The World's Tallest Romeo

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True Love Over Night

True Love Over Night

  In Act II of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, my favorite scene is the famous balcony scene in scene II, as it proves the element of true love. It is well written, contains poetic elements that make Shakespeare’s idea of true love believable. Romeo is very different in this scene, he is eloquent and charming as he talks about his love for Juliet. It also tells the decision of the two young lovers who spontaneously make life changing decisions in this scene based on their love which they believe is never ending and unstoppable.  

    The balcony scene contains romantic elements that proof the true love between Romeo and Juliet. “It is the East, and Juliet is the sun. Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, Who is already sick and pale with grief That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she.”(Shakespeare) Romeo is in front of Juliet's window and without her hearing him, he describes his love for her and her beauty with that quote by comparing her to the sun. As Juliet appears on the balcony, Romeo compares that to the dawn and her to the rising sun, so beautiful that she outshines the moon. That proves Romeo’s true love to Juliet as he said this to himself without having her listen.

    Romeo’s love to Juliet is real compared to his love to Rosaline which was an immature crush. In Act II Scene II Romeo says “The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars As daylight doth a lamp; her eye in heaven Would through the airy region stream so bright That birds would sing and think it were not night.” (Shakespeare) Romeo is again comparing Juliet to the sun, where as he compares Rosaline to a lamp. Like his love for Rosaline, that was not real compared to his love for Juliet, the lamp’s light is not real compared to the light of the sun. This proves his true love to her as well as his newly gained maturity.

In the balcony scene Romeo and Juliet make spontaneous yet life changing decisions. “wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name, Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.”(Shakespeare) Juliet wishes her love were someone else but Romeo who is her enemy. She wishes he would renounce his name so they could be in love, or that he will swear his love to her so she would renounce hers. That is a significant point as they both come from wealthy families, giving up their names and titles would leave them penniless. Especially is it a great risk for Juliet as she is a woman, and not able to work and earn her own money. She doesn’t only give up wealth, she gives up herself. Being caught up in the moment, and loving not only the other person but the feeling to love they consider such dramatic decisions so spontaneously.

The balcony scene in Act II is very Romantic. It proves Romeo and Juliet’s true love to each other and shows Romeo’s development to a more mature and eloquent man as he talks about his love to Juliet. Romeo and Juliet believe that nothing can ever change their love to each other and they would do anything to be together.

Sources:  google images

In Act II scene II Julia is talking about how she wishes that Romeo weren't Romeo, a Montague and her enemy. She wishes that he would renounce his name and title and if he didn't she would. Montague is only a name nothing else. Romeo would still be the same man, with the one difference of no longer being her enemy.

The Comedic first Impressions of a Tragedy

The Comedic first Impressions of a Tragedy

The story Romeo and Juliet  by William Shakespeare, is a tragedy in which two teenagers from two families that are in a quarrel with each other, fall in love.  Romeo form the family Montague and Juliet from the family Capulet. When their families want to prevent their love, Romeo and Juliet take their lives and that way, end the quarrel between their families. The play is a tragedy, and ends accordingly in death, in this case the death of Romeo and Juliet. The play however also has some comedic elements to it, such as Juliet’s nurse who is a kind women who will never stop talking.

The play starts of with a fight between servants between the houses Capulet and Montague. Similarly to Juliet’s nurse, these servants are comedic characters. This gives the audience a positive first impression on the play. It starts of funny which convinces the audience member to stay even knowing that the play will ultimately end in the death of the two protagonists.

    The characters Romeo and Juliet are in many ways similar, which is probably one of the reasons they fell in love with. Both are lonely, part of a family that is in a constant feud with another. They suffer from that.

    Juliet is the only daughter of Lord and Lady Capulet. She is thirteen years old, and of age to be married. Her parents have decided that she is to marry Paris, wealthy, good looking and a kinsman to the prince Escalus. Even though her mother asks Juliet how she feels about the marriage she doesn’t have a big say in it. Juliet is thoughtful and kind. She is mature for her age and lives under the Hand of her vigorous and strict mother. When her mother tells Juliet that she is to marry Lady Capulet suggests that Juliet should have a look at Paris at the feast that is later that night in the Capulet’s house. Juliet answers: “I’ll look to like, if looking liking move. But no more deep will I endart mine eye. Than your consent gives me strength to make it fly.” (Shakespeare,1.3.103-105) That is a very philosophical comment that testifies Juliet’s maturity and deliberateness.

    Romeo is the son of Lord and Lady Montague. He is impulsive and a little melodramatic. Romeo believes to be deeply in love with Julia’s cousin Rosalinde, a love that is childish with what he will feel for Juliet.  Romeo decides to sneak into a feast of the Capulet’s to have look at Rosalinde. There he meets Juliet for the first time. Romeo and his cousin and friend Benvolio decide to go to the feast. Benvolio suggest that Romeo can have a look at other women to which Romeo responds: “One fairer than my love? The all-seeing sun Ne’er saw her match since first the world begun...I’ll go along, no such sight to be shown, But to rejoice in splendor of mine own.” (Shakespeare, 1.2 99-100,107-108) This shows how Romeo is a bit of a drama queen. He is convinced that nothing will ever change his love for Rosalinde and that she is the most beautiful women in the world.
Sources: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/Romeo_and_juliet_brown.jpg
 

Rome and Juliet

Act I Scene I &Act I Scene II

Act I Scene I
In Act I scene II of Romeo and Juliet, two servants of the house Capulet get into a fight with servants of the house Montague. benvolio and Tybalt enter and join the fight. Soon other citizens enter the fight as well and there is complete chaos. The Prince comes in and stops the fight at last. The Montague's talk about who started the fight and wonder where Romeo is.

Act I Scene II
In act I scene II of Romeo and Juliet, Paris comes to see Julia's father and asks to marry her. Romeo talks to Benvolio about his love to Rosalinde. They decide to sneak into a fest at the Capulet's house so Romeo can see her.

A Book as A Play

The book “The curious incident of the dog in the night time” is about an autistic boy named Christopher, who is a math genius. When he finds his neighbours dog dead stabbed with a garden fork he decides to do his own detective work to find the killer. When he finds out that it was his father he fears for his own life and leaves to live with his mother who had left him and his father and of whom his father told him she died. The play “The curious incident of the dog in the nighttime” is in many way different than the book. The author had to make some significant changes to turn the book into a play. The play “The curious incident of the dog in the night time”  is a lot shorter than the book as descriptive parts will be imagined on stage and were therefore cut out of the text. The play is partly read out loud by Christophers teacher Siobhan so that such descriptive parts wouldn’t be lost.

In the play there a some very descriptive parts about how Christopher sees the world. The book is written as a diary from Christopher. He sees the world very differently than other people would and describes it accordingly. In the play a lot of these descriptions were cut as it would have made the play to long and it is extremely hard to perform such parts. In the play there was plenty of room left for the reader's imagination, which was probably a thing that I enjoyed very much of the play.

The Author of the play “The curious incident of the dog in the night time” decided that some of the descriptions of Christopher were too significant to be cut. The play is about how Siobhan, Christopher's teacher and probably the only person that he truly trusts, reads the diary from Christopher. The action that takes place is being played out by the actors while some of Christopher's thoughts and  descriptions are read out by Siobhan. That allows that no detail is lost in the play but it still is, in my opinion at least, more entertaining than reading all the book’s long descriptions of Christopher’s complex thinking.

I enjoyed reading the play “The curious incident of the dog in the night time” more than I enjoyed reading the book. I found that the book had some parts that were in my opinion to long boring and dry descriptions of how Christopher sees the world. Even though it was interesting to read about, I found that it sometimes was just too long and the author got lost in description. I also found the play easier to read for the exact same reason. I enjoyed it more. A book that bores me tends to be a lot harder for me to read and even though the book didn’t exactly bore me, I liked the way they mixed up detail, description and action in the play much better than in the book.

When one wants to make a book into a play it is obvious that there are some necessary changes that need to be done. Especially cutting of detail and description which is shortened into stage directions. The way the book “The curious incident of the dog in the night time” is turned into a play is well done. It cuts just enough description to keep the play interesting without losing detail and the way Christopher's thoughts are included in the play, by having Siobhan read them out loud, is a perfect way to express them in the play.
Sources:
http://www.stageplays.com/images/the_curious_incident_of_the_dog_big.jpg
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41AVVhtHugL.jpg

Literature vs. Performance

Literature is a tangible piece of language. It is often connected to ideas of universal interests or ideas. It is a written piece of work that contains creativity and emotion. Literature can be poetry, a novel, biographies essays, speeches and plays. I could go on with the long list of all the things that literature can be but that would make this blog pretty boring. My point is that literature can be so much, similar to the word play literature has no fixed limits. It is open to interpretation. Is a newspaper article literature? I think it is.

A performance is a form of entertainment, that it is put on to entertain an audience. This can be in a movie or on stage. It can be; singing dancing, acting, art or even playing jokes. Like for literature, the list on what performance is, is endless and up to interpretation.

Literature tends to be static. One can read the same book several times and it will still be the same book. A performance will never be the same. The audience’s response alone can change the way actors perform. Different actors and directors might perform and direct a play differently. A performance is more flexible than a piece of literature.

Both literature and performance spark to the reader's imagination. Literature allows the reader more freely to imagine the setting or characters based on descriptions from the text. This makes reading literature times harder because one has to use their own imagination, on the other hand it also is built what the reader thinks. That way literature connects better with the reader on a personal basis than a play might. A performance is put on based on the performer's imagination. It is might therefore not be how an audience member would have interpret it, however it allows the audience to simply lean back and enjoy the show. With this I am not trying to say that the audience doesn’t have to use their head during a performance but the imagination is not asked as much as when reading.

A novel is a piece of literature. It is fictional narrative with a descriptive setting, action and detailed character. A Novel tends to be longer than a play and is built with chapters and paragraphs. A play, as in the written play is made up of stage directions and dialogue. Is is shorter than a novel, as all the action and the visual effects that are described in the novel are brought to life later on stage when the written play is performed.

A novel and a play both have a similar setup. It starts with the setting of the “normal World”. Then comes a catalyzed for change that will cause action. This can be a characters emotions and thought, or another event. The climax of the novel or play is its highest and most exciting part. After that it falls back to the “new normal”. In a novel or play is often a journey that causes a transformation.

Sources:

“literature”dictionary.com,9 september 2015 http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/literature
"performance"dictonary.com,9th,September,2015http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/performance

Script Play Production

"A script is obviously less than a play, while a production is more." -Ronald Hayman, How to Read a Play
A production is definitely more than a script.  The script is what we read and only is what we read. A production is what we see what is performed. A play can be more than a script. It can be the written book that we read simply another word for script. I can however also be a production. If we consider a play a script it is less then a production. If we consider a play like a production it is more that a script. The word 'play' has no fixed limits that help us to organize it.

Who am I

My name is Wiebke Leser. I am fifteen years old and a Junior in high school. I was born in Emmendingen Germany. My father is a chemist, my mother is a lector and author for children and young adult books. I have two older sisters. When I was twelve we moved from Germany to the United States because of my father’s job. I started singing when I was about five years old. Acting didn’t become a part of my life until later at about the age of ten however it wasn’t until I came to Cheshire Academy that I seriously started doing it. I came to know that it was something I very much enjoyed so I decided to take a class about Literature and Performance which this Blog is for.

My two sisters are named Charlotte(17) and Hannah (20). Charlotte is currently a senior in high school. Hannah is in her second year at Hamburg Stage school studying Musical Theater. All three of us enjoy singing and acting. My family owns two horses and horseback riding is one of my oldest hobbies. I grew up with horses. I have been playing an instrument since the age of five. When I came into fifth grade I went to a Musical based Middle School where I learned the flute for two years and later the alto saxophone which I still play.  I was a part of the School’s orchestra and Big Band then and am a part of my current school's Jazz Band. Photography is something I enjoy as well as I have recently discovered my passion for sailing and a year ago I started Track and Field with the event pole vault.

As a person I am outgoing and self-confident. I think one of my biggest strength is that I hate to give up on things. I always want to finish what I start and that to the best of my ability. Debating even difficult topics with others is something I enjoy and I am able to think out of the box. I am fluent in English and German and take French as a third language. I enjoy reading, and also writing. I love to travel, learning about different people and their cultures in different places of the world. From Europe over Indonesia to Morocco and Tunisia I can say from myself that I have been to quite a lot of different places.

“Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.”-Mark Twain