Body paragraph

In the first scene that our group acted, Act 1, Scene 5, we used music and exaggerated acting to emphasize the ridiculousness of the scene. In the original story,  Rome and Juliets' first meeting scene is very romantic and beautiful. They fall in love with each other at FIRST sight in the party. However, our group found several unrealistic parts in the scene and thought this scene wouldn't make sense if it happened in the modern life. First of all, Romeo and Juliets' lines in this scene are very emotional and quite serious like "My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss" (Act 1, Scene 5, line 106,107). However, audiences feel those words are too flirty and the fact that they are only 13 and 16 years old teenagers also makes audiences laugh. To describe the ridiculousness and make laughter points we put some sources of real club in now days. First, if it happened a real club, we thought people need to yell at each other and keep repeat to communicate in the club with loud music. We put song 'shot' by Lmfao which is really noisy and typical club music. And other actors instead of Romeo and Juliet danced and sang right next to them when they were trying to flirt each other with heavy lines. So, Romeo had no chance but to keep repeat his flirty words which cuts off the flow of their romantic mood and converts the whole scene from romance to comedy. Also, Romeo's friends show weird dance moves and act like crazy people exactly like drunk people in the club. I hope that reinterpreting this beautiful scene to funny scene makes Romeo and Juliet more familiar to modern audiences.

Out line

Thesis - Although Romeo and Juliet is the one of the most famous romantic tragedy, our group thought this story wouldn't make sense if this happened in the modern days and we found unreal parts. So, we approached with totally new perspective and reinterpreted as a comedy. We used music, props, and exaggerated acting such as facial expression, voice tone, and mime to emphasize the ridiculousness of our performance.

Out line
Intro 
 -Basic information of the story
 -Chosen scenes/lines
 -Thesis

Body 1 (Act 1, scene 5)
 - Analyze about the scene and explain why I chose
 - How we performed (music, setting, and acting)

Body 2 (Act 2, scene 2)
 - Analyze about the scene and explain why I chose
 - How we performed (music, setting, and acting)

Body 3 (Act 3, scene 1)
 - Analyze about the scene and explain why I chose
 - How we performed (music, setting, and acting)

Conclusion
- Restate the thesis
- Reflect the project

First draft

The assignment that what I was asked to do was to choose one theme and show it in three scenes by acting. There was few themes such as feud, love between Romeo and Juliet, and new perspective that Romeo and Juliet could be a comedy instead of tragedy which I was really interested in. Although Romeo and Juliet is the one of the most famous romantic tragedy, our group thought this story wouldn't make sense if this happened in the modern days and we found unreal parts out from the several scenes. So, we approached with totally new perspective and analyzed in our own way. Also, we put some laughter points in the each scenes to make our performance as comedy. The scenes that we chose to reproduce was the first meeting scene of Romeo and Juliet, the balcony scene, and the fighting scene between Tybalt, Mercutio, and Romeo.

In the original story, Romeo and Juliets' first meeting is very romantic, beautiful, and pretty serious. However, we imagined that first meeting in the club with loud music might not be so romantic if that happened in modern days. We interrupted Romeo and Juliet and cut their conversation off by loud music and crowded people in the club, so we expressed what would really happen in real life.

The second scene was a balcony scene which is one of the most beautiful and famous scene in the entire story. In the original scene, Romeo and Juliet confirms their love toward each other. Everything becomes serious by that confirmation and the real tragedy begins from this significant scene. However, we tried to think outside the box because we thought it will be extremely hilarious if we reinterpret this scene as a comedy successfully. Firstly, we slightly changed Juliet's characteristic from lovely girl who fell in love to girl who is crazily obsessed with Romeo. We tried to show the craziness that every normal girl has. Therefore, Juliet acted her monologue exaggeratingly to show the ordinary girl in reality. Second point of this scene was when Romeo climbs up the wall of Juliet's house and reach to the balcony. It sounds really cool when the male main character climbs up the wall and reaches there like a hero, but we doubted it. Honestly, in real life, it won't look really cool as how they described in the book. So, we decided to make climbing scene as the biggest laughter point. We inserted music from the movie '"Mission Impossible" when I who acted Romeo in second scene mimed climbing. The hardest thing to act in this scene was suppressing a smile because I had to act most hilariously that I could do. Also, the important point of this scene was Romeo acts like he is the coolest guy, but in audience's perspective, he is just a funny character.

The final scene was the scene that we put most effort to make the scene more fun. In the book this scene is the beginning of the peak in the story. Two sub-characters, Mercutio and Tybalt, die, and this scene leads lots of people to death. As we approached to the previous scenes, we tried to make this extremely serious scene to a hilarious scene. Our group had the most difficult time in the progress because every single lines were so serious and heavy, but we couldn't change any lines. "The reason that I have to love thee Doth much excuse the appertaining rage to such a greeting. I do protest I never injured thee but love thee better than thou canst devise till thou shalt know the reason of my love."(Act 3, Scene 1, Romeo's line) So, the first thing we started to think was changing the characteristic of Mercutio and Tybalt like how we did to Julie in the second scene. So, we made Mercutio and Tybalt cowards who pretend to be strong men. And then we came up with an idea that it will be fun if there is a mood change when Romeo appears and speaks about love and peace while Mercutio and Tybalt are fighting. To give an immediate mood change, we put very serious music from the movie "Crows Zero" when two sub-characters are fighting, and peaceful and calm music when Romeo starts to give long speech about love.

Fortunately, most of our ideas that we intended came out successfully. All of our group members acted adequately based on the new characteristics that we altered. Also, new concepts and laughter points in each scenes worked properly as we meant. Only thing that I would wanted more was about our acting. We didn't have enough time to practice as a group and memorize the lines perfectly, so there were some parts that wasn't smooth enough. Also, I think we could've put some more funny sources and made the first scene more detailed and funny if we had more actors. Actually our group was so nervous and afraid about this assignment at the beginning. We were all worrying and suspicious about how it would come out when we actually act it before the first rehearsal. However, most of our performance went pretty well in the first rehearsal, and I was so glad when audiences, classmates and teacher, understood our concepts and those make them laugh. We became more confident after the first draft and we could complete the final draft successfully.

 

Behind story of Romeo and Juliet Comic Version

 The assignment that what I was asked to do was to choose one theme and show it in three scenes by acting. Although Romeo and Juliet is the one of the most famous romantic tragedy, our group thought this story wouldn't make sense if this happened in the modern days. So, we approached with totally new perspective and analyzed in our own way.
 In the original story, Romeo and Juliets' first meeting is very romantic, beautiful, and pretty serious. However, we imagined that first meeting in the club with loud music might not be so romantic if that happened in modern days. We interrupted Romeo and Juliet by loud music and crowded people in the club which would happen in real life.
 The second scene was a balcony scene. Romeo and Juliet confirms their love toward each other by this scene. Everything becomes serious by that confirmation. However, we thought it will be extremely hilarious if we reinterpret this beautiful and important scene as a comedy. Firstly, we slightly changed Juliet's characteristic from lovely girl who fell in love to girl who is crazily obsessed with Romeo. Therefore, Juliet acted her monologue exaggeratingly to show the ordinary girl in reality. Second point of this scene was when Romeo climbs up the wall of Juliet's house. It sounds really cool when Romeo climbs up the wall and reaches there like a hero. Honestly, in real life, it won't look really cool as how author described in the book. We inserted music from the movie '"Mission Impossible" when Romeo mimed climbing and I used sunglasses as a prop to remind audiences Mission Impossible. The most important point of this scene was Romeo acts like he is the coolest guy, but in audience's perspective, he is just a funny character.
 The final scene was the scene that we put most effort to make the scene more funny. Two sub-characters, Mercutio and Tybalt, die, and this scene leads lots of people to death. Our group had the most difficult time in the progress because every single lines were so serious and heavy, but we couldn't change any lines. So, we made Mercutio and Tybalt cowards who pretend to be strong men. And then we came up with an idea that it will be fun if there is a mood change when Romeo appears and speaks about love and peace while Mercutio and Tybalt are fighting. To give an immediate mood change, we put very serious music from the movie "Crows Zero" when two sub-characters are fighting, and peaceful and calm music when Romeo starts to give long speech about love. Music impacted a lot in all of our scenes. 
 Fortunately, most of our ideas that we intended came out successfully. Only thing that I would wanted more was about our acting. We didn't have enough time to practice as a group and memorize the lines perfectly, so there were some parts that wasn't smooth enough. Also, I think we could've put some more funny sources in the first scene if we had more actors.
 Our group was worrying and suspicious about how it would come out when we actually act it before the first rehearsal. However, most of our scenes went pretty well in the first rehearsal, and I was so glad when audiences, classmates and teacher, understood our concepts and those make them laugh. We became more confident after the first draft and we could complete the final draft successfully. Also, through this project, we learned how to communicate when we act. All actors had a purpose when they were acting and as a result audiences received our acting points.

Romeo and Juliet Final Video

http://youtu.be/YsBEaSyRK_Q

My role in the group project

In the scene 1.5, we are expressing that Romeo and Juliet wouldn't have clear conversation in the party because of loud music and lots of people. My role in this scene is interrupting the beautiful first meeting of Romeo and Juliet by being one of the crazy drunk person in the party. In Act 2, scene 2, our group emphasized funny part from Juliet's obsessed acting and Romeo's hilarious acting. I am going to be a Romeo and will perform mime to describe climbing up to Juliet's balcony with mission impossible music. Also, to show the contrast, I will act like extremely scared when nurse calls Juliet, instead of being not afraid like what he says. My role in the last scene is Tybalt. Mercutio and Tybalt will act really seriously before Romeo enters. After Romeo appears and starts to say about love, there will be relaxing music and Mercutio and Tybalt will act like they are getting bored. Instant mood change is the point of our last scene.

Romeo and Juliet Project script

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.