Costume - Week 10

Friday morning Rosie, Beth and I began to construct the skirts. Rosie and Beth were in charge of overlocking and cutting the fabric. I then put the casing around the top which basically makes an elasticated waist band. 

We now have the skirts ready for the production.  

Joint lesson - Week 8

When the dancers and actors came together we wanted to try and start the prologue. The dancers had come up with a prologue that we could all try out. Their idea was that we all came in from different directions and each of us say a line from the original prologue. 

As a starter this was fine but in the end I found it boring, if it was boring for me then the audience were going to find it boring. As it is the first thing the audience are going to see you want to draw then in and make them sit in the edge of their seat. 

I suggested that we could pick out a few key words and change our tone, volume and pitch of our voice to draw the audience in. 

After school rehearsal - Week 10

Thursday - Drama and Dance

 

Unfortunately I was unable to attend this after school rehearsal. 

In this rehearsal they went through the prologue. They picked out key words and actions to go with it. They also yet again ran through the script as practice makes perfect. 

After school rehearsal - Week 10

Wednesday - Drama

 

In this rehearsal we just went through with our scripts again. Luckily we managed to get up on the stage for the last 30 minutes and practiced the transitions from one scene to another. 

After school rehearsal - Week 10

Tuesday - Drama and Dance

We were given our scripts today and ran through the whole thing. We annotated the scripts to help us know what to do at a certain point or whether to exaggerate at a certain point etc. I found it much better with the script and found that it made the whole performance flow.  

Joint lesson - Week 10

Today we focused on our blogs and getting them up to date. I have had some problems with my blog so typed mine up on a word document. We also discussed when we were going to make the masks for the masquerade ball, the skirts etc.   

Drama lesson - Week 10

I was on a Geography trip meaning I wasn't present at this lesson.

In this lesson all the actors sat down and recorded what they had said in each scene. This would help write the script. Whilst they were recording what we already had ideas were put forward on how we could build more tension between the two families many different lines were put forward. 

After school rehearsal - Week 9

In this rehearsal we were joined by Mrs Walker, Ms Graham and Miss Andrews to help get us on track. We ran through the whole performance start to finish again and it was decided that a script was needed so we knew exactly what to say. It was also decided that scene 3 just wasn't working and needed to be changed.  

Drama lesson - Week 9

This week we had a double lesson.  

First lesson - In this lesson it was just the actors so we sat down and spoke about the play itself, what's going well and what's going not so well. We also went through some of the scene again, still trying to perfect them as the production is so close. 

Second lesson - In this lesson drama students joined up with the dance students and went through the whole performance start to finish. During this rehearsal we were given a lot of constructive criticism to help us improve. 

Drama lesson - Week 8

This week Romeo and Juliet (Emily and Morgan) were taught focused on the dance at the masquerade ball, this is one of the most important part of the play as it's the beginning of the two lovers. Those who weren't practicing a scene have their opinions on what could be improved on in the dance. As we are using masks we needed the dance to be choreographed around them. We also quickly went through all the scenes making little changes here and there. 

How might modern directors and/or performance companies adapt the work to make it more suitable for a modern audience?

The language used in Romeo and Juliets time is very much different to the English Language we know today. The modern interpretations of Romeo and Juliet use the modern day English language however do also include some of the well known lines from the original Romeo and Juliet. 

Why is Romeo and Juliet still relevant to the world today?

Romeo and Juliet was written centuries ago, as time as gone on it has been adapted and modified yet the story line remains the same. Why? Well, the story is about how 'love' has the power to over come differences between two people, if you truly love someone it doesn't matter what they look like, how the speak, or in Romeo and Juliet's case what their families opinion of each other are. In the story Romeo and Juliet the two lovers go against their parents wishes of staying away from each other, sadly that still happens to this day.

Modern adaptations have been made to represent the story of 'Romeo and Juliet' in a modern light. Many versions have been made for example 'West Side Story'.

Easter Holidays (2) - Week 7

Thursday 2nd April - Day 2

Like I previously stated I was unable to attend either of the rehearsals. Unfortantly neither could some of the other actors. 

Juliet and Anastasia went through yesterday's scenes.

They also spoke about ideas for the masks. It had been decided that we were to make/design the masks ourselves. All the mask are to be back with black lace. Somehow we need to find a way to incorporate purple (Capulets) and green (Montagues) into the masks to show the differences of the two families. 

Example:

Previously we discussed about each family wearing a different colour bandana. The Capulets would wear purple - wealth and royalty. The Montagues would wear green - envy and jealousy. Emily used the money we raised in the cake sale to buy these bandanas. 

Capulets:

Montagues:

Easter Holidays (1) - Week 7

Wednesday 1st April - Day 1

Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend either of the rehearsals however I was informed about what had happened during it and am now up to date. 

Today those who were able to attend went the through the masquerade ball with the dancers and choreographed a basic dance. With in the dance palms are a the centre of the story. 

The touching of palms are used throughout the play. They are also used in Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet'. 

After school rehearsal - Week 6

I was unable to attend most of the rehearsals after school due to the commitments I have involve the three horses I own, it has been extremely difficult to try and find the time around the care and training of them to stay behind after school and practice however arrangements have been made in order for me to have the time to come in practice. 

This was the last rehearsal before the Easter Holidays, in this rehearsal they went through the masquerade ball scene again and tried to perfect it. 

Photos from the rehearsal:

Prologue - Week 6

The prologue is the starting piece of the performance, it introduces the story. All the actors decided that we needed to incorporate some of Shakespeare's lines. Emily had asked for the shortened version of the prologue from 'Romeo and Juliet'. 

We all suggested ways that we could present the prologue. We needed to keep in mind that this is the first thing people are going to see therefore it needs to draw people in and make them interested. In the end we decided on both actors and dancers would whisper their line from the prologue in stage blacks, creating an eerie atmosphere to show that everything ends in death.  

Third meeting - Week 6

Both dance and drama students came together to disscuse a number of things.

Firstly we created a time table for the weeks leading up to the final performance. We also mentioned that everything graphic, stage, costume etc had to be finished and finalised. We also said that we hope to film the prologue on the courts. 

Drama lesson - Week 6

This week we practiced scene 3, the best friend scene. In this scene Romeo and Juliet are telling their best friends Nita (Julie's bestfriend) and Mac (Romeo's best friend) about the previous night, Julie's masquerade ball birthday party that the Montgues crash. 

We used cross cutting in this scene, the best friends keep pestering Romeo or Juliet for more information about that previous night. In the end they both say "just start from the beginning" then Romeo and Juliet both go up and sort of reenact the night whilst the bestfriend a are frozen. 

Cake sale - Week 6

This week we had the cake sale in H block. We had a fantastic result as lots of people showed up and nearly all the cakes sold. All together was raised £80, this money was put towards buying costume and accessories. The cakes that didn't sell during break time was taken around the classrooms during lesson time to give people who didn't know about it or forgot etc could buy them, this was my job along with a few others. The teachers also had a chance to buy them as well if they so wished to. 

 

Dance mind map - Week 5

In the after school rehearsal on Thursday a mind map was created as a starting a starting point to show what dances could go where during the performance. Everyone agreed on the songs. 

After school rehearsal - Week 5

I was unable to attend. 

On the after school Thursday rehearsal the drama and dance students went through the masquerade ball dance. The song that was suggested to go with the dance was 'Crazy in love' cover by Sofia Karlberg. This is a perfect song as it is slow and reflects the theme of love between Romeo and Juliet. 

Final decisions - Week 5

This week we came to the decision of who was doing what towards the cake sale. 

We also decided that we were going to come in during the Easter Holidays for two rehearsals:

Wednesday 1st April - 10am till 2pm

Thursday 2nd April - 10am till 2pm

I thought this was a great idea as the more rehearsal time the more we could improve. 

Morgan and Emily also had the idea to do another rehersal after school just for the drama students so we had more time on our own.  

After school rehearsals - Week 4

I was unable to attend this rehearsal.

After school they rehearsed scene six - where Romeo and Juliet have an argument about Romeos best friends (Mac) death. They only got as far as Anastasia entering the room. They stop there so they could go over and perfect the argument. 

Drama lesson - Week 4

In this drama lesson we rehearsed the first scene where Romeo and Juliet were getting ready for the masquerade ball. A lot of ideas were put forward however in the end we went with Emily's idea of a cross cut scene. I suggested that we pretend we were looking in a mirror, it was then decided that the audience would be the mirror. This was a way to involve the audience. 

Advertisement - Week 4

This week the graphic designers had created the advertisement posters for the cake sale. 

An email was also sent around to all the teachers to inform their students of this cake sale. 

Matilda created an allergy poster to inform people that the cakes might contain nuts. 

Second meeting - Week 3

Today we decided to cut some of the job roles as we don't have a big enough cast, we decided to cut the roles of: Deputy stage manager, Assisstant stage manager and master carpenter. 

We also discussed in detail about a cake sale to raise money for the production. It will be held on 23rd March in H block. 

The graphic designers had the responsibility of creating posters to put up around school, they also created leaflets to advertise the cake sale. Admin were then in charge of of getting the health and safety forms sorted. 

There was also a discussion of watching West side Story and Romeo and Juliet after school so we understood the plot of the stories fully. 

In Class (Drama) - Week 3

In our drama lesson we discussed the plot. We came to the conclusion that both of the families would be drug barons. The Capulets (Juliets family) would be higher up the rankings and more successful whereas the Montagues (Romeos family) would be beginners. We thought that having it like this would make the rivalry between the two families. 

Final Decisions - Week 3

This week week we finished the production roles and dicided the character list. 

Characters:

Romeo - Morgan Ratcliffe

Juliet - Emily Lunn

Romeo's Best Friend - Jack Ryder

Juliet's Best Friend - Katie Ovenden (me)

Juliet's Older Sister - Rebekah Richardson 

First Meeting - Week 2

After discussing job roles we went onto discussing:

Rehearsals - We decided that we would have rehearsals every Thursday after school from 3pm-4pm. This is just a starter we know that we may need more after school rehearsals nearer to the production. 

Plot - We began to discuss how we could incorporate the modern day with the original 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'West Side Story'. 

Next rehearsal - We planned what we were going to do in the next rehearsal. So we could just get on with it on the day. 

Setting - We also disscussed the setting of where we were going to perform the play. We decided we would do the prologue on the courts and around T block. 

Job Roles - Week 2

During the first meeting we discussed many thing but mainly focused on job roles. Everybody had a chance to say what roles they would like to have for the production. After we all voiced our preferred roles a problem occurred, due to us being a small group not all of the job roles were filled. After a further discussion people stepped out their comfort zone and took on job roles that they wouldn't necessarily have chosen. Also not everyone was at the first meeting so the list was incomplete.

I took on the job role of wardrobe supervisor and costume designer.