. I would give everyone a grade ranging from 4-10 because we put 100% effort in. As an ensemble I would give us an 8/10. One thing that didn't work out well was the sound effects because we hadn't rehearsed them enough. This did turn out to make a good thing though which was the improvisation we used when things didn't go to plan. Apparently, it all looked like it was part of the plan to mess up the sound effects which was a good thing too! It made the audience laugh even more.
On our last night performing, we had around the same amount of people watching us. This performance also went really well but I think that the first night was better because the audience laughed more. The buzz was still immense though! I think that I would give myself a 9/10 this time because I forgot one of my lines but it still ran smooth because was in one of my big paragraphs so I just skipped to the next sentence. I would give everyone a score ranging from 4-10 because some people still put loads of effort into the performance and tried their best! This averages out to about 8 again. One thing that went really well was that the sound effects were on time and the scene changes happened really quickly. This meant that the play wasn't 2 and a half hours long! One bad thing though was that people didn't remember their lines as much and were making small silly mistakes but it didn't have a big effect on how good the show looked!
I will take away so many things from this amazing experience. One of the major things is that I now have a connection with people from the lower grades and have so many new friends that I have become really close to. I learnt so much about making your voice heard and about friendship and happiness (the message in the play!). The thing I enjoyed most was performing live on stage for everyone to see and enjoy. Another thing that I liked was hearing the audience laugh because it made me feel really good. Things that I want to work on for next time is my evilness because I would like to play an evil role someday. Another thing is my improvisation on stage.
I can't believe that it is really over! All those weeks of rehearsing and it's finished :(.
It was so much fun. This is and experience that I will never forget!
And they all lived happily ever....in laughter.
On the 27th and the 28th of March, I took part in the MS production of 'The Love of Three Oranges'. I played Celio, the good Wizard, and nemesis to Fata Morgana. This is my reflection:
My first impression of the play when I had read the script was, this is going to be an awesome play. We had been doing Commedia in class so I thought that it would be a great experience for me and that it would help me in my learning. As I read the script, I could tell that it was a teenage version of the original play because it was full of lazzi and it was just hilarious! During rehearsals, I made contributions like ideas for blocking and small pieces of lazzi that we could incorporate to make the play even funnier. Some early concerns that I had were that not everyone would remember their lines on stage or suffer from stage fright because that would have been a disaster. At the beginning of the term, my skill level was okay because we were studying Commedia in class but there were things I needed to improve on like articulation and projection.
During the rehearsals leading up to the play, I tried my best to go off script and speak as loud as I possibly could to fill the auditorium. To help me with this, I practiced a lot at home with my mum because she studied drama at school. To help with my articulation, I did a lot of tongue twisters because they actually help a lot! I made progress because I was able to fill the auditorium with my voice and still have articulation in all of my sentences. In rehearsals, I learnt how to be a part of a BIG team and get along with everyone! I also learnt so much about live stage performance.
On the 26th (Wednesday) we had a dress rehearsal in which we had an audience of about seven or eight. I think that it went quit well but there were a few errors with sound effects which was okay because it was our first time performing with them. The feeling of performing was really good because the audience laughed at everything. If I were to grade myself using Criterion B, I would give myself a 9/10 because developed many skills and applied them to my performance. My performance also included my personal interpretation because I thought about what I found funny and played the scene that way to make it funnier. I would give everyone a score ranging from 3-9 out of ten too because I think that we all tried very hard in the rehearsal. My score for the ensemble averages out at around 7. Something that was really good was that no one forgot any lines on stage which helped the play to run smoothly and quickly, otherwise the play would have been extremely long. Something that was bad was that we hadn't done a proper full run before so the scene changes took quite a while which prolonged our performance slightly.
On the first night if the real performance, we had over 150 people watching us. I honestly think that it went really, really well. We had gotten feedback from the dress rehearsal and it was applied to our performance. The buzz that we got from the audience laughing was amazing! I would again give myself a 10/10 for this performance for the same reasons though I did improve from the dress rehearsal. I would give everyone a grade ranging from 4-10 because we put 100% effort in. As an ensemble I would give us an 8/10. One thing that didn't work out well was the sound effects because we hadn't rehearsed them enough. This did turn out to make a good thing though which was the improvisation we used when things didn't go to plan. Apparently, it all looked like it was part of the plan to mess up the sound effects which was a good thing too! It made the audience laugh even more.
On our last night performing, we had around the same amount of people watching us. This performance also went really well but I think that the first night was better because the audience laughed more. The buzz was still immense though! I think that I would give myself a 9/10 this time because I forgot one of my lines but it still ran smooth because was in one of my big paragraphs so I just skipped to the next sentence. I would give everyone a score ranging from 4-10 because some people still put loads of effort into the performance and tried their best! This averages out to about 8 again. One thing that went really well was that the sound effects were on time and the scene changes happened really quickly. This meant that the play wasn't 2 and a half hours long! One bad thing though was that people didn't remember their lines as much and were making small silly mistakes but it didn't have a big effect on how good the show looked!
I will take away so many things from this amazing experience. One of the major things is that I now have a connection with people from the lower grades and have so many new friends that I have become really close to. I learnt so much about making your voice heard and about friendship and happiness (the message in the play!). The thing I enjoyed most was performing live on stage for everyone to see and enjoy. Another thing that I liked was hearing the audience laugh because it made me feel really good. Things that I want to work on for next time is my evilness because I would like to play an evil role someday. Another thing is my improvisation on stage.
I can't believe that it is really over! All those weeks of rehearsing and it's finished :(.
It was so much fun. This is and experience that I will never forget!
And they all lived happily ever....in laughter.
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