We have been studying the play Romeo and Juliet as our Shakespeare Coursework. I decided to make a stage plan and how I think Act 3 Scene 2 would be acted out because I thought it would be a interesting thing to do. This is the scene where Juliet is wildly in love with Romeo and is laid on the bed in her chamber. Nurse then enters and breaks the news that Romeo just slain Tybalt. She then gets awfully confused. The scene ends with Nurse going to find Romeo.
The Stage – Features
I kept the features simple as I thought a bedroom from this time would be very simple but with all the top quality goods.
Things like beautiful oak desks, fancy mirrors, a four-poster bed and lots of dolls of very high quality that I think she might have collected.
(For the actual stage setting see plan sheet)
Reference to Text
Enter Juliet – She runs through the door and starts dancing around her room, because she is in love.
Line 1-5 Pauses for 2 seconds and then looks in to the crowd. She then says lines 1-5 then jumps on to the bed.
Line 6-16 She then rises from her bed and says line 6 she holds out her arms and then closes them as if she was holding Romeo.
She then starts combing her hair gently then flops back on to the bed, laid down looking at the audience through her drapes of her four-poster bed.
Line 17-29 She sits at her desk and looks into the mirror and a single bright light shines on to her as she puts cosmetics on.
Line 30-33 she goes to her wardrobe and gets out her most beautiful night dress, but then hears nurse coming and closes the wardrobe and puts her back to it post haste.
Enter Nurse – She knocks in distress then bows at the feet of Juliet.
Line 34-35 Juliet goes over to the nurse and hops in front of her.
Line 36-40 Nurse looks worried, shown in her actions too. Juliet grabs nurse and puts her hands on her shoulders.
Line 40-43 Nurse says these words fast to show she is shocked.
Line44-60 Juliet runs over to her window and starts to talk through it and cries.
Nurse tries to comfort her but gets a little bit agitated with the event that has happened.
Line 61-70 Nurse puts her hands towards her heart as to cherish Tybalt’s memories with her.
Juliet is awfully confused and she makes her body look like she is being pulled from both arms as if Romeo and Tybalt are on each end.
Nurse breaks the new and she instantly retires to a chair.
Line 71-90 Juliet instantly falls to her knees and puts her head in her hands then goes over to her bed once again where a elevated pad gradually lifts her up into the air and the rest of the stage fills with thick smoke and redness I did this to show Juliet as a innocent girl, like a angel and the rest of the stage is like hell and she is looking down on it.
Nurse is lit by a single white light and is looking up in amazement at Juliet.
Line 91-129 Juliet’s platform returns down to normal level and the red light’s turn to blue she stands in front of nurse and says her lines.
Nurse holds out her arms to comfort her but Juliet turns her back and goes over to the desk.
Line 130-137 Juliet sits next to her desk where her dolls are and starts playing with them and grooming them while she is speaking.
Line 138-141 Nurse opens the door and holds on to the doorknob and then leaves.
Line 142-exeunt. Juliet turns around to tell nurse something but she has already gone so she rushes over to the door and shouts her lines down the corridor then goes to find her, then end of scene.
Lighting
The lighting used in the play is mostly bright white lights so you can see Juliet’s expressions etc. I also used white lights to show Juliet’s “purity”.
Line 1-32 I would use white lava lamps and red lava lamps to create a affect like the thoughts of Juliet are spinning around in the air.
Line 71-80 I used the “hell” affect to show that Juliet is so young and everything what has just happened like something from hell, and she is confused and shocked.
Line 81-exeunt. I used a gold coloured light and a silver light to represent although Tybalt is dead, the wedding is still going to commence the lights represent the rings which they will use when they would have got married.
Sounds
Line 1-31 Swirling wind like noises as if you where inside Juliet’s thoughts and emotions the sounds of violins in the back ground playing beautiful music.
Line 32-34 The violins stop sharply and make this building up noise like something dramatic is going to happen the swirling noises end also.
Line 35-57 Quiet depressing violin music is played in the background you hear little clips of Romeo talking as if you where inside Juliet’s mind.
Line 58-70 Confusing music is played, all of the notes are played so they are not in tune, so it creates the affect inside Juliet’s mind.
Line 71-91 At the start you hear something shatter like a glass ornament this is to show Juliet’s heart “breaking” after finding out Romeo killed Tybalt. The violin’s stop before building up to this “hell” type music with loud drums and low notes combined with low notes to produce a layered effect, it is like something out of a horror movie.
Line 92-exeunt. Depressing death style music is played but towards the end of the scene happier music is played and the sound affects go back to the swirl noises that this time represent Romeo is going to be there to comfort young Juliet.
Richness of Language
In this scene the language is very rich and it seems like Shakespeare over indulges in the words that Juliet speaks.
One of the main reasons I believe that he uses this type of language is that Juliet is somewhat growing up and has the idea of she is going to loose her virginity to Romeo and she is wildly in love with Romeo, I think the language portraits Juliet as if she is taking a step towards growing up.
She speaks very elegantly and beautifully, the first paragraph is a prime example of this, “Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds” you could imagine these being very beautiful and just amazing all by the language she is speaking.
The paragraphs which starts “O serpent heart…” and “Shall I speak ill of my husband…” also to me show how rich language is used in an affective way, it describes the way she feels about Tybalt and Romeo, even though it is a negative couple of paragraphs it shows this in a very beautiful way, not beautiful as in the first paragraph which I spoke about but beautiful in the way of pain that Juliet feels.
Words such as “fiend angelical” to me show a very beautiful picture and they are both contrasts maybe because Juliet is confused at this point?
The language all in all is very poetic and shows Juliet in a different light to the young girl that she is.
Social & Historical
From the text we have been reading I get the image that things between families were not very good ie:the dislike between the Capulet’s and the Benvolio’s I could imagine this being very similar for many people.
I would imagine fathers being very over protective of their daughters from the picture I get in the story.
This is set a long time ago and it seems that the only way to solve anything is to fight and kill to get an answer, instead of talking about it.
I can’t imagine people being very friendly towards each other but, I imagine there is this “higher and lower class clich�.”
