Final Draft

Rough Draft

    Romeo and Juliet is a play that was written by Shakespeare in 1597. It is one of the most famous performance in this world, and also one of the most successful play of his products, just like Hamlet. It is about two young, star crossed lovers story. They were born in the ancient city of Verona, Italy. Their families are enemies for century, and I would like to describe it with a word that fits really well: "feud". They are the well known families "Montague and Capulet". This play is a tragic one, with a kind of bad ending as most of us think. But the purpose of our project is to make it funny. This is our way to make the adaption creative. We staged Romeo and Juliet as a comedy rather than a tragedy because modern audiences view the play as unrealistic. To show this, we modernized the setting, made the characters ridiculously funny, and used music to change the atmosphere of the play.

    The first scene that our group chose to act is the Act 1 Scene 5 of the play. This is the important scene that Romeo and Juliet first meet each other, and also one of the most important parts of the play. It brings up the story of the star crossed relationship, and begin the main story of the play. Shakespeare shows through his script that their first meeting is really impressive, magic and beautiful.  But this is not helping our modern audiences can understand their feeling well, or a silly can make it more "impressive". 

    In our group work, we decided to set it into a club. The background is really crowded, which makes our Romeo and Juliet "can't hear each other well". So they have to repeat couple of times.For example "Romeo.." "What?" "Romeo!" "I can't hear you! What?" This is the one way we make it funny. There are four members in our group, and the first meeting only required two actors for both Romeo and Juliet, so others will participate as the friends who come to the club with Romeo. I am one of them. Romeo and Juliet repeat the lines again and again, in a crowded club, with loud background club music. Juliet shakes Romeo, people are dancing, and Romeo's friend are making fun of Romeo. In the this scene, me and my partner of "the mess group" dance in the scene, and we encourage Romeo to go for Juliet, and we are happy about the the well-done of their "sweet first meeting". My partner and I are dancing with the background club music, and I am wearing a pair of sunglasses which is really helpful about the "club setting".  Due to the setting about modern era, Romeo as a modern teenager is flirting a little bit with Juliet. " O then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do " from line 114, Act 1 Scene 5 of the play Romeo and Juliet. Teenagers have their way to show their "interests" of each other. The well known first meeting scene is adapted by us with the extremely funny atmosphere and performance, I believe that is helpful to let the performance make more sense for modern audiences.           

    The second scene that our group choose to act is the Act 2 Scene 2, as one of the most well known and classic scene of the play Romeo and Juliet. They have already known each other, and the seeds of love are growing in their young hearts. But they are not sure about each other's situation and thoughts. They are thinking about each other all day long, they are excited about the feeling of love, although this kind of love comes quickly and unexpectedly. Until one day, Juliet was standing on the top of the balcony in her house. She speaks alone, only to herself and the moonlight. She tells her feeling of Romeo, how she feels bad about their poor situation about their feuding families which is making their relationship become impossible. "O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name. What's in a name? Romeo would, were he not Romeo called, retain that dear perfection which he owes without that title" from line 36-39, Act 2 Scene 2 of the play Romeo and Juliet. But she does not know that her young lover was just under the balcony, just under her feet. Romeo was encouraged and really excited about her words. His goddess comes to him at that night, and tells him that she already falls in love with him, a poor mortal. 

    In our group work, we decided to use the same set in the original play. But we will act to make it funny. There are three scenes that we are doing in total, and the four members of our group we have 3 boys and 1 girl. So the girl needs to act Juliet in the first two scenes, and our 3 boys are acting as Romeo one by one for each scene. Unfortunately I don't participate in this scene. But I believe my group is doing great enough even without me in this single scene. In the beginning of this scene, Juliet shows up on the "balcony" first, and acts creepy about Romeo. To be honest, when we try to make this adaption funny without changing the scripts from the original play, the best way we can do is testing our acting skills. Obviously our group actors are good at this. The girl acts creepy when she was alone and says about Romeo, but when Romeo comes up to the top of the balcony, she acts "shocked as hell", then she changes into a "goddess" again, but being sweet to Romeo. In this scene, Romeo is funny by the way he shows when he climbs up the balcony with funny actions. And then we play the music Mission Impossible during his "climbing action" to make the nervous atmosphere. He also acts super scared when nurse shouts Juliet's name (In this scene we didn't make anyone to act nurse but just shout from outside of the stage.) for example he falls every single when he hears the voice of nurse shouting. As oppositely, Juliet acts warm and soft compares with the beginning of the play the "creepy acts".  

    The final scene that our group choose to act is Act 3 Scene 1, as the one of the biggest turning point of the story in the play Romeo and Juliet. In this scene, the style of the play and the destiny of many characters in the play begin to change a lot, and it towards to the tragic ending directly. In this scene, Tybalt and Mercutio are about to fight with each other with blades. Under the background of the feud between the two families, and the event of Romeo came in the Capulet's family party. Romeo arrives and tries to stop the fight, therefore he comes into the fight. However, he blocks Mercutio and unexpectedly Tybalt stabs Mercutio and makes him died.  Then the young Romeo can not control his anger any more, he pick up the blade and fight with Tybalt. Finally and unfortunately he killed Tybalt. Then he ran away. In the early of the play, it is basically peaceful. The young teenager's love, the feud without blood. But this is the first time blood comes out in the play, and the two important characters for both of the two families died one by one. The feud of the family brings up into the highest place. And the judgement from the prince is hurtful, too. He is kind, instead of giving Romeo a death penalty, he gives Romeo banishment to leave the ancient city of Verona. But for Romeo, within his words, "so much worse that death." He has to live without his lover, which is he can't bear about. Then their dangerous plan comes out, and towards to the tragic ending: both Romeo and Juliet died, and they buried their life in the same tomb. So I see this scene as the most important turning point of the play. 

    In our group work, we decided to use blades to fight, which was the same setting in the original play. I am the Romeo this time. The point of comedy that we thought about is the secret weapon: Background music. We let Tybalt and Mercutio almost fight with each other in the beginning of the scene, the first part of the music that we chose is from the movie Crows Zero, it is the fighting and excited music. We played this music when the two boys are about to fight. Then me as Romeo comes in to the stage. I am there to stop the fight and conflict. Our group choose to find a lot of lines that let me to say them together to make it long and peaceful, just like the old professor is teaching high level maths class: the key word is boring. "Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee doth much excuse the appertaining rage to such a greeting. Villain am I none. Therefore farewell.  I see thou knowest me not... " from line 63-66, Act 3 Scene 1 of the play Romeo and Juliet. When I was doing my "speech", the two boys who were about  to fight start to act really boring and sleepy, they couldn't stand well even, and fell down couple times. As the most important, our secret weapon background music, we choose one from Spongebob Squarepants, which is really slow and peaceful. The big differences make the scene very funny, we really had a hard time try not to laugh when we were practicing. So I believe this can bring the best feeling for our audiences also.  

    These are our jobs. The creative and unique way to make modern audiences understand. Nowadays, this play now represents the young, immature and impulsive lovers with tragic ending. It shows us about how the teenager's inner world about how they think and consider "love" in their life. I believe that the teenagers never change, even through centuries. If you don't believe it, come and watch our scenes, and you will have a little bit different ideas.