Scene Reflection

Scene Reflection

After practicing the second balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet for so many times, the shooting day finally came. In this scene, Romeo and Juliet’s blockings and actions had changed a lot through me and Kate’s each times’ acting. Every time we go over it, we can always find things that can change better. Also, with Ms. Guarino and other classmates’ help and suggestions, we fixed the problem of balancing two characters’ emotion. If one has a really strong emotion and the other has to be dramatic as well. However, in the final shooting day, mu Juliet, Kate, was sick; so the role of Juliet was replaces by Sam.

The final shot is not the same as what I expected, but it is still good. There are two unchangeable reasons: one is the staging, and the other is the replace of Juliet. The feeling of having a brand new Juliet is really weird. Many of Kate’s and my original plan was different. Especially in our original planning, one action is that Romeo runs to Juliet then they embrace together. Juliet needs to hug Romeo’s neck and Romeo hug Juliet’s waist. Since Kate is shorter then me, it is convenient for us to do this action. But Sam is taller then me, and she has to hold her scripts, which means when I tried to hug her waist, I was like a little girl who snuggled close up to her lover. Another problem was that I recited my script so fast. If I have a second chance, I can do much better. I was so anxious when facing a girl who practiced the scene with me only once. Sam is a good actor, but we are lack of tacit understanding and practicing.

On the other hand,  I think both me and Kate improved. When we first practiced our scene, we stood on the narrow hallway and read our scripts. Neither of us could read our script fluently. We didn’t understand the meaning of the script and the emotion of Romeo and Juliet at all. But through our practice and fixing, our scene changed from a broadcast that only has sounds to a real play. To portray a character successfully, the actor should think him or her self as the character but not an actor. Shakespeare doesn’t limited characters’ emotion and actions, which make every one has different understanding to his play. By engaging the scene in life, I first thought about my emotion in the same situation with Romeo and Juliet. Then I though about what Romeo will do when he leaves Juliet. I was also puzzled when practicing. I was too worried about whether I could act a male character. I wondered where I should put my hand and where I should stand. But Ms. Guarnio tells me to be my self. The more I think about these unnecessary petty actions the scene will be more unnatural. Without acting this scene, I could never know these strategies of acting.