Blog Post 5

I think that the immediate past and Lord Capulet’s emotions play a big role in his personality, his motivation and his actions. In this scene, I hope to portray all of these as a way to demonstrate the meaning behind his motivation.  

Even though he is not present for the beginning or for the majority of the scene, Lord Capulet has a large influence on the direction that the scene takes. Because he is eager to make peace within his family after Romeo murders Tybalt, he makes the decision that Juliet will marry Prince, regardless of what she actually wants to do. If Lord Capulet did not decided to make this decision, this scene would never have taken place.

Once Lord Capulet enters Juliet’s room, he quickly becomes upset at fact that Juliet does not want to marry Prince. I believe Lord Capulet feels guilty over Tybalt’s death, mostly because Tybalt had tried to get rid of Romeo at the party and Lord Capulet stopped him. I think this makes him prone to anger when Juliet refuses to do what he says, because she is making it hard for him to move on and forget about Tybalt’s death.

Lord Capulet’s response to Juliet puts a strain on their relationship. If we look at it from his view, his daughter no longer respects him and refuses to obey him. However, if we look at it from Juliet’s perspective, she feels cheated by her father since he is making her marry someone against her will. This disconnect between the two of them will heighten the tension in the scene.

I do not think Lord Capulet thinks about the entire possible future if Juliet were to marry Prince. Because he is so one sided, I think he will only see a positive outcome- that everyone in family will be happy and that Juliet will be protected. Not once does he stop to think about or ask why Juliet does not want to go through with the marriage. In our scene, I hope to portray this as an emotion of desperateness. He is so concerned with what he wants, that he is unaware of how Juliet is feeling.

I believe his disregard for what Juliet wants is a key factor to show in this scene as a way to establish his motivation. Lord Capulet has become so desperate to find peace, that he is unaware/blind to what torment he is subjecting his daughter to. In a way, he believes he is only doing well by Juliet because she cannot tell him the entire truth.  

If I can achieve all of this, I think I will clearly be able to show exactly who my character has become at this point in the play and what his new motivations are. Again, I will have to focus on Lord Capulet’s complicated emotions, extreme actions, and immediate past in order to show his exact mindset and to clearly establish his motivation. I look forward to playing this character and to portraying his complicated goals.  

Performance Log #1

While I was absent, I spent a lot of time going over in my head what I wanted to achieve in my scene and with my partners. While I was gone, I thought that despite having amazing group partners, it would be harder for me to use my ideas in the scene since they had been working on it without me. However, I was overjoyed when I returned to class; my scene partners are not only amazing, they are open to change. When we finally got to work together, everything seemed to fall into place.

When I returned to class, the first thing my group did was discuss our ideas for costuming. While this may seem not as important as blocking, it actually helped us analyze and visualize our characters together. We were able to incorporate our ideas together, and create something that made us all equally as happy. Now that we had a goal for what we wanted our characters to look like, we did decided to focus more on our set. When we finished discussing costumes, we moved on to what staple items we wanted to have on the set. We decided that in order to establish the fact that the scene takes place in Juliet’s bedroom that we would need a bed, a dresser and two different doors (or in this case, exists).  

However, what really made our scene click is when we drew out our staging. This not only gave my group a physical idea of what we wanted our stage to look like, it also made it easier to block our movements. As we went through the scene with our “new” set, we could really focus in on each individual line and figure out what movements and blocking we wanted to happen during them. Nothing was decided without talking about it, we discussed our propose for moving when we did and how it would help the other actors in the scene.

When we began to read through the script multiple times with the blocking, more emotion was developing in our lines. Anger (Lord Capulet), despair (Juliet), and hopefulness (Lady Capulet), three main feelings from each of the characters, were starting to show in our scene. Because we now had the fundamentals to our blocking precisely as we wanted them, there was more room to include the emotion.

I also think that once we are able to run through our scene on the actual stage, it will fall even more into place. However, not one strategy we have tried has failed and think overall, we are a great group that is open to change, works well, and understands who are characters are. That being said, I want us to push ourselves in our scene. There is always room for improvement, and I would like to see us always trying to make the scene better. So far, I think my group is off to a great start and I look forward to seeing what we do with together.   

Blocking, Costumes, and Props For Our Scene

For our scene, I had a few ideas for costumes. I thought it might be interesting if we interpreted our scene in a modern view, while keeping it minimalistic. I thought both Lord and Lady Capulet should wear all black, except for one accent of a color. I think black brings a very professional and mature feeling in a scene, and because of how tense this scene is it seemed to work. I want the accents of color to be different on each of the actors, with one wearing a red and the other a blue item. It is commonly thought that blue and red are opposites, so I thought this would symbolize Lord and Lady Capulet’s role within the family’s hierarchy. For Juliet, I wanted her to wear white, to symbolize her purity.  I also wanted her accent to be purple, to show the audience that she isn’t just like her mother or her father (if she were, I would have her either wear red or blue), but she is like both of them and also her own person. Purple is the color you get when you combine red and blue, but it is also its own, new color. This will also symbol the disconnect between herself and her parents.

As for staging, I want there to minimal props on stage. It is supposed to been Juliet’s bedroom, but I don’t want anything too distracting that will take away from the actors. While we are still figuring out the blocking, I want Juliet at one point to get on her knees while Lord Capulet is yelling at her. This will show the power he has over her and how controlling he is being. I think when the scene begins, Juliet should be the only one on stage, possibly sitting on her bed. Her mother should enter from stage right, and sit with her. When Juliet objects, she should stand. When Lord Capulet enters from stage left (having both parents enter from opposite sides will show the disconnect between them and highlight the difference between their two colors. It will also allude to them living in a big house) he should stay in the downstage corner until he gets more angry. I don’t want Juliet to look at him until he comes to her side, however, Lady Capulet should be watch him. This will make the scene have more tension and be more dramatic.  

This is only the basic blocking so far, but I am sure once my group begins collaborating together, new ideas will emerge. I look forward to help create this scene. My goals are to make it dramatic and full of tension, so that we can highlight how much the characters have changed. I think the full focus of the scene should be on the actors, and keeping the props and costumes to a minimum will only add to this. I want the scene to be intense and full of passion, and hopefully, our blocking, costuming, props, and everything that has yet to be developed will help us achieve that.   

Stanslovski Presentation

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/17x34KFb89ADaCytPAYo_gM7iy4lORShPIleumGEmoJE/edit?usp=sharing

Romeo and Juliet Script

Abigail: Lord Capulet 45

Nancy: Lady Capulet 41

Betty: Juliet 46

Juliet:

O fortune, fortune! all men call thee fickle:
If thou art fickle, what dost thou with him.
That is renown'd for faith? Be fickle, fortune;
For then, I hope, thou wilt not keep him long,
But send him back.

LADY CAPULET
[Within] Ho, daughter! are you up?

JULIET
Who is't that calls? is it my lady mother?

ENTER LADY CAPULET

LADY CAPULET
Why, how now, Juliet!

JULIET
Madam, I am not well.

LADY CAPULET
Evermore weeping for your cousin's death?
What, wilt thou wash him from his grave with tears?

JULIET
Yet let me weep for such a feeling loss.

LADY CAPULET
So shall you feel the loss, but not the friend
Which you weep for.

JULIET
Feeling so the loss,
Cannot choose but ever weep the friend.

LADY CAPULET
Well, girl, thou weep'st not so much for his death,
As that the villain lives which slaughter'd him.

JULIET
What villain madam?

LADY CAPULET
That same villain,

Romeo.

JULIET
[Aside] Villain and he be many miles asunder.--
God Pardon him! I do, with all my heart;
And yet no man like he doth grieve my heart.

LADY CAPULET
That is, because the traitor murderer lives.

JULIET
Ay, madam, from the reach of these my hands:
Would none but I might venge my cousin's death!

LADY CAPULET
We will have vengeance for it, fear thou not:
Then weep no more. I'll send to one in Mantua,
Where that same banish'd runagate doth live,
Shall give him such an unaccustom'd dram,
That he shall soon keep Tybalt company:
And then, I hope, thou wilt be satisfied.

JULIET
Indeed, I never shall be satisfied
With Romeo, till I behold him--dead--
Is my poor heart for a kinsman vex'd.
Madam, if you could find out but a man
To bear a poison, I would temper it;
That Romeo should, upon receipt thereof,
Soon sleep in quiet. O, how my heart abhors
To hear him named, and cannot come to him.
To wreak the love I bore my cousin
Upon his body that slaughter'd him!

LADY CAPULET
Find thou the means,

And I'll find such a man.
But now I'll tell thee joyful tidings, girl.

JULIET
And joy comes well in such a needy time:
What are they, I beseech your ladyship?

LADY CAPULET
Well, well, thou hast a careful father, child;
One who, to put thee from thy heaviness,
Hath sorted out a sudden day of joy,
That thou expect'st not nor I look'd not for.

JULIET
Madam, in happy time, what day is that?

LADY CAPULET
Marry, my child, early next Thursday morn,
The gallant, young and noble gentleman,
The County Paris, at Saint Peter's Church,
Shall happily make thee there a joyful bride.

JULIET
Now, by Saint Peter's Church and Peter too,
He shall not make me there a joyful bride.
I wonder at this haste; that I must wed
Ere he, that should be husband, comes to woo.
I pray you, tell my lord and father, madam,
I will not marry yet; and, when I do, I swear,
It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate,
Rather than Paris. These are news indeed!

LADY CAPULET
Here comes your father;

Tell him so yourself,
And see how he will take it at your hands.

Enter CAPULET

CAPULET
How now! a conduit, girl? what, still in tears?
Evermore showering? How now, wife!
Have you deliver'd to her our decree?

LADY CAPULET
Ay, sir; but she will none,

She gives you thanks.
I would the fool were married to her grave!

CAPULET
Is she not proud? doth she not count her blest,
Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought
So worthy a gentleman to be her bridegroom?

JULIET
Not proud, you have; but thankful, that you have:
Proud can I never be of what I hate;
But thankful even for hate, that is meant love.

CAPULET
How now, how now, chop-logic! What is this?
'Proud,' and 'I thank you,' and 'I thank you not;'
And yet 'not proud,' mistress minion, you,
Thank me no thankings, nor, proud me no prouds,
But fettle your fine joints 'gainst Thursday next,
To go with Paris to Saint Peter's Church,
Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither.
Out, you green-sickness carrion! out, you baggage!
You tallow-face!

LADY CAPULET
Fie, fie! what, are you mad?

JULIET
Good father, I beseech you on my knees,
Hear me with patience but to speak a word.

CAPULET
Hang thee, young baggage! disobedient wretch!
I tell thee what: get thee to church o' Thursday,
Or never after look me in the face:
Speak not, reply not, do not answer me;
My fingers itch. Wife, we scarce thought us blest
That God had lent us but this only child;
But now I see this one is one too much,
And that we have a curse in having her:
Out on her, hilding!

LADY CAPULET

God in heaven bless her!

You are to blame my lord to rate her so.

I speak no treason,

May not one speak?


CAPULET
God's bread! it makes me mad:
Day, night, hour, tide, time, work, play,
Alone, in company, still my care hath been
To have her match'd: and having now provided
A gentleman of noble parentage,
Of fair demesnes, youthful, and nobly train'd,
Stuff'd, as they say, with honourable parts,
Proportion'd as one's thought would wish a man;
And then to have a wretched puling fool,
A whining mammet, in her fortune's tender,
To answer 'I'll not wed; I cannot love,
I am too young; I pray you, pardon me.'
But, as you will not wed, I'll pardon you:
Graze where you will you shall not house with me:
Look to't, think on't, I do not use to jest.
Thursday is near; lay hand on heart, advise:
An you be mine, I'll give you to my friend;
And you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in
the streets,
For, by my soul, I'll ne'er acknowledge thee,
Nor what is mine shall never do thee good:
Trust to't, bethink you; I'll not be forsworn.

Exit

JULIET
O, sweet my mother, cast me not away!
Delay this marriage for a month, a week;
Or, if you do not, make the bridal bed