Good morning fellow Shakespearean enthusiasts, PLPeople, bloggers, and those lost down an internet rabbit hole. Today is the day for Shakespeare, theatre, hyperboles, and as always… really really REALLY short deadlines!
Alike in Dignity
Both the name to the play we produced, and the project, Alike in Dignity has brought a great feeling of accomplishment, and an immense growth of knowledge to all of Humanities 10.
What is it?
Our task was to create, and perform a one woman(person) parody to a Romeo and Juliet Scene of our choosing. We would perform them in sequence, and tell the tragic story as we see it today.
I chose the Queen Mab Speech, (1.4. 35-120). In this part of the play, Romeo is headed to a Capulet Party (he’s a Montague) with his friends, including Mercutio. Romeo and Mercutio are bantering about Romeo’s depressing love life, when the topic of dreams comes up. Mercutio continues onto a massive, perplexing monologue about “what dreams are”, arguing in a rather fanciful and fun-making way.
Queen Mab //Take Two!
My take on the scene was that instead of dreams, Mercutio would go on and on about conspiracy theories. The main challenge for me was getting the script down to 3 mins or less. Of course the answer to my problem was to simplify, as always. To give you an idea about the severity of the issue, my first script when read aloud was 10 minutes long!
I soon cut the beginning, and the end bits, as well as cutting at least 30% of the topics talked about, making my script both comprehensive, and almost short enough! (5 mins)
Romeo and Juliet 2020, #2 draft
On the third day of production, I finished the re-write. Finally skimming it down enough to be understandable, easy to follow, easier to memorize, and 3 minutes long. Finis!
Hear how it reads in the video above!
Reflection
It took me 5 days to write, rewrite, fix, memorize, and present my own, original parody, to a famous scene of arguably the most famous piece of literature in all of history. It’s fair to say that I’m proud of myself, I would have been proud even if it was a rotten egg of a performance. It went well, and I Performed first, broke the ice, which is always nerve racking, so yes I am pleased.
I learned a really shocking amount of things, about Shakespeare, the Victorian era, Romeo and Juliet, stage performance, and script writing. Also, I now have nearly doubled my previous vocabulary from all that new-old English. We would read a scene, then watched that scene from the 1967 “Romeo and Juliet” film, then watch the 1996 Baz Luhrmann take on the classic. It was an extremely enjoyable, and comprehensive experience. I both applaud, and sincerely thank Ms.Willemse for teaching us in that style, it really worked.
Wondering what skills and knowledge we gained along the way? Check out my “This Week I Learned” posts! (Coming soon)
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