* Romeo and Juliet Performance -- October 2011*

Having the chance to participate in my school’s interpretation of the “Romeo and Juliet” play was over all a very exciting and life changing experience, from the very beginning to end.

I went through a lot of different emotions as during the three months of rehearsals. I was nervous for the castings, as the character I wanted to interpret (Lady Capulet) requires skills that I didn’t particular feel comfortable with doing such as singing in public, specially a difficult song such as “The dog days are over”. As I had to compete against very good singers I felt very stressed and preoccupied, as I wasn’t sure if I could make it. However, starting in the auditions, I started to bond with other students and got some of those talented singers such as Nicole and Katy ( The Juliets)  to help me with get through them. I still remember the day I was told that I got the part, as although at the time I had already participated in other school and extracurricular productions, I think it was that feeling you get after overcoming what you think at the time is a big and challenging obstacle or goal that overwhelmed me.

In order to be a good performer,  I think that it is vital to demonstrate that you have a lot to offer, and that you are able to try and perform any role you are challenged with. You need to have special skills other than just acting in order to do so, and singing is essential for any musical performing which is what I like doing and would like to study. In this production, not only I got to improve my acting skills, but also my singing skills. I got to work with professional singing instructors who taught me skills on how to moderate and control my voice. It was intense training and coaching, and very stressful as the rest of the main characters where so talented at it, but that help and confidence from teachers and my partners, so made feel stronger every day and want to improve myself every day.

The nights of the shows( being exposed to such a great audience ), were a key point to loosing your voice as it was very easy to be overtaken by nervousness. Automatically in these situations, this feeling encourages you to sing louder and force your voice, as you forget about controlling it and make it louder unconsciously. To overcome this emotion, I followed a technique taught to me by my singing instructor, that she liked calling ‘’Mother Nature’’, consisting o opening your chest up and your legs to find stability in your body and balance, to help you stick to the ground and feel like you have space to “express” you feelings ( the song) comfortably without feeling like you have to shout as you feel trapped by the huge audience surrounding you. Also, a vital thing in theatre is not what you say, but the intention with how you deliver it, and because my song was submerged in the context of the funeral atmosphere, I could find refuge in my feelings of absolute sadness and fury to help me transmit my song better, using an aggressive tone and strong intonations.

Funeral singing scene

One of our drama teachers told us that n order for our characterization to be successful, we had to start getting into our roles in the wings, at least a minute before we went on stage. I learned that this was very true, and when I had to cry in a scene ( Tybalt’s death scene), I would start preparing myselfmentally for it, so in the scene I would appear ready once the lights went on.

Juliet's funeral scene

 In order to successfully acquire the character you are playing, you have to become intimate friends with him/her. You have to know everything about them, what they like doing and what they don’t, what they, their stories, experiences and memories, and what their goal is in life or a particular situation. That way, it’s as if you are understanding yourself, helping you make the right decisions when expressing your character. This idea connects with Stanislavsky’s quote of “ If you are playing a villain, think of all the good things about him, and if you are playing a noble man, think of all the evil things about him”.
I researched to get information from other movies, other interpretations of Lady Capulet from other movies, and I found that they were mainly divided into two different attitudes, one was very passive and nice, and the other one was very bitter.
   When choosing how I wanted to perform my character and in what direction I wanted to take her, it was sometimes difficult to decide, as when analysing my lines and the tone and pace they required in order to build a character, my vision of it was sometimes different to that of the vision the director had of Lady Capulet.  As I was used to independently devising my own characters in my previous drama classes, one of the things I found challenging about the play was following orders on how the director wanted my character to be. I learned that it was important to try other things, especially when people more experienced than you gave you the advice, as well as learning that even though I may have a very set image and view of my own Lady Capulet, when working for a production you have to follow the directors orders. This play helped all of us get used to what it feels to be part of a real production and gave us experience for other productions we will join.

I believe that the way I managed to add and enrich the play with my intervention was by adding humour to some parts as well as being a very evil character. The feedback I was gives from members of the audience wads that Lady Capulet was a very enjoyable character, as she was a typical mother that was only able to think about fortune and status, and that her way of moving around the stage was comical in the sense that it she was very coquette, flirty and conceited with her body language and facial expressions. At the same time, I was very pleased to her that she managed to show change within emotions very powerfully, as in the scene where she finds her daughter dead, she shows a breakdown to reality and allows herself to feel great pain and regret for someone so dear as Juliet.

I really enjoyed adapting to the modernized concept to the play. The use of technology such as videos on the internet to show the news from Verona or the skype calls between the lovers were very clever and fun touches we adapted.  Also, it was very interesting and enjoyable to add music and dancing to the scenes, as it helped us transmit the play better to a more modern and young public. We got the honour to explore Shakespeare’s style and genre through the play, and created a contrast between the modern date that the play was developed upon and the traditional language used in the script. It was challenging to get used to speaking in verse all the time, and difficult as the delivering of the line structures changed. In order to adapt ourselves to the concept of language, we had to use it all the time. I remember how we were given a sheet of paper with a lot of insults in old Shakespearian language, to apply to our vocabulary of the fight scenes. That exercise was very amusing as the language was in a way hilarious due to its translated interpretation now, and so we all rally enjoyed exploring those enriching tastes of time and culture. 

Lady Capulet and Juliet after Tybelts death scene- For this scene, my character had changed showed her most bitter and eveil side by talking about a painful revenge for Romeo. In this scene, i wanted to act desperate, angry and take it a bit to the extreme, being very manipulative and dangerous. I did this by talking ver harshly and quickly, having very strong and hard gestures with juliet for example when i was holding on to her hands very strongly as shown above to shoe power and termination, articulating my words making them bigger along with my eyes, to show how i was vicious for revenge.