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The first scene that our group choose 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 must try a lot to find a way to show that their first meet is really impressive, magic and beautiful.  But we don't believe that is 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. 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 messing 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 and interesting for our modern audiences to enjoy the play.                     

Thesis and outline

Thesis: 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.

First meet brings up the story of Romeo and Juliet

Funny, club setting

Balcony scene prove the relationship and love of Romeo and Juliet

Acting funny and music 

Fight scene foreshadowing and cause the tragic ending

Background music changing, act funny, the different characteristics  

The first draft ( I can't believe that I wrote almost 1600 words)

Romeo and Juliet is a play that was written by Shakespeare in 1597. It is one of the most famous play 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". 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. This play is a tragic one, with a kind of bad ending as most of us think. But our purpose is to make it funny. This is our way to make the adaption creative. Because we can't change the script but only the original text from the play, our group work is focusing on the performance to make it funny, and also set it into the modern era.  

The first scene that our group choose to act is the Act 1 Scene 5 of the play. This is the important scene that Romeo and Juliet first meet each other. This is 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 must try a lot to find a way to show that their first meet is really impressive, magic and beautiful. Also the way they meet needs to be creative, because they are not used to have a chance to meet each other. It is incredible for them because they are from the two opposite and feuding families. 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. This is the one way we make it funny. There are four members in our group, and the first meet 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 messing 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 meet".  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 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.)

The final scene that our group choose to act is the 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, in stead 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 is 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 choose is from the movie Crows Zero, it is the fighting and excited music. We play 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 dee 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 am 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.   

My scenes and the improvement <3

This is the first IB exam project that I am doing, and also the third scene works we worked as a group. Because this year is the first year that I get in touch with performance, so first of all that I attempt to work on is how to get more comfortable on the stage. This is also what my dear English teacher wrote about me in the comment of first quarter. She said "I have slowly gotten more comfortable on stage, and that made a big difference in what you can accomplish in my scenes". 

I have never experienced about acting and staging before, so it is really fresh for me. And the most important thing is that I am getting use to it. For example, I can control not to laugh in the performance when the script is really funny, the face to the audience, the voice, tone, and also how to use body language like what we did in public speaking also. So I guess this is one of the most important part that I am attempting to accomplish in the performance class. Because I am poor on the skills of acting, so get more relax and natural is required to make a good scene. The things that I get succeed I guess is about the setting. Although I am not the person who wrote the script directly, but I participate more and more, and then I can give more ideas. For example, I am good at the sense of humor a little bit, so when we are trying to make the scene funny, I can provide some funny ideas and ways to act. I know my English skills still need to be improved a lot, so I think participate more is the way to get it better. I can do better in memorize the lines of the script, then I don't have to be that hurry and nervous when the lines goes on my part. I think the "professional actors" in our school plays are good. Then even can adapt the scene when they are acting several times in a row. 

I think the progress about the rehearses and final draft is important, and interesting too. For a scene, I believe we can't do it better only by memorize the scripts well. We need a lot of time to adapt into the emotional style of the scene, then we can put our emotion in the play to make it real, and live. We also need to set in the characters. For example, my role of the Romeo in the third scene, my lines are made to make the play funny. They background music and the acting of Tybalt and Mercutio are serious and nervous, but when I came in the stage, the music changes into a peaceful and funny one. I speak a lot in one time and try to make it boring, like an old professor having science class or something. Then the two fighters are pretending that they are sleepy and boring. I tried several times to make it adapt well in the play, so the progress of rehearses are important. 

How may I improve in my scene??

I was surprised about how successfully we did about our scene in the first draft. I feel happy because we did work a lot and now we deserve to have the "payment". But as a purpose to make it better and better, we still have a lot of things to work on. For example, it is always better for us to memorize the scripts and lines that we have. Because if we can perform without the sheet with script, then we can focus more on our acting. Also the accuracy about our acting. It provides the high quality of our play. 

In another way, our setting can be improve also. For example, in the first scene our background music, the club music is too loud compare to our scene, then the audience couldn't hear it clearly. Then we need to act it more naturally. Our ideas are perfect and funny I believe, and now it only take time our progress of acting.    

My role of the script

As our setting and the roles of the play, there are three scenes of our play, and we have Romeo as the main character for all three of them. We have 4 people in the group and 3 of us are male, so we play Romeo for each scene one by one. In the first two scenes there's not any other players should exist in the scene, so other actors of our group are participating as "environment". For example in the first meet scene which we set in some place like a club, the other actors are pretending that they are drunk and mess up the talk between Romeo and Juliet. So obviously, our work is to make the scene as funny as we can! It is a kind of creative subject that we are doing, and the best way to make it and adapt it better is to make it funny, as a style through all of the play.  

Scripts that we will do))

Scene 1.5

In this scene, we are going to show the scene that Romeo and Juliet first meet each other. 

Settings: Club, LOUD MUSIC, CROWD

Characters: Romeo(James), Juliet(Olivia)

Costumes: Casual

At least five people are acting funny. 

Romeo is talking to his friends. He saw Juliet and came to her. 

Because of the loud music, people can't really hear each other. Romeo and Juliet repeat the lines again and again. Juliet shakes Romeo. People are dancing. Romeo’s friends make fun of Romeo.

R: My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand. To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.

J: Good pilgrim. For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch, and palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss.

R: Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too? 

J: Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.

R: O then, let lips do what hands do 

J: Saints do not move.

R: Then move not. 

(He kisses her) 

my sin is purged 

J: Then have my lips the sin that they have took. 

R: Sin from my lips? Give me my sin again. 

(Kiss again)

(Juliet exits)

2.2 

Juliet acts creepy(obsessed with Romeo)

J: 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. 

R: I take thee at thy word! 

(Runs to Juliet’s house and climbs up to the balcony) 

Music: Mission Impossible

I never will be Romeo! (his face and clothes are dirty)

J: (Juliet shocked as hell) What man art thou that? So stumblest on my counsel? 

Art thou not Romeo and a Montague?

R: Neither. If either thee dislike.

J: (Worried, and shocked) the place death, considering who thou art, if any of my kinsmen find thee here. 

R: Thy kinsmen no stop to me.

J: They will murder you thee!

(Nurse calls from within) 

(Romeo is frightened and tries to hide somewhere)

J: Stay but a little, I will come again.

(Juliet exits)

R: O blessed, blessed night! 

(3 seconds later she comes back)

Three words, dear Romeo, and good night indeed. 

R: If my heart’s dear love...

(from inside) Nurse: Madam! 

(Romeo is frightened again and almost crying)

J: I come---- A thousand times good night.

(She exits) 

Scene 3.1

Characters: Romeo(Joseph), Mercutio(James), Tybalt(Ryan). 

(though it is modern time period, they use sword to fight)

Walk in peacefully. (With a good mood)

Tybalt: Gentlemen, Good e’en. 

M: Make it a word and blow. 

T: You shall find me apt enough to that sir, an you will give me occasion. Mercutio, thou consortest with Romeo. 

M: What? dost thou make us minstrels? An thou make minstrels of us, look to hear nothing but discords. Here’s my fiddlestick ; here’s that shall make you dance. Zounds , consort!

M: Well, peace be with you, sir. Here comes my man . Romeo, the love I bear thee can afford No better term than this: thou art a villain.

Romeo walks in

R: 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. 

M: Tybalt, you rat catcher , will you walk? 

T: What wouldst thou have with me? 

Start fighting

R: Tybalt, Mercutio, The Prince expressly hath forbid this bandying in Verona streets. 

Romeo holds Mercutio.

Tybalt stabs Mercutio. 

M: I am hurt. A plague o’ both houses! I am sped .’tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as the church's door. M Why the devil came you between us? I was hurt under your arm.
I thought all for the best.

R: This day’s black fate on more days doth depend . This but begins the woe others must end. Now, Tybalt, take the “villain” back again That late thou gavest me, for Mercutio’s soul. 

T: Thou wretched boy that didst consort him here Shalt with him hence.

They fight, Romeo stabs tybalt. 
Remember: when Romeo stabs SLOW MOTION 
Tybalt dies. 
Romeo is horrified, and he runs away.