Mirror, Mirror

In our scene, we were attempting to draw attention to Shakespeare's mirroring of Romeo and Juliet.  The scene turned out well, but given more time to specifically work with Maddy on our blocking and reactions, it could have gone better.  We did a good job with the time we had to learn to act similarly on stage and to express similarity in the double monologue.  If we had more time, we could have expanded on our reactions, our facial expressions and our blocking.  We tried to react upset in the same manner.  This was not easy because our dialogue portrayed slightly different reactions. For example, the Nurse had to tell Juliet what happened, while Romeo already knows he killed Tybalt and will most likely have a severe consequence.  The similarity is that both characters think banishment is worse than death.  We chose to portray this similarity by putting emphasis on the word "banish." This is one aspect that we added to our acting between the first and final draft.  

We also edited the scenes to make them one big scene.  This included making the stage look similar to a mirror.  By this,  I mean that Maddy and I started back to back during our double monologue. From the monologues, we moved to opposite sides of the stage and Adler moved from one side to the other performing a part of the scene with each of us.  Having him play the Nurse and Friar Lawrence, also showed the similarity between the scenes.  

The costumes used and the mattresses created more emphasis on the mirroring.   Romeo and Juliet's costume were similar in color adding to the audience's perception of the mirror.  Adler was wearing white, which fit both the role a nurse and a friar. In addition, the white was different from the orange/red color of Romeo and Juliet.  

At first, the mattress was only going to be  used on Juliet's side of the stage, but as we practiced the scene, we decided to add the mattress into Romeo's blocking.  Not only does it add to the drama of the scene, it also displays the mirroring.  When Friar Lawerence is telling Romeo about Juliet, he says "O, she says nothing, sir, but weeps and weeps; And now falls on her bed; and then starts up."  This is exactly the way Romeo has just acted.  Romeo tells the Friar off, saying that he does not understand what Romeo is going through then falls on the mattress, and as soon as Friar Lawrence brings up Juliet, Romeo rises to ask about her.  

I think that my part went well. I forgot one line during our final draft, but that was also the first time I  ran the scene without my script.  I also think our timing was good during the double monologue.  In the beginning, I thought that the double monologue was going to be too hard to pull off.  Considering it was my first monologue and double monologue, I am proud of what Maddy and I accomplished.  While, the timing was good during the monologue, I still need to work on talking slower on stage and following the pacing of the people I'm acting with.  My acting has changed dramatically from the beginning of the class to now.  Before taking the class, I had always worked backstage and never onstage.  I can tell that I am becoming more used to acting and more confident in myself onstage.  Overall, I think our scene went well, we could have focused more on blocking, but we had a limited amount of time.