On the first day of studying scene 5.3 I primarily focused on determining who Romeo was as a character fundamentally. I began to read other parts of the book where I remembered pivotal changes, to attempt at fully grasping his development. I especially looked at the scene where Romeo killed Tybalt, and compared the two balcony scenes. This method allowed me to chip away at breaking down the layers of Romeo. I looked at the text of his scenes and patterns in is language to try an identity Shakespeare's intent in Romeo's motives/emotions. I also dug into Romeo's beliefs and morals as a human. I tried to understand his point of view in important scenes, and dissect his relationships with Juliet and Friar Lawrence. I did this by re-reading scenes and trying to use Uta Hagen's questions of 'what do I want' and 'what will I do to get what I want' to define Romeo's aspirations and/or reasonings.
Day 2:
The second day, I focused on staging and began the process of research. I watched several clips, read adaptions and focused on Shakespeare as an author and how his biases/influences could shape Romeo's motives. I watched how others saw Romeo's movements in this scene and chose things that I felt aligned with my previous thoughts. I took notes on things I saw happen a lot, and analyzed the things I didn't like by asking myself 'why'. Reaching for inspiration from other actors often helps me to find my own interpretation by comparisons. As far as actual staging goes, I worked closely with my partner Nadya in analyzing the intent of Romeo and Juliet and attaching how we would move/walk in their positions to put actual stage directions to the scene. We went through the scene and annotated almost every line by attaching an action/adjective/active verb that gave our staging purpose.
Day 3:
Day three has been focusing on memorization. When I memorize Shakespeare I often try to memorize the images rather than the words. Shakespearean text is not the way I usually speak, therefore piecing ideas together is difficult. Thus, I must know what each line means and attach a motivation to it to follow my train of thought. Going back to images, I try to see my actions and how Romeo is standing or where is he is to memorize my lines. Using blocking to memorize lines helps me to know the words and understand the connection between my movements and my lines. Also, this method forces me to truly intertwine my movement, motives and text into one single idea or emotion. I think that memorizing lines fast is important to moving on with character work, though at the same time taking the moments to understand and memorize in a way that sets your acting up for success is crucial. I can often memorize my lines in a way that gets me caught in the words themselves rather than the meaning, this is dangerous and a mistake I do not want to make.
Day three has been focusing on memorization. When I memorize Shakespeare I often try to memorize the images rather than the words. Shakespearean text is not the way I usually speak, therefore piecing ideas together is difficult. Thus, I must know what each line means and attach a motivation to it to follow my train of thought. Going back to images, I try to see my actions and how Romeo is standing or where is he is to memorize my lines. Using blocking to memorize lines helps me to know the words and understand the connection between my movements and my lines. Also, this method forces me to truly intertwine my movement, motives and text into one single idea or emotion. I think that memorizing lines fast is important to moving on with character work, though at the same time taking the moments to understand and memorize in a way that sets your acting up for success is crucial. I can often memorize my lines in a way that gets me caught in the words themselves rather than the meaning, this is dangerous and a mistake I do not want to make.
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