Draft 3

Romeo and Juliet is the most widely read William Shakespeare play. It’s overwhelming themes of loyalty, family and love are no doubt reasons why. The characters and the journeys they lead allow for an exemplary piece of art to learn from.  When working with Shakespearean texts, the most important parts of the performance center on deciphering the intentions of language. This scene, 5.3, comes at a pivotal point in the play. Romeo must make the decision to live forever in agony without Juliet, or die to be with her. Romeo is a character that stands out from others through his extensive development throughout each act. My staging centered on Romeo as a character, aiming to highlight the change he has undergone throughout the play. Therefore, I used the text to find contrasting language showing Romeo’s growth, and in my body expressed this change and the passion that consumed him. While performing the final death scene, I focused on displaying the climax of Romeo’s change, as well as embodying Romeo’s love as motivation.

Romeo is a character with passion and excitement for anything new. In the play, he is a warm-hearted, adventurous spirit whose newfound love has dictated his every move. Romeo is introduced into the play as an innocent teenager, whose sonnets and overly dramatic language display his adolescence. For example, Shakespeare uses metaphors in Romeo’s text to symbolize his eagerness to understand love. When talking about his love for Rosaline, Romeo speaks in exaggerated and poetic language. This presents him as inexperienced with the concept of love.

“Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs;
Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes;
Being vexed a sea nourish'd with loving tears:
What is it else? a madness most discreet,
A choking gall, and a preserving sweet.”
(1.1.197-201)

This quote emphasizes “lovers’ eyes” a concept I interpreted as foreshadowing. I believed Shakespeare was alluding to Romeo being blind of what love is until he falls for Juliet at first sight. Using literary features such as foreshadowing and symbolism to understand the person Romeo was, allowed for a greater understanding of his change throughout the play. This was important to my scene because I had to show how Romeo grew from an innocent boy, to a man who has fallen in love and seen death.

In the final death scene, his language displays this change clearly. Romeo begins to speak in blank verse, which is completely without rhyme, instilling seriousness. This was different than the romantic poems Romeo spoke in during act one. The language in this scene also enabled an honesty, which did not translate through in the beginning of the play. “Death, that hath suck’d the honey of thy breath,/ Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty/ Thou art not conquer’d, beauty’s ensign yet/ Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks,”(5.3.92-95) This line shows that while the content is beauty and love, the way Romeo speaks has become much darker. Words such as ‘suck’d the honey’ and ‘crimson’ show variety in tone of Romeo’s text. This contrast of Romeo in act one then act five displays the way Shakespeare uses language and style to show character development.

I showed this growth on stage by contrasting the character Romeo was first introduced as through my body and voice. To display the change, I focused on being unafraid of emotional vulnerability and embracing passion. On stage, I made many small details flourish into an arched theme of change. For example, I began my lines standing completely still, facing towards the audience. I thought this was important because it displayed Romeo’s disbelief of Juliet’s death. I tried to stand so still it seemed that Romeo was incapable of moving because of the pain he felt. I started lines soft, reiterating Romeo’s fear. On the lines, “Or did I dream it so?/ Or am I mad, hearing him talk of Juliet,/ To think it was so?” (5.3.87-89) I grew louder and more frustrated in my tone. On these lines I broke my stillness and sharply reached out as if I was grasping for answers. After line 94, I slowly turned towards Juliet and began to breathe heavily. This showed Romeo’s cautiousness to see Juliet’s body. I theorized that once Romeo saw her, he knew he would finally have to accept her death.  This acceptance would drive the following emotion of the scene. When I did see Juliet, I ran over and yelled the line “O my love, my wife!” (5.3.100) with obvious heartbreak. All of these subtle acting choices performed the change discussed before.

Beyond showing Romeo’s change, I knew I needed to understand Romeo’s deep love for Juliet as something true to make his suicide genuine. Understanding Romeo and Juliet’s story past the romance and into the depth of Romeo’s inner conflict was of highest priority. I found that by honing in on the climate leading up to the moment, I could grasp the true essence of Romeo’s intense love for Juliet. Since the beginning of the play, Shakespeare has foreshadowed to the lover’s being true, but never finding peace together. For example, this foreshadowing can be found in act one; “My mind misgives/ Some consequence/ yet hanging in the stars/ Shall bitterly begin his fearful date” (1.4.106-107) Therefore, I knew that this scene was the peak of their love. I found this to be relevant of the character’s thoughts from the prologue which states “A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life, / Whose misadventured piteous overthrows / Doth with their death bury their parents' strife.” (Prologue, 6-9) This showed me Shakespeare’s emphasis on Romeo and Juliet’s inevitable physical distance, which I knew needed to be a theme of the performance.

To put this love to stage, my main focus was taking the literary themes, and then transforming it into a physical, as well as emotional, experience. I concentrated on using the insight I gained from analyzing the text to embody Romeo’s love discussed prior. The scene begins with Romeo off stage and Juliet center stage. This immediately sets the tone of the scene as the pair being separated. Despite this, Juliet’s texts centers around Romeo, instilling an idea of their souls being together. This choice proves a theme of the two being the ‘star-crossed lovers’. I wanted to do this to show how even through death, the two believe their love is everlasting.

Continuing, I often found myself using my body to show these themes of love and distance. For instance, by kneeling down next to Juliet for a majority of the lines, I was able to hold her physically close. This closeness portrayed love and intimacy, important pieces of Romeo and Juliet’s relationship. I wanted Romeo to embrace his last moments with Juliet on Earth before taking his life to join her spirit. “O here/ Will I set up my everlasting rest/ And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars/ From this world wearied flesh.” (5.3.109-112) This line was where I showed Romeo’s final decision to die. I said the line with conviction and strength to exemplify Romeo’s willingness sacrifice. “The yoke of inauspicious stars” (5.3.111) was a line I explained as Romeo’s decision to forget his past and forgive the darkness of his life. Thus, I delivered this line compassionately. Knowing Romeo’s past with violence and feud, I understood that this forgiveness was a convincing factor to Romeo’s suicide, both for the audience and the character himself. I did not over dramatize this piece, but sought humanity from the audience to evoke authenticity. The most important place where I found a balance of drama and truth was when Romeo eventually drank the poison and died in Juliet’s lap. I imagined tearing up in complete despair to see his love dead. I slowly started to move Romeo towards suicide by exaggerating the lines with dramatic pauses. I also kept visual focus right on Juliet’s face. I had to find a medium between the emotion in my voice and the honesty in the movements. I also wanted to reveal Romeo second-guessing what afterlife would entail for him. Having Romeo second guess his faith was an intentional decision I made to add layers to Romeo’s death on stage. This drove home the theme of the lover's passion.

To display the previously discussed death scene climax and emotion, not only did I use my voice, but also my face and body. Body language and movements were a large part of the scene. I focused on how to move with a strong, relevant presence on stage. For example, in the moments of drinking the poison, I committed to moving very slowly to show Romeo’s contemplation. In the pauses I found moments to breathe and look up to the sky. I thought this showed Romeo’s fear but also his want for guidance. When holding Juliet I always was soft but simultaneously intense in my need to be as close as I could to Juliet’s body. My face was constantly changing depending upon the content of my lines. When speaking of Juliet’s beauty, for example, “And, lips, O you/ The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss” (5.3.122-123) I smiled and showed a sense of nostalgia in my face, as if Romeo was reminiscing of the joy he had with Juliet. Although when speaking of Romeo’s hate for death on lines 111-114, “Why art thou yet so fair?/ Shall I believe/ That unsubstantial death is amorous,/ And that the lean abhorrèd monster keeps/ Thee here in dark to be his paramour?” (5.3.111-114) I strived to show the disgust of death in Romeo’s face.

Romeo and Juliet is interesting to perform because it is a tragedy that focuses on change just as much as emotion. Understanding how Romeo grows up and learns to love in a way that leads to suicide is valuable for any actor striving to develop their script interpretation. The literary aspects of the text allow for the characters to be so extraordinarily deep. Therefore, while focusing on love and change to portray Romeo, I believe I grew as both an actress able to embody themes as well as characters, and a reader of literature holistically. The most interesting piece of this performance was how I initially had a hard time relating to Romeo. Eventually I was able to hone in on my own personalities that aligned with him. This helped me find Romeo in myself. I found my voice in the scene and freedom in my acting, which I value immensely. For the first time as an actor I paid close attention to the text analysis. I truly relied on my literary interpretation skills for most of my acting choices. This was highly liberating as it gave me a new perspective on finding truth in my acting. I looked closely at Shakespeare's writing and dug deep into the rhyme, patterns and word choice that made Romeo stand out. For the first time, I looked at a script as a piece of literature, not just acting lines.

Works Cited

1.     Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet: Original Text next to a Filmed Performance. New York: New Book, LLC, 2014. Print.