Historical Context of Krik Krak

Edwidge Danticat: 

• an award-winning writer of Haitian descent 

• born on January 19, 1969, in Port-au-Prince Haiti

• her parents fled the oppressive regimes but she and her younger brother remained behind; they reunited with their parents and new siblings after years of correspondence

Haiti's History Timeline: 

• Dutty Boukman

                unkown ~ 1791 - Jamaican-born Haitian slave, leading figure in the Haitian Revolution

• Toussaint L'Ouverture

                1743 - born as a slave

                1776 - freed from being a slave

                1791 - participates in the French Revolution as a Royalist military leader 

                1798 - manages to unify and maintain his army by taking control 

                1800 - has control over Saint Domingue 

                1802 - tricked by Napoleon into attending a meeting in France and is captured

                1803 - dies in the bottom of the cargo ship Napoleon trapped him in

• Independence  
      

                1804 - Haiti becomes independent; emperor: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

                1806 - Dessalines assassinated; Haiti divided into a black-controlled north and a mulatto-ruled south

                1818-43 - Pierre Boyer unifies Haiti, but excludes blacks from power 

                1915 - US invades Haiti following blakc-mulatto friction 

                1934 - US withdraws troops from Haiti, but maintains fiscal control until 1947

• Rafael Trujillo

                1927 - elevated to commander in chief of the National Army

                1930 - assumed control of the Dominical Republic 

                1961 - killed by a group of rebels determined to topple his heinous human rights abuses

• Parsley Massacre

                1937 - 20,000 people were murdered in the Dominican Republic by Rafael Trujillo

• Tonton Macoute

                1958 - MVSN, or the National Security Volunteers, a Hiatian paramilitary force, notorious for corruption and brutality

• Duvalier dictatorships

                1956 - Voodoo physician Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier seizes power in military coup and is elected president a year later

                1964 - Duvalier declares himself president-for-life and establishes a dictatorship with the help of Tontons Machetes militia 

                1971 - Duvalier dies and is succeeded by his 19-year-old son, Jean-Claude, "Baby Doc", who also declares himself president-for-life

                1986 - Baby Doc flees Haiti due to the increasing popular discontent; replaced by Lieutenant-General Henri Namphy 

                1988 - Leslie Manigat becomes president, but is outed in a coup

• Democracy, coup and intervention 

                1990 - Jean-Bertrand Aristide elected president in Hait's first free and peaceful polls

                1994 - US forces oversee a transition to a civilian government; Aristide returns

                1997-1999 - Serious political deadlock; new government named 

• Aristide's second term

               2000 - Aristide elected president for a second non-consecutive term

               2003 - Voodoo recognized as a religion, on a par with other faiths

               2004 - rising levels of deadly political and gang violent in the capital; armed gangs loyal to former President Aristide are said to be responsible for many killings

•  Preval wins elections 

               2006 - General elections, the first since former President Aristide was overthrown in 2004

                2007 -  UN troops launch tough new offensive against armed gangs in Cite Soleil

               2008 -  Food riots.

Tropical Storms 

Children of the sea

  A story about two star-crossed lovers in Haiti. Suffering from the brutality of political disorder, they were separated: the man got on the boat to flee to somewhere else, and the woman stayed. They kept writing letters to each other (more like a diary) as what they promised even though with the distance of sea and eventually death. 

- the young man is going to flee; missing his girl

- a political turmoil in Haiti ~> school was closed by the army; burnt campaign posters and old buttons; destroyed music tapes

- a pregnant girl, older people, no children, many Protestants on the boat; hopeless future of their country

- a group of students demonstrating for "the radio six" got shot; some bodies were turned over; promise to keep writing "when we see each other again, it will seem like we lost no time

- first day at sea: everyone vomiting, sunburn, help revive an old lady fainted from sunstroke, singing makes him cry, tired of the smell, stink, a crack at the bottom of the boat ~> in panic

- American factories are closed; papa yelled at her about the tapes, pushed her against the wall, spat in her face, kept slapping her really hard; wish could kill him

- getting more dark; keep dreaming 

- papa sleep separate with his daughter ~> avoid forced to have sex; no gasoline

- telling stories; Bahamas treat Haitians like dogs even through the same African fathers

- madan roger's houses, looking for her son

- Celianne, child stubborn; three cracks

- rumor: old president is coming back; drive to the market 

- girl baby, Swiss; has to throw out things: two gourdes; parents?

- people went to the airport were arrested, shot; told papa I love you

- baby not cry; Celianne story: soldiers burst into house forced her brother to intimate with mother, raped her, accused bother for moral crime 

- papa paid all the money to save her life

- people want to throw the baby; writing "my will"

mountains pushing her farther from him

- she threw the baby overboard and jumped; forced to throw the notebook, wrote the man full name; "I know that my memory of you will live even there as I too become a child of the sea"

- black butterfly, radio: another boat sank off

Second Draft

      Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, depicts a tragic play about two star-crossed lovers whose torrid love burns down in their past continuous family feud. When I firstly stepped into the world of the play, in such a story which the two protagonists’ misfortunes in love was somehow destined, I was impressed by how Juliet changes from a quiet and obedient girl to a “woman” with determined courage and independence. Thus, I chose to perform Act IV Scene I in which Juliet’s change was shown the most. In order to more vividly demonstrate the transition Juliet made for love, I injected distinct emotions into the character from the beginning to the end combining with slight body language and variation in tone. 

      Different from the text, we cut out Paris part at the beginning in order to focus the audience’s attention more on the conversation between Friar Lawrence and Juliet. Therefore, our performance begins when Friar earnestly prays but interrupts by fierce knocking. Overturning the previous quiet image, Juliet reveals her unexpected emotional side when she rushes into the room, crying “O, shut the door” (4.1.44) and begging Friar to “Come weep with me; past hope, past cure, past help” (4.1.45). The slight tough language “shut the door” reveals Juliet’s anger that remains from her disobedience to her father. Whilst the repetition of the three “past” effectively conveys Juliet’s despairing and sorrow tone to the cruel helpless fact of the upcoming marriage with Paris.  

      In the process of transforming the text into a performance, I realized that the climactic point of Juliet’s emotion brings out just at the beginning, which created the most challenge to play Juliet. In order to prepare that extreme mood, I built up an imagery in my mind and transfer myself into the moment when I lost my passport at the airport and called my father in tears, which is a technique called “substitution” wrote by Uta Hagen in the Respect for Acting. By recalling that kind of similar feelings, I can truly feel a sense of despair and anxiety. In addition, I tried to demonstrate the emotional mood throughout some detailed body language. From the beginning, I conveyed my anger into the action of banging on the door with my fist. Then, I delivered my first line with an urgent and sad voice as I strode in from right upstage to center stage. In comparing with Friar’s calm and stable voice as well as his steady steps, I hoped the audience can be aware of my inner turmoil which different from my previous quietness. 

      As the plot unfolds, the unexpected emotional side of Juliet become more apparent. Friar then says that he has heard about the news that “On Thursday next be married to this County” (4.1.49), which explains Juliet’s variety of emotions and behaviors to the audience, and expresses his regret that “nothing may prorogue it” (4.1.48). Driven by the merciless dilemma that force her to become mature, Juliet tends to believe that death is the only approach; she takes out the knife, and threatens Friar “Be not so long to speak, I long to die, if what thou speak’t speak not of remedy” (4.1.66). The resolute determination behind those words outpours her fervent love to Romeo without reserve, which foreshadows the foreseeable future of tragedy for her love like a moth to the flame. With the more aggressive behaviors and words, Juliet’s changes have been more pronounced. 

      In terms of performance, I tried to translate Juliet’s determination into more body language and various tones. In response with Friar’s decisive words that “nothing may prorogue it” (4.1.48), I laid my hands on his arms, bowed down and closed my eyes in pain while saying “Tell me not, friar, that thou hearest of this” (4.1.50). At the same time, Friar steadily raised me with staring at me concededly, which portrayed his authoritative and fatherly image as a priest. However, I then stood at a fixed position, firmly pointed my finger toward him, and threatened him: “if in thy wisdom thou canst give no help … with this knife I’ll help it presently” (4.1.52-54) with pulling out a knife and pressing it to my neck. With keeping that gesture for a few seconds, suddenly, I pointed my knife to Friar to make him feel more powerfully threatened. By exaggerating Juliet’s emotional intensity through my more aggressive behaviors, I wanted to more efficiently tell the audience the more maturity Juliet has beyond her years. Meanwhile, I gradually increased my speed approaching the climax and added more components of firmness and resolve into my voice instead of solely sadness to express my steadfast resolution to die for being with Romeo. 

      In response with Juliet’s attempt to suicide, Friar was forced to propose a risky plan, which needs Juliet to “undertake a thing like death to chide away this shame” (4.1.73-74). Nonetheless, Juliet, once again, demonstrates her remarkable courage and abiding loyalty to Romeo as imagines those horrifying images such as “chain me with roaring bears” (4.1.80), “hide me nightly in a charnel house” (4.1.81), or “hide me with a dead man in his shroud” (4.1.85) that she is prepared to face rather than marry Paris. An imagery was established through the descriptive language as these gothic images are increasingly apparent and visualized to the readers. Although the wild fears of Juliet was revealed between the lines, with a tone twist, “I will do it without fear or doubt” (4.1.87), Juliet’s courage and committed love to Romeo was also highlighted. 

      In featuring the genuine fear of Juliet compared to her unusual courage and determination, I tried to achieve through more physical contact with Friar and significant shift in tone. Originally, I considered making an interaction with the audience in order to make them more effectively emphasize with me by turning toward them and speaking. However, when I first did that in the rehearsal, I got some feedback from my classmates that it would be more natural if I change to talk to Friar rather than “starring” at them, and I eventually adopted that advice on the stage. Despite for more realistic performance, the way of acting out my reliance on Friar which also relatively emphasize the fear. Therefore, we decided to add some physical contact that Friar dragged highly emotional me to sit at the bench as he tried to calm me with resting his hand on my back and talking softly, “Hold, daughter! I do spy a kind of hope” (4.1.68). Then, as I described the horrors that I was willing to face rather than marry Paris, I sat sideways toward Friar with head bowed, and Friar kept patting my back or holding my hand gently. For a brief moment, I had a flash of insight into the nature of Juliet, an innocent young girl, who has been forced herself to muster up the courage to mature. But with a twist in tone, I looked up, stared into Friar’s eyes confirmedly, swept my arm out, and firmly pledged “But I will do it without fear or doubt, to live an unstain’d wife to my sweet love” (4.1.87-88). By greatly contrasted with the desperate image with uncontrollable temper I portrayed earlier, I want to inform the audience that Juliet’s courage and faithfulness is another part her growing maturity that she strives to achieve for love. 

Sample Paper Grading

Sample 1
     Criterion A: 4
          The analysis of the literary features is what the author mainly focus on in this essay. She does specifically analyzed Margaret's tone, emotion and feelings with referring to direct quotes from the text as well as some specific words. However, she should use "I" instead of "the audience" in her literary analysis. Firstly, audience is a theatrical term, which should not be mentioned here. Also, how the author views her character matters more that what the other readers would think.

     Criterion B: 6
          Compared with the three-page literary analysis, this part just occupies two pages including many irrelevant information. It is good to mention all those detailed body movement made on the stage, but the author does not have the most significant part that relates the literary features with her performing choice made on the stage together.

     Criterion C: 3
          The use of language is not well effective but organized throughout the text. At the beginning, the author does not directly mention her character Margaret but instead lists a series of Richard III's characteristics, which is useless and would be very likely to mislead the whole thesis. Her thesis appears a little late at the end of second paragraph, but after that, the author's language gradually become organized. Except when the author starts to talk about performance, too much useless background information comes out again.

Sample 2
     Criterion A: 5
          The work does show a very detailed literary analysis corresponding with the specific direct quotes from the text. The author not only analyzes her character -- Ophelia's changes, tone, nature and emotions through her language but also demonstrates a detailed explanation about the punctuation, pronouns, repetition of Shakespeare's language. Even better, she concludes her work with a reflection to this performing experience.

     Criterion B: 10
          Combined with the literary analysis, there is also a very detailed and extraordinary description of the author's performance part. From the variation in tone to the very detailed body movement, the blocking ... Every choice the author makes in her performance has a reason that related with the literary features.

     Criterion C: 5
          The author's language is pretty straightforward, effective and well-organized. From the beginning, the author just directly points out her thesis without any useless words. Then, in the following essay, the author starts her analysis step by step by using some words like "the first part", "the second part"... to express her arguments logically.

First Draft

  Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, depicts a tragic play about two star-crossed lovers whose torrid love burns out in their past continuous family feud. When I firstly stepped into the world of the play, in such a story which the two protagonists’ misfortunes in love was somehow destined, I was impressed by how Juliet changes from a quite and obedient girl to a “woman” with determined courage and independence. Thus, I chose to perform Act IV Scene I in which Juliet’s change was shown the most. In order to more vividly demonstrate the transition Juliet made for love, I injected distinct emotions into the character from the beginning to the end combining with slight body language and variation in tone. 

  Different from the text, we cut out Paris part at the beginning in order to focus the audience’s attention more on the conversation between Friar Lawrence and Juliet. Therefore, our performance begins when Friar earnestly prays but interrupts by fierce knocking. Overturning the previous quiet image, Juliet reveals her unexpected emotional side when she rushes into the room, crying “O, shut the door” (4.1.44) and begging Friar to “Come weep with me; past hope, past cure, past help” (4.1.45). The slight tough language “shut the door” reveals Juliet’s anger that remains from her disobedience to her father. Whilst the repetition of the three “past” effectively conveys Juliet’s despairing and sorrow tone to the cruel helpless fact of the upcoming marriage with Paris.  

  In the process of transforming the text into a performance, I realized that the climactic point of Juliet’s emotion brings out just at the beginning, which created the most challenge to play Juliet. In order to prepare that extreme mood, I built up an imagery in my mind and transfer myself into the moment when I lost my passport at the airport and called my father in tears, which is a technique called “substitution” wrote by Uta Hagen in the Respect for Acting. By recalling that kind of similar feelings, I can truly feel Juliet’s despair and anxiety. In addition, I tried to demonstrate Juliet’s emotional mood throughout some detailed body language. From the beginning, I conveyed my anger into the action of banging on the door with my fist. Then, I delivered my first line with an urgent and sad voice as I strode in from right upstage to center stage. In comparing with Friar’s calm and stable voice as well as his steady steps, I hoped the audience can be aware of Juliet’s different strong emotion from her previous quietness. 

  Friar then says that he have heard about the news that “On Thursday next be married to this County” (4.1.49), which explains Juliet’s variety of emotions and behaviors to the audience, and expresses his regret that “nothing may prorogue it” (4.1.48). Driven by the merciless dilemma that force her to become mature, Juliet tends to believe that death is the only approach; she takes out the knife, and threatens Friar “Be not so long to speak, I long to die, if what thou speak’t speak not of remedy” (4.1.66). The resolute determination behind those words outpours her fervent love to Romeo without reserve, which foreshadows the foreseeable future of tragedy for her love like a moth to the flame. With the more aggressive behaviors and words, Juliet’s changes have been more pronounced. 

  In terms of performance, I tried to translate Juliet’s determination into more body language and various tones. In response with Friar’s decisive words that “nothing may prorogue it” (4.1.48), I laid my hands on his arms, bowed down and closed my eyes in pain while saying “Tell me not, friar, that thou hearest of this” (4.1.50). At the same time, Friar steadily raised me with staring at me concededly, which portrayed his authoritative and fatherly image as a priest. However, I then stood at a fixed position, firmly pointed my finger toward him, and threatened him: “if in thy wisdom thou canst give no help … with this knife I’ll help it presently” (4.1.52-54) with pulling out a knife and pressing it to my neck. With keeping that gesture for a few seconds, suddenly, I pointed my knife to Friar to make him feel more powerfully threatened. By exaggerating Juliet’s emotional intensity through my more aggressive behaviors, I wanted to more efficiently tell the audience the more maturity Juliet has beyond her years. Meanwhile, I gradually increased my speed approaching the climax and added more components of firmness and resolve into my voice instead of solely sadness. 

In-class Essay Work

Criterion A: 4
      - The author offers a very detailed literary analysis of the chosen scene including the characteristics of the character he plays as well as emotions, tone and the atmosphere exits in the scene with supporting by direct quotes from the text. However, he also mentions a little bit too much about his partner's character.

Criterion B: 4
      - The author does not give enough information for his own performance (only in the last paragraph), but instead the whole essay mostly focus on the literary analysis.

Criterion C: 3
      - The author's use of language is not that organized and adequate especially at the beginning of the essay, many words are not effective enough and could be deleted.

Thesis Statement

      In order to more vividly demonstrate the inner transition Juliet made for love, I injected distinct emotions into the character from the beginning to the end combining with slight body language and variation in tone. 

Pre-writing

Introduction: 

  a. background information about the play, author, the scene I played

  b. reason about any change from the original scene

Critical analysis of literary features of text:

  a. brief summary of the plot

  b. brief flashback: reflection while reading this scene (institutive feelings about Juliet) 

  c. Juliet’s personality, change (corresponding with direct quotes + analysis) 

How text informed choices made in scene: 

  a. staging & blocking (props, costumes)

  b. choices of acting: voice, tone, emotion, body language 

                                   (refer to the literary features analysis — Juliet’s characteristic, feelings)

                                   

Reflection/critique/analysis of own performance: 

  a. reflection after I played 

  b. reflection while watching the video (any improvements could be made)

Bushnell Review

  Watching the Warrior’s Don’t Cry is really an amazing experience. It is a one-woman play, which describes a story of Melba who was one of the students chosen to integrate Little Rock’s Central High School during the period of racism segregation. The play vividly shows a transition of Melba, who is scared at first, but gradually stands up, acting as a warrior, fighting for their civil rights battle with her strength and courage, and eventually leads the Little Rock Nine toward victory after experiencing a series of hardship. 

  As what I mentioned above, it is a one-women play. That is also the most incredible lesson I learn — how the only one actor’s performance carries the entire show. There are some significant techniques were implied by the actor in order to help the audience more clearly distinguish the different characters. By using the body language and voice, the actor builds up distinct image corresponding to different characters. For example, when she imitates her grandma, she would become humpbacked, elbows bent with one hand on her hips, and speaks with a kind of more husky voice. Just because of the fixed gesture and voice for different characters, the audience has a clear understanding of what is going on, as well as creating a somehow easier way for the actor to memorize the great amount of lines I believe. By memorizing the lines along with the body language, she can clearly distinguish which one is which. Once again, I realize how important body language is not only from my own performance in the Romeo and Juliet. Body language is like the best prop used by the actors to convey what they want to say to the audience. 

  Despite the wonderful performance, I am also a little surprised by the “plain” stage set. There is only one desk, one chair, a bench, and a cup of water, a diary, and a pen on the desk. The simple stage set creates a lot of difficulties for the actor’s performance because as the plot goes on, the place also keeps changing. Thus, once again, the actor has to use her body language, lines, tone and voice to tell the audience the different blocking. However, the only props on the stage also were widely used by the actor: sometimes she sits on the bench; sometimes she stands on it. 

  Overall, it is hardly not to say how difficult and incredible the whole play is. Not only including the large amount of lines that the actor needs to memorize, but also the many characters the actor needs to portray and the few amount of props can be used by the actor, all of these increase the performing difficulties to some extent. 

Scene Reflection

  After three weeks long rehearsal and twice run through on the stage, we finally shoot our final scene, which came out not as well as what I expected but way much better than our first run through. I would make a conclusion about some points where I have made progress as well as where I could make more improvements in the following paragraphs. 

  The biggest mistake I made during the performance was my “uncontrollable” mood, which eventually stimulated a series of problem. Firstly, it was because that I was too sleepy on the Monday morning. I tried multiple times to get into Juliet’s mood before recording, but with continuously dozing, I was too drowsy to exactly switch my mind into Juliet’s form. Also, I was too nervous for being under the invisible pressure of the final scene; I cannot focus pure on Juliet, but can’t stop with being disturbed by numerous things. As a result, I made some pauses and sometimes I was incoherent, like where I was saying “Tell me not, Friar, that thou hearest of this” or “Could to no issue of true honor bring”. Despite the fluency, the volume, clarity and pronunciation also were not well controlled. Sometimes, I spoke too fast — “which the commission of thy years and art  … ”, which somehow interrupted the whole pace, and I could hear that my pronunciation was not that clear enough to tell the audience. Same for the speaking tone, I did pay attention to those points where were pointed out in the feedback of the last run through. For example, when I say “Give me, give me, tell me not of fear”, I should express my hopeful feeling, and my voice should sound determined while saying the last line “Farewell, dear father”. However, I paid too much attention on these several parts to ignore the other mood. Juliet actually had a mood transition in this scene. She appeared near despair at the beginning, but while facing the nearly hopeless situation, she still showed her determined loyalty to Romeo. And then, the “glimmer of hope” gave by Friar raised her hope, but her minds was ver complicated because that “hope” needed her to risk her life. Fear appeared in her minds, but it was soon overwhelmed by her love, which made her eventually become determined again. However, the whole process of transition was not clearly performed by me, instead, my performance just grasped some of those points like “being hopeful” or “being determined”. It was not a complete mood transition, but disconnected. And eventually, those “highlighted” points, where I showed my feelings through my emotion, tone or body language, might make the audience be confused about: why those strong emotions suddenly came out? 

  Overall, I would not say it was a better performance than our last rehearsal because I did said the lines more fluent than this time. But on a positive perspective, we did made many improvements from the more complete blocking to the more body language and the more details about the character’s feelings that we did tried to convey. The whole process of doing this project continuously cultivated our ability of self-learning and self-improvement. From the first time we stepped into a character’s world, then tried to fit in, and finally we left without leaving anything. 

Research on Warriors Don't Cry

  Warrior’s Don’t Cry is a play adapted from the memoir by Dr. Melba Pattillo Beals. It describes a story of Melba Pattillo, a young girl who was one of the students chosen to integrate Little Rock’s Central High School after the actions of Arkansas’ Governor Faubus in 1957. The Little Rock Nine were those students who attempted to the Arkansas’ first attempt at integration in public schools. Melba was scared at first, but being greatly influenced by her strong and loving family, she was acted as a warrior, fighting for a civil rights battle with her incredible courage and strength throughout being taunted, threatened, attacked and even injured by the opposition. The Little Rock Nine eventually won after experiencing the hardship. 

  The play was produced by the Bushnell Centerfor the Performing Arts, and co-written by Zita Christian and Scott Galbraith. It has been performing in New York City and throughout New England all over the world. 

  References: 

- http://allreaders.com/book-review-summary/warriors-don-t-cry-39118

- http://www.zitachristian.com/warriors_don_t_cry___the_play__112706.htm

Review of the fall play

  The Dead is a musical adaptation based on the short story The Dead from the collection Dubliners written by James Joyce. The play begins with an annual Christmas party, where a family and their friends are chatting, singing, dancing and having dinner, but at some given moments, more and more epiphanies come out from people’s minds. The surface of the world of play is filled with peacefulness, but underneath that, is only the endless sorrow left.
       The great comparison existing between the two extremes was vividly showed throughout the actors’ performance. Although I did not have a background information about this story nor the author, by watching only the actors, I can be brought into the story and empathize with the characters. I did learned many acting skills, which can be applied into my final performance. The first thing I caught up from the show was that the actors never increase their speed of speaking. They may slow down their speed or change their volume while expressing different kinds of feelings. Take the main character Gabriel Conroy, who was acted by John, as an example. Approaching the end of the play, where Gabriel Conroy’s epiphany comes, I would say that is his climax. He saw how his wife was crying for a lost love, who died for her, but he never heard about. At that given moment, his minds must be stirred with anger, disappointment, sorrow and confusion. However, when he said the last line “the world … is like the surface …”, he slowed down his speed, every single word was clearly throw out, which somehow strengthened the character’s feelings. That was the skill I need to learn: not rush to say the lines for expressing Juliet’s hopeless at that situation, but oppositely slow down and magnify the intensity. More than that, the many body language was another acting skills I learned. Both from the first rehearsal and the second run through’s feedbacks, our lack of body language was always mentioned. And this time, I saw how important the need of body language is from watching the play. It is like the best and easiest way to convey the actors’ emotions to the audience. For example, in the last scene where Gretta Conroy suddenly sank into sadness, and her husband tried to comfort her. Although, sometimes, I did not really understand some specific lines, but when John knelt upon one knee, and gently pated his wife’s back, his body language just directly told me that he tried to comfort her. That kind of physical touch can be exactly applied in our performance, when Friar tried to comfort Juliet. I would talk with my partner Marinda to add a series of these body language into our scene. 

       Overall, it was a fantastic experience of watching the fall play. I pretty enjoyed being brought into the scene and learned many great lessons from the actors’ amazing performance. 

Performance Blog #3

11/7

We have a memorization quiz of the script today. I think I have memorized those lines pretty well after numerous reading and practice. Memorizing lines well is absolutely very important. We all do not want to “get stuck” during the performance, or try to think about what the next line is with interrupting our natural acting as well as my partner’s. And for now, the thing me and Marinda need to mostly focus on is how to add our character’s feelings into the lines by using different tone, voice, emotions or body language. 

11/8

We do our first run through without script today. It’s worth mentioning that we eventually get our props — an old plastic knife, a small bottle of vial (unknown red solution) and a cross necklace. There are actually two kinds of knives in the props room: a small modern one and a bigger old one. I finally decide to use the second one because the small one looks like the tableware, not threatening enough to be used as a suicide prop, and also the bigger one is more old, fitting that time period. Using these props actually makes our performance more realistic and natural because it can give the audience a better understanding with adding more truthfulness in our performance. Despite the props, we also get many valuable feedbacks at the first run through without script. After the run through last time, we make any improvements such as adding some blocking, like the first scene in which Friar is praying before Juliet knocks the door. Nonetheless, there is still more needed to add, like more physical touch between Friar and Juliet to show how Friar try to comfort Juliet. Specifically for me, I give Juliet more emotions and body movement, which I think is somehow successful at the beginning where I knock the door out loud and rush into the door with shouting my first line “O, shut the door”. However, I do not keep Juliet’s mood till the end. For example, at the end, where I say “give me, give me”, after Friar gives me the portion, I should show more hope in my face. Same for the last line — “Farewell, dear father”— Juliet is very determined for what she would do at that moment. Except my lacking of emotions, another thing I need to pay attention is my talking speed. Although, it is reasonable to speed up when I reach the climax of Juliet’s feelings, I need to make sure that the audience can hear clearly every single word I say on the stage. Therefore, another way of acting shall be applied, rather than talking faster, I can slow down my tempo with maintaining the intensity.  Overall, more time we need to spend with being familiar with our own characters. 

11/10

Today, we start our practice by running the lines to get in character’s mood first. Since Marinda’s lines were cut again, it takes some time for her to get used to it. And I spend my time reading my lines again and again with paying attention to my tempo. For example, at Juliet’s climax — “Be not so long to speak, I long to die” — I try to slow down with keeping the intensity. Trying a new way of speaking is very difficult at first because it is different with the way I am talking usually. But, after repeating several times, I feel way much better. Despite learning the ability of how to control my talking speed, I also practice the distinct tones corresponding to the various feelings. As what I mentioned yesterday, I did not perform Juliet’s feelings of hope which exists in between “give me, give me”. Through today’s practice, I think I do catch the way to express this kind of feeling: widen my eyes and voice up on the word. It is like hopefulness with a little bit excitement. More practice was needed to get through still. 

11/11

For the last practice before the final recording, we decide to watch some videos on the Youtube in order to see how other actors perform Juliet and Friar. There isn't that much videos about this scene. From the videos we watch, I see the different ways of performance. Some of those “Juliet” are very emotional; they really cry. Oppositely, some are pretty calm. I think the emotional one is the Juliet I have been trying to achieve. I feel like showing more strong emotions would be more realistic and easier to tell the audience my feelings. Throughout the three-week long practice, I realize the most challenging part for being Juliet is to get in her mood 10 seconds before the play starts. I need to think about some sad things that really happen. My ultimate goal would be to really cry while performing on the stage. 

Fall Play

Performance Blog #2

10/31

We do the first run-through of our scene today. From other groups’ performances and the feedbacks we get, I do learned a lot, and make a brief summary about the improvements can be progressed in the following. Firstly, while I am saying my lines, I should slow down, and pronounce each word more correctly and clearly in order to make my performance more natural and realistic instead of reading the lines really quick like a machine without emotion. For reaching this goal, I think me and my partner Marinda should do more practice on reading the lines out loud and slowly with following the video in the ebook since both of us are international students. We can find more videos on the Youtube to listen to those actors’ pronunciations in order to correct ours. Secondly, I should have more movements or body language to show Juliet’s feelings like desperation or hopefulness rather than just standing there. Gia and Dilyara’s group leaves me a deep impression on this point: Gia uses many movements like walking around, or stepping forward to Dilyara to show Juliet’s anxiety to hear the news about Romeo; Dilyara also applies many body language like sagging wearily back into the chair to show Nurse’s weariness at the beginning when she just comes back. We might need to further read between the lines as well as watching more videos of others’ performances about this scene so that we can catch up more details and have some natural reactions while saying the lines. Lastly,  we need to figure out many details about blocking that haven't set up yet, like what’s Friar doing before Juliet enters, as well as the props we haven't prepared such as the vail and knife. 

11/1

From a bunch of useful feedbacks we got from yesterday’s performance, we make a discussion on each of those points I listed above. To start our improving progress, we read through the lines over and over again with using the video from the ebook as a reference. We both take some notes in between the lines to further analyze the character’s feelings. For example, since we cut out the previous part about Paris in the scene, Juliet’s feelings would directly reach a climax from the beginning. Thus, at the start, I wrote down “rush into the door with crying — despair and sadness.” It is absolutely going to be very difficult to have such strong and full emotion from the beginning, and that is what I need to focus on practicing. I might need to figure out a way to lead myself into Juliet’s mind before the play. At the end of class, we also were asked to highlight some lines and mark the feelings which exist there, which further help us to understand our character and feel their feelings. 

11/3

Today, we start our practice with a brief run-through of the scene with adding many movements from the notes we wrote down yesterday as well as some pause, specific tone throughout the lines. Besides, we mostly focus on memorizing and writing down the lines. Shakespeare’s language is very tricky. There are many abbreviations or some words like old English such as “when thou hast done so” or “if what thou speak’st speak not or remedy”. It is a great challenge for us to read it fluently as well as memorizing it. But, we almost finished memorizing all the scripts at the end of the class. 

Performance Blog #1

10/24/2016

I learn a lot from the presentations that we have been working on these days. Different theorists usually have distinct techniques to help the actors to act, but most of them pursue a kind of naturalism and realism of performance. Take Constantin Stanislavsky, as an example. He insists actors should “soak themselves into the play”, which basically means that actor should really feel how that character feels, channelling real emotion into the scene, in order to perform much more natural. 

10/25/2016

Today, we start our staging rehearsal. For the first day, I and Marinda mostly focus on memorizing those “obscure” lines on the first page (4 pages total). Shakespeare’s language is absolutely very hard both for pronunciation and understanding. In order to be familiar with it, we read it over and over again, and try to memorize a small part like about 6 lines. It’s absolutely very important to memorize all the script, because while we are actually performing on the stage, any mistakes about the script will have huge impact on the others’ performance, and eventually, even ruin the whole play. Thus, in order to act on your feet while facing something unexpected happens, you have to get used to that character including the ways they are talking, and really become that character first. Finally, according to Lee Strasberg, we won’t need to follow every single line; we are able to think on our feet. 

10/27/2016

For the second day practice, our main work is still on reading the difficult script. However, different with yesterday practice, despite for solely reading the script, me and Marinda started to use the video in the ebook, which surprisingly helps us a lot. By following with those actors in the video, we not only find out some mistakes we made about the pronunciation of some words the other day, like “thy” should sound as ðaɪ, instead of ði, but also get noticed about something that we haven't considered about such as the rhythm, tempo or tone of speaking. Take my character Juliet, as an example. Her mood was kept very emotional throughout the whole scene while facing the despairing situation. From what the actress portrays in the video, she is always like shouting, yelling or crying. Thus, while she is talking, there are some points that she might pause, or choke with emotion. Those all are the things that me and Marinda did not take care about. Therefore, instead of purely reading the script, we try to add some feelings into it, making the conversation more vividly. 

10/28/2016

As our rehearsal goes on further, our focus makes a transition from the reading toward acting. We search many videos on Youtube. Through watching others’ performance, our world of play is somehow gradually built up. We kind of have a general idea about what our product should be. More than that, in order to be more prepared for our final staging, we start to add some “movements” while we are reading the scripts. We try to imitate those actors “physical actions” in the video. For example, from the video in the ebook, when Juliet says “if in thy wisdom …”, she would pause at the “if”, and angrily points her finger toward Friar, or when she says “Do thou but call my …”, she would take out her knife. I have added all these simple actions while reading the lines, which actually makes my reading more natural and fluent. Except for these basic practice, we also decide to apply some of those theories from different theorists in our future rehearsal such as some improvisational games created by Viola Spolin to eventually achieve that “realism” and “naturalism” of performance. 

In class writing

    From the presentations about different theorists or actors we have been doing for a few days, I did learned a lot of techniques or theories that we can apply in the preparation for our own performance. Take Constantin Stanislavski, as an example. He is the one who insists actors should "soak the self into the play", which basically means that while you are acting, you need to really feel the feelings of how that character feels, and channel your real emotion into the scene. Thus, while I am portraying Juliet in the Act 4 Scene 2 where she goes to ask Friar for help right after Roemo leaves, I need to think about something really sad or despair like my favorite pet dies to achieve that kind of feelings, so that I can act more realistic. Most of the theorists all are pursuing this kind of naturalism and realism like Constantin Stanislavski. The only differences between them would be the techniques used to reach this "naturalism". Like Uta Hahen, the way she creates to help actors act more realistically is to let the actors do many researchs before acting, and create an actual staging to really imagine every detail. I also can use this way in our performance. Thus, I can do many research about Juliet, and really get to know this person. After I have been familiar with her, then I can really be her.

Blog #5

  I will act Juliet in Act IV Scene 1 with Marinda who is going to portray Friar Laurence. In this scene, my character, Juliet, shows the audience many significant changes within her personality. In order to highlight this kind of transition, we cut out Paris’ scene. And in the following paragraphs, I would like to analyze her personality as well as her motivation more detailed, which is related with the ways of how to portray Juliet. 

  Many changes were made by Juliet throughout the whole play, and Act IV Scene 1 is presented as a crucial point for Juliet’s transition. Before that, the image she builds up is an innocent and obedient girl, who never rebels her parents or makes any decision by herself. However, within the process of falling love with Romeo, she was “forced” to mature. Blinded by her passionate love, she secretly marries Romeo, and openly disobeys her father despite his threat to disown her. Her growing maturity was acted in a rapid pace. And, in this scene, her mature figure was completely created: her own decision to accept Friar’s “unknown” vial at the risk of her life highlighting a brave Juliet, who is willing to defy her family and taking the responsibility for the person she loves. Nonetheless, under the strong exterior Juliet has been trying to become, her fears about following Friar’s plan also was described as her saying, “Give me … O, tell not me of fear” (4,1,121)!, and “Love give me strength! And strength shall help afford” (4,1,125). Since Romeo is far away from her at that moment, and he cannot figure out a solution with Juliet together without knowing the upcoming marriage, Juliet has to meet those struggles alone. Thus, her inner world is indeed very complicated while facing such severe situation that forces her to make a decision. 

  In order to portray Juliet’s “mature” personality more vividly, I would like to exaggerate her body language, and make full use of any props. Be more specific, I would magnify my feelings through actions from the beginning — “knock” at the door. Instead of a “knock”, I would make it like a “bang”. Because Juliet must be on the verge of collapse at that given moment. She is in total isolation; everyone is trying to persuade her to marry Paris even the Nurse. All those anxious, helpless and despair feelings could be reflected from her, and those will directly lead her to be in panic which would be displayed through her behaviors. And then, her feelings would gradually reach a climax when she becomes suicidal and says “be not so long to speak, I long to die, if what thou speak’t speak not of remedy” (4,1,67). At this moment, I will not only point my knife to myself but also to Friar in order to exaggerate Juliet’s feelings and portray a more emotional side of her, which is what I learn from the 1996 adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. Until the end, the instability of her mood was still kept when she describes her fear, even though she might tries to persuade herself to be brave within her minds. For the last sentence, “love give me strength! And strength shall help afford” (1,4,125), I can say this like whisper, encouraging myself to face the struggle. 

  All in all, the character Juliet not only experiences complex transition but also enormous mood swings within this scene. In order to vividly portray a Juliet, I would tell the audience her feelings through “exaggerate” or “emotional” actions with the best use of props. 

Viola Spolin

Viola Spolin

                 Who is she?            

                - an American theatre academic, educator and acting coach

                - mother of improvisation for her development of Theater                  Games (directorial techniques to help actors to be focused in the present moment and to find choices improvisationally)

                - published the book Improvisation for the Theater (including those techniques, her philosophy, teaching and coaching methods) —"bible of improvisational theater"

                 Some Spolin Games Used in Performance: 

                - Emotional Symphony: 

                  Each player is assigned an emotion by the audience. The ensemble is then conducted through an opening "overture". 

                - Gibberish Relay: 

                  The entire cast immediately as the play in the middle must translate back and forth between players on wither side who speak in gibberish. 

                - Animals: 

                  After the audience assigns each player an animal, the players must explore the animal physically, verbally, then interact with each other as animals, and finally bring the animals up into human forms with attitudes and traits intact. 

                - Camera: 

                  As two players do a scene of the audience's choosing, a third player calls out "camera" alternating between giving full mental and physical attention, like the lens of a camera, to each other. 

                - Contact: 

                  Players do a scene in which dialogue can only occur when some form of physical contact is made. 

                - Who am I: 

                  A player is sent out of earshot and upon his return must interact will fellow players until he is aware of the famous or occupational identity the audience has chosen for him. Who am I?               

    

                - Transformations: 

                  Two players begin a physical activity of the audience's choosing. Through a series of movements, changes, verbal, and non-verbal interactions with each other and other players who join in, they eventually transform their activity into a group involvement, which the audience has also chosen.