Unit 3: Romey & J (Blog 4)

For this blog entry, we need to pick a scene we would like to perform.

I have chosen the balcony scene. I decided to do this scene because I know how famous this scene is and I wanted a chance to do it. So many famous people around the world have performed this scene . It is also a challenging scene and I think that  it is good to challenge myself. I like this scene because it is so sweet and lovely. That may sound like a very cliche thing to say but it is what I think and why I like this scene so much. Also, a lot of emotion is portrayed in this scene which will make it more fun to perform.

If I were to direct the scene, I would need to think about many different elements. Of course the scene will be set at the balcony of Juliette! But there are other things to think of like costumes and lighting. For the staging, I would probably make the balcony out of some chairs to stand behind and a small piece of platform for Juliette to stand on. Costumes would obviously be traditional and also with masks from the party before. For props we could have a rose or some sort of gift for Romeo to give Juliette even if it isn't in the script. For lighting, there would be spot lights on Romeo and Juliette. The one on Juliette would be off until she says her first line.

This is who I would cast in this scene

Romeo:

Farah. Because she is really sweet and kind like Romeo is. She is also uite sensitive when it comes to relationships as is Romeo. None of the boys in our class really fit the role of Romeo.

Juliette: 

Me. Because I think that I really suit her role as she is obeying to her parents and is fun loving just like me. I think I would be able to pull of Juliette

Nurse (Not really in the scene but is heard):

Guglie. Because he is very sarcastic like the Nurse and can be quite funny at times. The Nurse is very outspoken and Guglie does this a lot.

Did I choose a good cast?

That's all! Bye! xx <3

Unit 3: Romey & J - Reduced Shakespeare Company (Blog 3)

In class, we watched a version of Romeo and Juliette by the Reduced Shakespeare Company (R.S.C).
Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzVyqiskpMk
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKUyq-uCZr0

There were many Shakespearean elements in this version. This includes the fact that their were no girls at all during the play, just like there weren't any girls in Shakespeare's time. Also, they involved the audience a lot in the show. This includes breaking the fourth wall, and interacting with the audience. Whilst on stage, the actors would speak to the audience.

They also made some changes to the play. One of these things was that they broke character but on purpose. An example of this is at the end when Romeo kisses Juliette before he dies, Romeo breaks character and says 'Oh get over it!' to the audience. This is because, a modern day audience isn't used to seeing a boy kiss a boy so the R.S.C made a joke out of it. Another thing they changed was the script. They wanted to shorten the play so that they could fit more plays into their performance time. To do this they only used important scenes and only some of the lines. For example, they shortened the scene where Tybolt is killed to only a couple of seconds.

I don't think that this kind of performance would be successful in Shakespeare's time because it was adapted to suit a modern day audience. Many of the jokes made in the performance would not be funny in his time and no one would get the jokes.


-K xxx

Unit 3: Romey & J - Baz Luhrmann (Blog 2)

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

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)

http://italian.about.com/library/weekly/aa110800a.htm

http://www.bl.uk/treasures/shakespeare/basics.html

OWN KNOWLEDGE!!

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.

Final Draft Evaluation

Hello!

In class today, we performed our final draft of our Commedia Performance.

Part 1

The strength of our performance was the use of Gromalot in our performance. This is because we all used Gromalot. Though sometimes it was unclear, I feel that we improved a lot on it because we were actually using what sounded like words most of the time. Another strength of our performance was our mimed interactions. We had five mimed interactions during our scene which I think were very clear and made sense to the audience. We have improved on this from last lesson because we did not have as many mimes in our rough draft performance. 

If I were to score our performance, I would give us a 24/35 (6/10). 

Overall, I think that I tried very hard with this performance. I did as well as I could when speaking Gromalot and tried to stay in character even though Ayasha forgot to do the ending of our performance AGAIN. We practiced our performance quite a lot which helped our performance. I think I did my best. 

If we did have the opportunity to perform again, I would improve our scene structure. This is because, I felt it was a little unclear for the audience even though we had practiced a lot. To improve, we could create a scene structure that was easier to remember (as I touched on before). Also, we would improve our characterization in our performance to make it clearer as to who was who. We did try to improve on this by changing the way that we walk and also the way we speak. I still think that we can improve on this more if we had more time to practice and discuss our performance more thoroughly.

Part 2

A group that did as well as us was Amara and Ibtehal's group. This is because I feel that they met the same descriptors that we did and I would give them roughly the same score I gave my own group Ibtehal played Magnifico and Amara played either Zanni or Harlequino. I wasn't quite sure.

I think that the strengths of their performance included their audience interactions. This is because they made good use of audience interactions and also used takeouts to the audience. The final time of their performance was 4 minutes and 10 seconds which was in the time limit given to us. Another strength of their performance was the structure of the scene. It was clear that they had planned it well as they knew what they were doing and when they had to do it.

If I could, I would score them a 23/35 which is also a (6/10).

I think that they did try to do their best but didn't put 100% effort into their performance. They included most of the elements that have been shown on the rubric and effectively incorporated them into the performance. They also played along with the audience when they did something they weren't supposed to like throw the balls back at Ibtehal. They improvised and made it work. I am not sure if it was planned but it worked really well.

If they had a chance to improve, I would tell them to improve on their use of Gromalot and sound effects. This is because the use if them in the performance was limited as they did not use a lot of it but when they did, it was effective. I would also tell them to improve on their characterization because it was not clear what Amara's character was. This could be because I don't know the characters extremely well though so this is an unfair comment to make.

Part 3
A group that did not do as well as us was Nafisa and Shadman's group. NAfisa played the First actress on Shadman played the captain. I don't think they did as well as us because they did not meet a lot of the requirements listed on the rubric.

The strength of their performance was the use of Gromalot. I thought that it was quite clear even though Nafisa spoke for most of the performance and Shadman just said a couple of words. It was understandable for most of the performance put their were no sound effects used to enhance the performance.

If I were to give them a score, I would give them a 19/35 (4/10)

I think that Nafisa did try her best to perform well but it was difficult because it was clear that Shadman didn't practice and didn't put a lot of effort into his character. If he had tried harder, it would have been quite a good performance. It was clear Nafisa was trying hard since she took on the bulk of the performance whereas Shadman didn't do a lot.

If they had time to improve upon their scene, I would tell them to improve on their character movement and gesture. If they walked in the way that their character did, it would have been a more convincing Commedia scenario. I would also tell them to improve on their audience interactions because they did not have many and the one that they did have was confusing to some of the audience members as they did not know what they were supposed to do. The last thing that they could improve on was their scene structure. Some parts were a bit confusing and unclear and the performance was under the time limit given.

That is all I have to say for now!
Bye xx

Rough Draft Reflection

Hello! Once again, it's me; Kheilah. In class, we performed our rough draft of our final performance task.

Part 1: My Performance Evaluation
In my performance, I think that our mimes and interactions were the best aspect of our performance. I think this because, we used at least five mimes in our performance and they were quite clear. Also, I think that our Gromalot was OK but it can still be improved over time. our performance did go wrong at the end because Ayasha forgot some of our scene which impacted very heavily on the scene and we had to cut it short. She forgot to go fetch something from the audience which is what rounded off our performance.

This is the feedback that we received in class on Wednesday:
*Gromalot seemed to be repetitive
*Go back and research your characters to take a better look at how they move and their personalities
*Some of the audience interactions were confusing
*Plot line was also a little confusing


I think that we can improve by practicing more so that we are comfortable speaking loudly and clearly in Gromalot and also become more confident with it. I have gone back an researched more on the character of Columbina so I now have a better understanding of her which I will put into practice on Wednesday.

Specific improvements that we will make will mainly to be to do with the audience interactions and also the plot line of the scenario. This could include bringing someone up on stage and supporting them through the scene or including more takeouts to the audience. We may also change the plot to make it easier for the audience to understand us.

Part 2: A Group That Didn't Do As Well As Us
One group who's performance wasn't as good as ours was Arman and Farhan. Arman played Maginifico and Farhan played Zanni.

In their performance they did do some things well. This includes that it was clear what characters they were. They used clear movements and lead with their leading body part. This made it easy to determine who was who and what the status level was.

This is the feedback that I gave them:

*There was no Gromalot used little sound

*Would Magnifica hug Zanni? 

*More audience interactions (take outs)

*Don’t set up Zanni

*Back to the audience a lot

I would give them a 19/35 (4/10) based on the rubric

They need to improve on their gromalot because they didn't use any! They only had one sound in their entire performance and it was very short. All it was, was Magnifico shouting 'Oi!' at Zanni. Also, they need to take a look at how the characters treat each other as Magnifico wouldn't hug Zanni, though their characters were clear. Inlude more audience interactions and takeouts to get a higher level.

Part 3: A Group That Did Better Than Us
I think that Guglie and Rohan's group did better that us. Guglie played First actor, and Rohan played Maginfico.

They used Gromalot very well as it helped the scene and we could sort of understand them. They were confident with their Gromalot and almost spoke it fluently! It was as if Guglie knew the language (even though it really isn't a language, it's improvisation). They had a clear structure to their scene and it had a beginning, middle and end.

This is the feedback I gave them:

*Guglie controlled the scene

*Include Rohan more

*Use some sound effects

*Change the characters to make realistic

I would give them a 25/35 (6/10) based on the rubric

To improve, they should each have equal parts in the scene. Guglie kind of took over the scene as Rohan died quite early on in the scene. They spoke well in Gromalot so to improve even more, they could add appropriate sound effects like sad music when Rohan dies instead of Guglie just screaming and crying. I don't think that the first actor would ball his eyes out over Magnifico's dead body or even stab him for that matter. It's more something Brighella would do so they should re-think their characters.

This has been an update by...Moi! So thanks for reading! BYE! xx